Happy Thoughts

Let's move on to some happy thoughts for today, shall we?

We'll start with a non-knitting one - a photo from the dentist appointment last week. I really must sing the praises of our pediatric dental office. The staff there is patient and kind - they were great on our first visit when Julie pretty much refused to even let them look in her mouth, and this last week proved that they had earned her trust when she did exactly what they asked, and did it with a smile.



When the teeth were sparkling, the staff ended the visit with a couple of Polaroid pictures for us to take home of the girls with Dr. Amey, and she was kind enough to let me take a picture of the three of them for the blog. If you are in the Twin Cities and looking for a dentist for your children I highly recommend Children's Dental Care Specialists in Edina. They have an awesome waiting room too.

Okay, on to some knitting. I took some pictures on Sunday with the intention of posting about it, but circumstances (including kids not going to bed at decent hours the last two nights) kept me from it.

So here's the right front on Sunday afternoon right before I decided I needed to frog back a bit. As much as I love these long-repeat striping yarns, they can be difficult to match ball to ball. I'd ended up with a very thin stripe of blue surrounded by very wide stripes of white. It looked wrong, so I pulled out the remaining balls and tried to figure out which end would provide the best match into the pattern.



I ended up ripping back only a few rows to the blue stripe and joining in and end in the same color. A few hours later it looked like this.



I think it worked out rather well. I've got two more rows to knit on the front now - will get to that as soon as this post is done - and will also get the strings threaded for blocking and cast on for the back tonight.

I have kind of a wild hair in the back of my mind that maybe just maybe I can finish this sweater before Shepherd's Harvest. In my experience, Mother's Day weekend in Minnesota is still likely to be good outdoor sweater weather. Two things about this plan worry me slightly - one is that there is a lot of finishing involved on this project.

Two is that Sock Wars III starts on May 9. I've signed up to participate - and I think it's still open to join if you're interested. Signing up is basically a promise to knit on a pair of socks for your target till they are either finished or till you are "killed" by receiving the socks knit by your assassin. So if I'm going to finish the sweater, I'll really have to get it done in the next ten days. Doable? dunno. But it will be fun to try.

Okay, I've got to get to work on that sweater while I watch The Golden Compass fresh from Netflix and eat more chocolate chip cookies. In the mean time, I'll leave you with this little conversation I had with Sophie during dinner the other night. We were talking about finishing up the meal so that she could have a bath, and then discussing whether or not it would be a bubble bath. The way she said "No bubble bath" was so cute that I wanted to bottle the moment and hold on to it forever. Actually, the way she talks in her innocent toddler-speech right now just melts my heart about a million times every day.

Blankie is Crankay!

Okay, Blankie is an inanimate wooly object, and therefore incapable of the crank. I, however, as its owner and progenitor, am totally full of the crank even after about ten hours to cool off, half a dozen fresh-baked chocolate chip cookies, two glasses of wine and a bunch of kettle chips.

I know you're just dying to know what could possibly make me *this* cranky. Well. This afternoon I was trolling around Ravelry when I stumbled across a post that included the words "the maker of this creation is doing a class at Threadbear in jun or July can’t remeber now." And he was making it in reference to MY BLANKIE! I know this for sure because he posted it in the BlankieMania group, which was founded (not by me) to discuss the blankie and how much fun people are having making it. I just about choked up a furball.

So I called the store, and yes, they are hosting a workshop in June taught by a teacher that they are bringing in from out of town. They are calling it the "Blankie" (or they were till I begged them not to). Until I brought it up, they thought that this woman had designed "The Blankie". She is their friend, and they are defending her.

I was so angry after that conversation that I was literally shaking. So then I took it a step farther and called up the woman teaching the class. Not only is she traveling to teach the class at this one store, she's apparently planning to teach it at several other stores, including her own. And she's doing so without compunction. She doesn't seem to feel bad at all about stepping on my toes at all.

It is true that many, many people have done mitered squares before me. Many people have made mitered square blankets before me - both the sewn-together and the modularly knit-together kind. I think, however, it is fair to say that I am the person who popularized the idea of large mitered-square blankets knit in small squares out of sock yarn. And I'm pretty damned sure that I'm the person who coined the term "Blankie" in reference to blankets like mine.

This teacher's blanket-in-progress looks a heck of a lot like mine, and she has it on display at the store to promote the class. Oh, except she's chosen to make hers with straight edges on the sides - something that although I haven't discussed it on the blog I do teach in my own classes on the blanket. She is stealing my share of a tiny little niche market. And there is nothing at all that I can do about it.

Even though I was the first one to knit up a blankie like mine - the first one crazy enough to collect such a variety of sock yarns and knit a queen-sized blanket on tiny needles and weave in all those ends. And then I posted about it on my blog for almost two years, proving that it could be done and that the results were worth the effort. Even though I went to the trouble - I can't copyright the idea. As long as she's writing up her own instructions she's within her rights.

The only way I can think of to do anything about this is to send out letters to every yarn store in the country offering to come there and teach the class myself. And that wouldn't stop them from hiring her or any other teacher instead of me to teach their class if they wanted to. That's just not possible since I don't have the financial resources to execute such a mailing.

And it's not even about the money. It's about the recognition, the how much fun it would be to go somewhere for a weekend and meet a bunch of enthusiastic knitters and watch their faces as they learn new tricks and gain confidence in their abilities under my tutelage. It's about the principle of if you're going to use my idea that I put out there for free as a gift that you should at least let me know ahead of time and give me credit for it. Send people to my web site to read the story of the original blankie here. And yeah, the money such as it is would be nice too.

Yeah. So I'm sitting here ranting about the blankie instead of giving you the Sunrise Circle update I was planning on. Maybe tomorrow if I can calm down a bit by then.

Oh, and since we're talking about the blankie, I thought I would share a link with you that I found a couple weeks ago. It's a blanket that looks a lot like the one I did, only her copyright date is 2005, which means that she came up with hers before I did mine, and therefore really *my* blanket looks like *hers*.

I swear, I have no recollection of ever having seen this blanket before, but I think it is great and what is even more cool is that she has a printable template for a grid you can use to color in square patterns if you want to knit a non-random blanket.

By the way, my class on my Blankie at the Yarnery in St. Paul starts on May 6. I haven't checked if there's any space left in the current session still or not, but there's always a waiting list. And if you are interested in taking a class on the Blankie - and I cover smaller scarf and shawl versions of the project as well, with various finishing options - talk to your local yarn shop about bringing me in.

In Which I Feel Like a Jackass

So late last night I posted about that wonderful "deal" on some makeup. I'm getting ready to go delete that post because I don't want anyone else to get suckered like I did.

It's so funny - I sat there last night thinking "This is to good to be true." But I read about it on a forum I've read for a very long time, and the person who posted it was someone I would have expected to check things out before she bit into it. And, like most suckers, I wanted it to be true. And the website involved does look pretty slick and professional, but still.

I actually thought to myself - I should run this through Snopes before buying anything. Well, thanks to an astute commenter, I know now that I should have followed my instincts. Here's the thread on the subject that I found at Snopes. D'oh!

The good news is that it does seem to be a legitimate business, and I might even expect to get a package in the mail sometime soon. The bad news is that this is not a high-end brand of cosmetics, and it is not affiliated with Nordstroms, or Bloomingdales, which apparently is another version of the rumor.

So now I'm feeling a bit foolish. But the knitting-related thing about this that I found funny is that the first person who responded to the thread had this as her tagline:

"Skepticism, my dear great-grandchildren, is a fine thing, and to be cultivated. Take as little on trust as you possibly can. You have quite good brains ... and you might as well practice using them." -Elizabeth Zimmermann

So appropriate!

Sorry for any inconvenience I may have caused my readers, and I'll come back with some knitting content hopefully this evening.

Sunrise Circle, Quickie Update

As I expected, I did end up finishing the first piece of my Sunrise Circle yesterday. Last night, I sat on the couch and strung sock yarn through some of the edges of the thing while I watched a scary movie, and then proceeded to start on the second sleeve.

The scary movie was The Orphanage, and this time I was grateful for the subtitles because my knitting project was simple and I was able to mute the volume during the scary parts without missing any words - I find that turning off the scary, suspenseful music makes it easier to cope, as well as sometimes setting the speed to 1.5X fast forward. I like scary movies, but they kinda scare me.

Anyway, the kids stayed asleep for once and some progress was made. This morning, Sophie and I shipped Julie off to pre-school and then my littlest helper helped me block out my curlycurly piece of knitting.

She just couldn't resist the bubbles from the Eucalan bath that the sweater was briefly soaking in. Luckily, I had chosen to postpone worrying about the breakfast dishes till after I had done my blocking, so I was able to pull the sweater piece out of the bath, wrap it in a towel and let it sit while Sophie played in the bubbles and I unloaded and reloaded the dishwasher.



On to the office room, where I remembered SouleMama's trick of letting her little one (who is much younger than Sophie) move straight pins from one pin cushion to another. I don't actually own a pin cushion, so instead I gave Sophie an extra box of T-pins and the rice bag thingie that I still had in my office from last week's sore neck episode to stick the pins in.



She loved it, and it kept her busy while I pinned out a sunrise. Don't worry - I was right there watching her the whole time, and there was no trouble at all. I don't think I would try this trick with Julie around - different personality and more creative trouble-making skills and all.

So anyway, this blocking job involved a lot more pins than my last one. I used my sock yarn trick for the straight edges, but the curved one I found to be easiest by just going to town with the pins. It blocked out right on the mark size-wise, and I have to say that I just love the way the stripes are turning out.



So the knitting on this project is more than a third done already! Trouble is, all accounts tell me that the sewing on this project is quite a bit of work between the side-seams, the arm seams, and most abundantly tacking down all the facings. Not to mention somehow creating the button-loops, which is totally new to me.

For now, the littlest helper is napping and I have another half hour before I have to wake her up and take both girls to the dentist. We have done lots of talking and book-reading on the subject of dental visits since the last time around, and hopefully Sophie will still be happy to show off her chompers and Julie will at least agree to let them look in her mouth.

Sunrise Circle, A Start

Hey, everyone - thanks for all the nice words about the snowflake scarf. I'm still feeling good about whipping out the end of that lickety-split, especially after having let it sit ignored for so long.

I have this friend - and there are many long-time knitters out there like this in the world-wide knitting community - who does a complicated lace pattern once, gets it "loaded in her brain" as she calls it, and then does two or three more while she's at it 'cause she's on a roll. There is a teeny tiny part of me that almost wants to tread that path with this scarf. I even have the yarn in stash. Except that a) I'm not even sure what I'm really going to do with the first one and b) I have a million other project begging for my attention.

And c) I'm ready for something a bit more simple. Something in a nice, thick yarn that knits up in the blink of an eye. Like, you can knit an entire skein over the course of a day without even really trying. Sunrise Circle fits that bill, but it's (so far) kind of fun and interesting. But let's back up.

I bought a butt-load of Nashua Wooly Stripes worsted-weight wool and started knitting it up on my Singer LK-150 back in January of last year. I had all kinds of crazy-good reasons for going this route, and I still think that they're really valid reasons. But then for lots of other really good reasons, things started going wrong and so first I set it aside in frustration, and then I ripped it all out and washed the yarn. And it sat for a while longer because I had a giant sock-yarn blankie to finish.

So, as I'm working my way way back through the list of UFOs, and I still really like this yarn and want a sweater out of it. But now there's Ravelry, so I spent some time poking around thinking about what pattern would do this yarn the most justice. It's similar in weight and self-stripey-ness to Noro Kureyon, so I got some great ideas looking at all the projects people had knit up with that. Sunrise Circle was my favorite, though. And it seemed like most of the people who knit it were happy with their results. And on top of that, the Rainey Sisters had knit one each. It seemed like a no-brainer.

So I printed out the pattern, and I printed out a bunch of posts from when Susan knit hers (she had some great ideas for modifications). And then I wheedled Susan into *bringing* her sweater with her to freakin' Yarnover and letting me try it on. Thanks Susan! And then I was totally hooked, and it was a very good thing that I was only days away from finishing the scarf because I was antsy.

Well. I started on Friday -between finishing the knitting on the scarf and blocking the thing. I actually was able to start a sleeve and knit a good way up it during the day on Friday while the girls played. I pulled out an old toy that had been hidden for almost a year (the girls kept sticking the markers in their mouths, and I got tired of being grossed out by it) and it was like new all over again. Those are Aquadoodle mats, which you use with special markers and stamp pads that you fill with water, and then after a while the pictures dry and you can use it all over again. That kept 'em busy for an hour or so.



Okay, so without even really trying, I was making what felt like pretty fast progress on this thing. I started with the sleeve because I'd read that some people had gauge issues, and row gauge is really important on this design. Well, it turns out that it's coming out right on the money size-wise. I have to note here that knitting sweaters for myself is a little nerve-wracking because I've only knit a few adult-sized ones, and they are kind of big projects that often come out unwearable. Which might be part of why I tend to put of doing it for so long. Let's keep our fingers crossed.

In the mean time, here's what I had as of last night - it's further now - I've only got like eight more rows to finish the front. It's begging for a blocking for the curls and for the rowing out (I'm not used to knitting stockinette flat by hand). It's a really fun knit so far. Kind of mind boggling how the sleeve magically morphs into the front.



Oh, and um - I may have brought home a couple more skeins of sock yarn yesterday.





I'm blaming my in-laws. They came over to watch the girls so I could go to another appointment, and when I get out of the house by myself, I feel like I must take the opportunity to go off and have a quick moment of freedom. Which inevitably ends up with me at the yarn store. This time it was Skeins in Minnetonka. I so totally wanted to buy a whole bag of the one on top and knit pants for the girls for fall.

Time to get knittin'!

Dining al Fresco

The girls and I packed up a lunch - just a normal everyday lunch of
pears, carrots, crackers, meat and cheese - pumped up the tires on the
bike, and headed out for our first trip to the park of the season.
Everything tastes better in the fresh air.

There's a guy shooting hoops nearby, and in a few minutes we'll get the
kite out and see if it still flies.

I'm feeling much better today, Joe is home with a headache. Figures.

Snowflake Scarf - Done!

The Snowflake Scarf is done and blocked, and I am quite pleased with it. I think when I started knitting on this one I thought it was going to be a replacement to my everyday black cashmere one that Joe had given me a couple years earlier and that I had lost. Silly me - I always think that I can knit fine lace and somehow bear to drudge it around the muck that is my every day life. Nope - I need something a little sturdier than that, which is why I ended up knitting the purple one a couple months ago. But this is beautiful, and it will be lovely for fancier occasions. But we'll get to that in a minute.

I started this scarf way back in December of 2006. I was full-throttle working on the blankie at the time, but I needed a project to keep in the car for the days when I couldn't get the girls to nap at home, but when they would magically fall asleep in the car and stay asleep long enough for me to drink a cup of coffee and relax with some knitting till my sanity came back into semi-focus. Those were some tough days, and as nice as it was to be able to hold some knitting and pretend to knit a row or two, progress was quite slow and sporadic.

The yarn was Fino by Alpaca with a Twist, which is laceweight 70% Baby Alpaca and 30% Silk, given to me by my SP 9 Pal in one of the best swap packages I think I have ever received. This yarn is scrumptious, and knit up nicely. I still have about half an ounce of it left and am wondering whatever I will do with this lovely little nugget. It is very soft, and has the silky shine and feel, but with a light halo from the alpaca.

The pattern is "A Russian Lace Scarf to Knit" by Dixie Falls and Jane Fournier, which was published in Piecework in the May/June 1995 issue, and more recently reprinted in the July/August 2007 issue, which is still available for order on Interweave's website. I had seen a knitter-friend of mine wearing a scarf that she'd knit with the pattern and she was kind enough to loan me her copy of the magazine to knit from.

I haven't seen the reprinted version (have just ordered a copy for my files), but in the 1995 version, the charts are hand-drawn with symbols that are not standard by today's standards at least. So I transcribed them into more modern charts using Stitch Painter Pro, at the same time combining the main pattern with the edge patterns so I could look at them all in one row. I'm horrible at memorizing stitch patterns. For better or for worse (I think for better, actually) I made a mistake when I was transcribing the pattern and omitted a row from the border patterns. It didn't make much difference in the look of the borders in the end, but it did work out so that the border charts ended on the same rows as the middle section charts. This meant that I could do exactly however many repeats as I pleased instead of working to a multiple of three as the original pattern required. One more repeat would have been no big deal in my case, but if I had been running out of yarn (as so often happens) having to choose whether to go another three repeats and risk running out would have made me grind my teeth.

Let's move on to the pictures! As I've mentioned before and as I believe the knitting community generally agrees, unblocked lace looks like crap.



Well, not entirely crap, but certainly not living up to its potential.

Oops - we interrupt this discussion of lace scarves for a cute-kid pic. The girls got new rain gear, and I let them go out in the nice, gentle rain we had all day Friday to splash around for a while. That was all the gettin' out of the house we did that day, because I'm still not quite well. My neck is better, but now my stomach is off. soon, it will be summer, and hopefully the solar radiation will kill off some of the germs that have plagued us lo, this long, long Minnesota winter.



Aaaand back to the lace. The scarf and I held a little blocking session, in which I once more employed my blocking-with-sock-yarn technique. I love blocking this way. I keep reading blog posts about how wonderful blocking wires are, and I get so close to buying a set, and then it comes time to block something and I use my standard technique, and I realize that I don't need another piece of knitting equipment filling up my yarn closet, and that I think I'm happier with this method anyway.



I use very few pins - mostly just at the corners to hold the ends of the yarn lines tight, plus a few along the longer sides to make sure I don't get dips. This time I got the yarn lines tight enough that they stayed almost perfectly straight on their own. I do measure half- and quarter-way down the line an make sure that the points are spaced evenly. In the picture below, you can see a pin that I stuck into the cloth just below the blocking area to mark where the half-way point is.



I like this method best because you get to string the "wires" in before you soak the lace, and I think sitting on the couch threading dry lace points onto sock yarn at my leisure has got to be better than rushing to get all the points onto the wires after they're wet but before they start to dry. But I've never tried wires, so I'm not speaking from full experience. Another advantage is that my "wires" are always exactly the right length.

I probably could have blocked it an inch or two wider, but I blocked it exactly 16" point-to-point so that it will fall into the scarf category at the fair instead of shawl/stole. The competition in the scarf category is stiff, and I don't necessarily expect to win a ribbon, but the shawl/stole category is even tougher! It'll probably need a fresh blocking by August, but it's not like I was going to wait that long to show it off. And, um, I'm not going to tell you exactly what method I ended up going with on the edge-joining. I'm just going to say that *I'm* really happy with the way it looks, and if you want to remind me, I'll tell you what I did after I get the results back from the fair.



And on to the glamour shots. Not very glamourous, really...but you can imagine if I had a nice dress on that it would make a pretty accessory for a fancy party.



And it would go just fine with my coat if I wanted to wear it to some cold-weather knitting event.



Yay!

I've already moved onward to the next project in the mean time. I've got a good little start on my Sunrise Circle. More on that in the next day or two - I'm really happy with how it's cranking along.

Sophie, On Waking From Nap

We've had an inexplicable dearth of cute-kid pictures around here
lately, so I thought I'd share a sweet moment.

Sophie has lately taken to waking from her nap and hanging out in her
crib talking to herself happily for a while most days. When I came up to
get her today, she was firmly tucked in and pretending to still be
asleep.

Yeeeeouch!

Sheesh, I've had a crap day. I woke up this morning and was doing my normal gentle stretches that I do without even thinking about it just to work out the overnight kinks. Suddenly, I hear a *pop* in my neck, and for the rest of the day I have been progressively working up the ladder of pain killers with little to no relief.

I started with the over-the-counter Motrin -first two, then another one an hour later. Nothing. Then I dug through the medicine cabinet and found the Tylenol 3 left over from when Sophie was born. Nothing. After the kids went to bed, I took a - well, a slightly stronger pain pill left from the surgery I had recently, and while I got a nice relaxing buzz, my neck still feels like it's made of steel wires or something. Hopefully it'll be better tomorrow.

In the mean time, I finished the last repeat of the main body for my Snowflake scarf. For some reason, even pre-pain-pills, I ended up having to rip back a couple times in those last few rows after having clear sailing for the entire second half of the scarf. I'm calling it done after 11 repeats even though I probably have enough yarn to go for 13 or 14 repeats total because it's definitely plenty long enough and because I'm ready to move on to a sweater.

I hate to even show y'all what this thing looks like pre-blocking because it looks like a wadded up old rag, but honestly it's going to look great when it's done. But the blog needs pictures, so here it is...



When It's done, I'll model it for you, but for tonight I'm in my jammies and all ready for bed, so I'm not about to ask Joe to take my picture with my raggedy looking scarf.

Anyway, I went ahead and started on the final border, which the instructions say should be knit as a separate piece and grafted on to the body of the scarf. I hate knitting things in pieces if I can help it, and I may have slight authority issues as well, so of course I tried modifying it a little and just knitting the border right on to the live stitches at the end of the scarf.

The only reason I could think of why this might not be a great idea is because perhaps the two ends wouldn't match as well this way. So I took a couple of pictures, and I'd love it if anyone experienced in lace knitting can give me an honest critique - better to say something before I finish the entire edge, right?

Here's the border at the beginning of the scarf (right side):



And here's the one at the end of the scarf:



I have to be honest with myself - the join is just a tiny bit different. I probably will try to enter this in the Minnesota State Fair, and this is the kind of detail that the judges look at, I know. Not to mention that the category this would go into is quite competitive. But I've kind of resigned myself to not expect any more than a second or third place ribbon even if I'm lucky in that category. So what do you think - keep going, or do I really have to knit it as a separate piece?

Alright, it's late - I'm off to bed. Thanks in advance for any advice on the knitting.

Evidence

...That I need to cast on for some more socks in wool/cotton/nylon blend...

This time of year right now is when I tend to switch from wearing my wool/nylon socks to my wool/cotton/nylon socks. When it's really cold outside, my feet are always cold and need all the extra insulation they can get, but as it gets warmer out and the thermometer rises about 40 or so, a little bit of cotton content helps keep those doggies cool. I'll be wearing my four or five pairs of cottony socks whenever they're clean for the next month or so - till it's time to switch to shorts and sandals.

I was wearing one such pair last night when I noticed one heel feeling a bit cooler than usual, and I found this:



A blowout! And, since I don't darn socks (I can, I just choose not to), that is the end of that. The pair went into the laundry pile one last time, and when they are clean they will go into my recently-started stash of blown-out socks, which I plan to save until there are enough to cut up and resew into something spectacular.

Luckily, I happen to have a couple skeins of wool/cotton/nylon blend sock yarn waiting to be knit up. The question is: which one first?

In the Mail

It's been a busy week or so on the front steps of our little house in the suburbs. We've had several happy deliveries show up - some expected, some not. I shared the Pomfret score and the surprise candy with you yesterday, and today I'll show you some more goodies.

But first, I want to say hello to people who may be coming over from other places that have linked to me this week. The Yarn Harlot, who included me in her post on her visit to St. Paul and pointed everyone here to look at the videos - thanks, Stephanie! I'm really glad you and so many others have enjoyed them.

I know there have been other sites linking here in relation to the event as well, so welcome to any visitors and feel free to hang around and see what else I get up to. I mostly like to talk about my knitting, my girls, and food. Not necessarily in that order.

Oh, and also welcome to anyone coming over from Whip Up. I've long admired this blog, and always enjoy seeing what kinds of crafts the team there manages to find and highlight. When I got the message from Kathreen letting me know that I'd be on Whip Up, I was thrilled and could hardly believe it. But there's blankie in all its glory. And anyone coming over looking for more details may want to just click on the "All About Blankie" button in the right-hand column.

Also, I want to respond to a couple of reader comments. Several people have asked me about the purple sweater I was wearing at Yarnover the other day. Sorry, it's not a handknit. It's from Eddie Bauer. I bought it online last fall, and unfortunately it's not available there any more as far as I could tell. I love this sweater and have worn it a lot over the winter. Maybe I'll have to knit up an "inspired-by sweater" and write up a pattern some time.

Oh, and thank you to the people who commented on my mention about Joe doing his own ironing. You reminded me not to take him for granted. I am incredibly lucky to have a husband like Joe. He does at least his share of chores around the house. I don't iron at all, really. I hate ironing, and plan my wardrobe to avoided it almost entirely. He knew that since we were dating, and when his dad (who used to own a dry cleaners' store) stopped doing his ironing for him, Joe took on the task. He does a much better job than I would do anyway. He cleans the litter boxes and helps clean up the kitchen after dinner too. Yay, Joe!

So speaking of Joe and mail, Joe is out in the living room right now playing with his Wii, which he just got back in the mail today. Something was wrong with it - something about the way it displayed some games or something. So he had to send it off to be fixed, and he was very happy to get his new toy back.

I finally got my Moo cards in the mail on Friday. Too late for the Harlot event, but in time for Yarnover. I ordered two sets - one with pictures of the girls on the front and our family information on the back. They will be perfect for handing to parents of the girls' friends when we want to plan play dates. The pictures of the girls will help jog busy moms' memories of who we are and why they have our contact information. And the other set is all blankie close-ups, for when I'm talking to knitters. I'm pretty happy with how they turned out. They are nice thick, glossy cardstock and feel nice in the hand.

Editing to add a clarification about the cards - by contact information I mean our family name and my e-mail address. I left it at that with room for me to handwrite in our phone number if I choose because I feel like e-mail is the least invasive way to reach us. Even so, people could still look up the rest of our info in the phone book, but for that matter so could any of my readers (and some, unfortunately, have!) I'm well aware of security considerations, and y'all are going to have to trust that I take precautions - number one being that my kids don't leave my sight, and that I'm good about actually paying attention to what they're doing when we're out of the house. There are only so many layers of paranoia one can track, after all.



I also got a shipment of books from Amazon last week. It's kind of an eclectic little pile. I'd had Barbara Abbey's Knitting Lace in my wish list for a while, and made up my mind to go ahead and buy it when I was looking for lace trims for those socks a few weeks ago. This book has a huge collection of lace trims, as well as doilies and a detailed section on making lace and designing lace garments. Some day I will be able to design my own lace patterns, and not just copy them out of books!

I'm not exactly sure how I ended up buying a book on spinning. Except that I've had an ongoing conversation with myself for years now about how I don't want to spin - no, I really don't want to spin - no, I have too much knitting already, so look the other way quick. But I keep seeing all this awesome spinning and fiber in the blogs, and at least I feel like I wish I understood more of what they're talking about. And when I saw that Priscilla Gibson-Roberts had a book on Spinning in the Old Way, I had to add it to the cart. I love the book "Knitting in the Old Way" - in fact, if I had to pick only one knitting book to look at for the rest of my life, that would probably be it. I haven't really cracked the cover of this one yet.

And finally, I bought The Creative Family by Amanda Soule, whose blog I read regularly. She is always showing awesome projects that she does with her kids, and seems so gentle and capable a parent, I had to check out her tricks. I need all the tricks I can get. I've only had a few moments to glance through this one so far, but I'm pretty sure there is some stuff in there we can try now, and more that we will grow into.



And finally, another surprise gift came today that absolutely gobsmacked me. It's a beautiful little sock-project bag from my loyal reader and commenter Michelle a.k.a. SwissKnits! She made it herself, and sent it as a thank-you gift for the needles she won in a contest here a while back. So unbelievably sweet - thank you Michelle!



I love this bag so much, and had to wonder whether she would be making them to sell. The answer is no, they're just for friends, which made me feel even more special. I may have to start another sock project just so I can use the bag!

And now I must go fold a giant mountain of clean laundry - maybe if I fold fast I'll have time for a few more rows of the snowflake scarf before bed. I'm only twelve rows away from finishing the body, so maybe by tomorrow night I'll be knitting the border. Which could mean a blocking post as early as Thursday or Friday if all the stars align and Sophie agrees to actually go to sleep at her bed time tomorrow.

Yarn-Go-Round

I know I've mentioned my love for Ravelry here more than once, but I have another nice little Ravelry-related story to share with you. It's a perfect example of just how great Ravelry is, and why we should all love it to death and support them and enter in all our knitting information that we can. Pretty much all the links in this post are to various pages on Ravelry, so my apologies if you don't have an account yet - go sign up for one and you'll have it in a few weeks, tops.

A few weeks ago, Laura Mate sent me a Ravelry message. She explained that she had some Sir Galli by Muench but was just a few skeins short of the sweater she wants to knit. She had found my stash listing for the three skeins I had left over from the shawl I made a couple years ago, and figured it couldn't hurt to ask if I was willing to part with it.

Well, the back story on that yarn is that my best friend from college, who my daughter Julie is named after, died of ovarian cancer in July of 2005 after a four-year fight. She had learned to knit after she got sick, and had planned several projects that she never got around to. I inherited most of her yarn, and one of the projects was a shawl for her sister, Jenny, which I ended up making. The FO post for that one is here.

So those last three skeins left over were probably never going to get used - I don't really love knitting with 100% silk, and there were only three skeins left - but I didn't feel like I could throw them away or donate them to charity. Or at least, I hadn't gotten around to donating them yet. But when Laura asked me nicely for them, and told me that she had ten balls of the same dye lot waiting to be knit up, well it was like fate. I was grateful to Ravelry for connecting us, and grateful to her for taking this yarn and putting it to good use. Plus, after all the yarn people have given me over the last few years, I knew I couldn't accept any money for it - I got her address and off it went. It felt great, and then I pretty much forgot about it.

A week later, I was poking around Raverly again, looking at the long discontinued yarn that I'm slightly obsessed with (Pomfret by Brunswick). I noticed that Wei-Wei had five skeins of it in a lovely Blackberry Heather shade. This is somewhat unusual because it's not often that you find so many intact skeins of the same color and dye lot of this yarn together after twenty years out of make, but when you do it's usually in some not-very-fabulous color.

Five skeins is not quite enough to make a sweater out of - I have some old Brunswick patterns, and they say that for a cardigan in my size I'll need about nine skeins - but that purple-y heather will go great with some of the colors I already have and I will (eventually) make a sweater out of it.

It turns out that Wei-Wei had inherited the yarn, and had no immediate plans to use it, so she was happy to sell it to me for a very reasonable price. I think she may have felt the same way about it as I did about the Sir Galli - perhaps happy to see it go to a good home where it might get used. She asked a ridiculously low price for it - I may have had a slightly better idea of its value after having purchased a few several more than my share of skeins on e-bay in the last few years - so I sent her a bit more than what she asked and still felt a little guilty but not THAT guilty when she messaged me back that it was in the mail.

It arrived on Saturday while I was out at Yarnover, and it is just as gorgeous as I had hoped.



Okay, and that little scenario alone should have been enough - I helped Laura find the yarn she wanted, Wei-Wei helped me hoarde collect some more Pomfret that I neededwanted, it makes a nice little Ravelry-assisted karmic circle. But then Laura had to go and literally put the icing on the cake. Look what showed up in the mail today...



Laura is from Kentucky, where aparently this candy is a tradition. She says she and her mom used to make it every year at Christmas when she was a kid, but that it was so complicated it would only come out right about one time in ten. Sheesh! Now they just buy it from Ruth Hunt Candy - and I don't blame 'em. Nine batches of sugary mess for one good batch sounds a little frustrating!

This candy is good and like nothing else I've ever tasted. It's super-crazy-sweet, and it sort of crumbles and melts in your mouth kind of like those old fashioned peppermint sticks, only softer and more crumbly, and sweeter and without the mint. I tried one this afternoon and knew that I would need a cup of coffee for my next one. I just had another one with a cup of decaf, and it was nice. The foil-wrapped bar is the same candy, dipped in chocolate. Not THAT was good. The bitter from the dark chocolate really balances the sweet and makes it yummy.

Laura, you know that was totally unnecessary. I told you to pay it *forward*! But, um, thanks. I really appreciate your thoughtfulness.

And now, I'm going to try to make some headway on that scarf. I am SO itching to start my Sunrise Circles, which means I better hurry up and finish this scarf before the willpower runs out. I'm working on the last repeat of the main lace pattern now, and then just have to do the row of border at the end.



Harry cat thinks it looks like a big ole lump o'not-much-exciting. I'm camping out in the office room tonight watching a DVD on my computer because Joe has hockey on in the living room while he irons. I am so not into hockey!

Yarnover!

It's just downright crazy that I should get to leave my family and go have fun all by myself twice in one week, but today I did just that. I got up early got myself all prettied up as best I could and got out the door without so much as changing a diaper.

I didn't even have to drive very far this year, since the venue moved to Hopkins High School, which is just down the road from where I live by about ten minutes. The blankie came along with me, and I walked it over to the Yarnery's booth in the marketplace, where it pretended to be a table cloth for the day. It got lots of attention, and hopefully generated some interest in the class I'll be teaching on it in May - on the 6th and 13th.

But back to Yarnover - it was crowded, and the main hallways were full of people shopping the marketplace booths, and I kept running into old friends and acquaintances who I don't see very often any more since I rarely make it to Guild meetings these days. I made it in to hear the keynote speech by Joan Schrouder, then had just enough time to find my classroom to drop off my junk before it was time to track down Franklin of the Panopticon and the 1,000 Knitters Project.

I signed up to sit for a little shoot with Franklin as soon as I found out he was coming, and I don't know what I was expecting, really, but the short little meeting by far exceeded my expectations. Franklin had a way of immediately putting me at ease - he was friendly and just had sort of a calm, centered energy kind of like you'd expect someone of the Zen Buddist persuasion to have. And I'm not just saying that - I know it sounds all esoteric and whatever, but that's really how it felt.

So I introduced myself, and when I said "Hi, I'm Shelly Kang." He asked why that sounded familiar, so I mentioned my blog name and yeeep! He knew who I was. And then I sat and knit on the scarf, and he took my picture and asked me about my blog name. By the time I finished my brief explanation, he was done. And then of course I fell into gushing mode and told him how much I love his blog and Delores and Harry and the gang, and then I got myself right out the door before I could embarrass myself any further.

Okay and then as I was walking back to my classroom, I realized that dammit I'd forgotten to get a picture of me with him. So I sat through the first part of my class alternately paying attention to what I was doing and mentally kicking myself. And then I calmed down, and by the first break I decided what the heck - I'll go back up there and ask politely and I have no pride, so what is there to lose?



Not much, apparently. He was totally cool. Thanks, Franklin!

And back in the classroom with Joan Schrouder, who not only was the keynote speaker but also the teacher whose set-in sleeves class I took for the day.



Joan was wearing a vest that is really a partially unfinished Kauni cardigan sweater. In the picture she's holding a circular needle that's attached to the sweater where she's picking up stitches for a sleeve. It's going to be a super-pretty sweater. And Joan is a smart, free-thinking, self-effacing knitter with lots of tricks up her sleeves, which she graciously shares. I have to admit that I was a little disappointed that the class was about sleeves picked up and knitted down - I was looking for more help with the version that are knit flat as a separate piece and then sewn together. But they really are all the same thing, and as much as I didn't learn any more about sleeve shaping than I already knew, I did get some great tips here and there about tangentially related things that I thought were cool.

The bottom of that sweater she's wearing? It's garter stitch, of the purl-when-you-can variety, and instead of stopping it on a single line, she did it gradually so that the hem won't have a tendency to flip. She also has an idea about securing steeks with localized felting instead of crochet chains or sewing machines that I found intriguing - she suggested scrubbing it with a toothbrush, I think when I try it I'll just use a felting needle. I almost want to paw through the stash and start my own Kauni rightnow just so I can try out those two things. Soon. Not now.

Other highlights of my day included chatting with the Rainey Sisters again. I had asked Susan to bring along her Sunrise Circle cardigan so I could look at some of the modifications she did to the pattern. I'm planning to start one of my own as soon as I finish the snowflake scarf, and Susan even let me try hers on for size. Those two women, they are so smart! And it's really neat to see two sisters like them hanging out together. It was so cute watching them decide together over the course of the day how many and which ones of a certain designer's kits they needed to have. I don't want to say too much, and I don't know what the final verdict turned out to be, but every time I walked by the marketplace they were at a different point in the deliberations.

I also managed to secure my place in the 24th Annual Minnesota Knitters' Days camp in October. I can't begin to tell you how excited I am about this. Three days away from my family, taking classes from Candace Eisner-Strick and surrounded by other enthusiastic knitters. I've been to camp with this group a couple other times - once before Julie was born and once as a day-only student a couple years ago. It's going to be fun. I couldn't find anything about this camp on the web, and it may very well be full now, but Sheryl who runs it keeps a waiting list, and if you want more information, you can e-mail me and I'll put you in touch with her.

I did shop around over the course of the day, and while there were a lot of nice, appealing yarns I managed to keep my wallet pretty well under control - I have a lot of nice, appealing yarns here at home. I did have to buy a new circular needle for my class since I'd only brought straights with me (so incredibly ironical because I don't *like* straights in the first place, but that's what I thought I was supposed to be using). And I fell down in one other thing...





I've wanted to try knitting one of these little amulet bags for a long time, and I've heard that they're pretty quick. This kit will make two, and I figure maybe my MIL would like one as a Christmas gift. She can be impossible to buy for.

And finally, just as I was headed out to my car at the end of the day, Annie (Ravelry link) stopped me to say hello and show me her new little blankie project.



She was really sweet and enthusiastic and it was so exciting to run into a project of my own design out in the wild. So thanks, Annie, and happy knitting.

And that's about it. Time to work on the Snowflake scarf for a while before bed. I'm really hoping to have the thing done maybe even in the next week. So I can start Sunrise Circle guilt-free.

Well, That was Fun.

I had a great time tonight. I had way more fun than should be allowed, and now I'm exhausted and sitting here wondering how Stephanie can cope with not only being the center of all the attention after night after night of events like this, but also being away from home and moving from city to city every day for weeks straight. But she handled it gracefully as ever. I'm getting ahead of myself.

The weather tonight was just plain crappy. When I headed out from St. Louis Park, it was sloggy-cold and rainy, and by the time I came home after 11, it was snowing big melty flakes and every horizontal surface was covered in slimy slush. And the roads were teh suck, but again I'm getting ahead of myself.

Trust me, the show was worth braving the weather, which while freaky as can be in mid-April, wasn't really scary or anything. I know the weather did keep a lot of people home - heck - there were a few people who showed up at the auditorium and decided to leave before the show because they were afraid driving conditions were worsening. Still, we ended up with a pretty good crowd of well over 400, and as far as I could tell, things went quite smoothly.

Here are our fearless hosts, Maura and Shelly, my bosses at the Yarnery. Maura is the one who did the bulk of the organizing work for the event, and although they are both smiling big in the picture, both of these ladies were running around busy and in demand for most of the evening. They really did their best to make it as good of an experience as possible for everyone there.



And here's my friend Sarah, who also works at the store. She runs the Socks in the Cities KAL, and does a lot of the Yarnery's web updating stuff. She is hilariously funny and also takes really good pictures.



Angie also works at the store, and you'll get to see her in the videos further down - she was the mastermind behind all the song lyrics in the pre-show. Genius!



Here's a crowd pic - this was a little bit before the show started, and the front row is empty here because those seats were reserved for staff, who were all busy running around still at that point;and guests with special needs. By the time the show started, most of the balcony seats had filled as well. Overflow crowds had been predicted, but with the the weather, everyone who showed up for the show got in, so that was good.



Okay, and here's my friend and coworker Julie, who was sitting next to me during the speech, and didn't have her camera with her for a picture. Julie, I'll e-mail you a full-res one soon! Julie was working the event last year and didn't know who Stephanie was. I remember she kept saying "I don't get it - what's the big deal" in a totally nonplussed way. Tonight was different. She kept saying "I'm really excited. I'm a much bigger fan now. Stephanie is so cool." Julie's so cute.



Finally the pre-show started, and Mary Lou introduced the Yarnery Family Singers. We'll get to them in a minute, but first I want to show you something. MaryLou is a pretty tall person - at least, she's taller than me and I'm 5'10". But you can see that the podium was just about the right height for her.



Later, when Stephanie came out, it looked like this. I really wanted to jump up and fetch her a step-stool. But I managed to restrain myself. It seemed to unfair -both to Stephanie trying to talk over the thing and to us in the audience who would have liked to see her face a little better.



And Stephanie did her talk, and it was great. The only bad part was that I had stuck my bag full of junk off to the side back stage for safekeeping while I was taking tickets and stuff before the show. So when she came out and I sat down, my sock in progress was way out of reach. I had to sit there in the front row trying not to fidget. Oh, the humanity! Still, it was great, and my facial muscles are indeed sore from the excessive smiling and laughing. I think I need to find a way to get them more exercise - i.e. more laughter on a regular basis.

She told some of the story about her time up in the cabin in the woods, and you should have seen her impression of dangerous attacking deer. At least I was able to see that around the podium. The story was funny on the blog, but hilarious told out loud and in person the way Stephanie talks.

After the talk, there was plenty of time to mill around and chat with all the other knitters. I got to meet Maura, who had bought some of my hand dyed yarn and brought along her socks that she knit up with it. On the left is the coffee-dyed yarn, and on the right is the one I was calling Electric Stripes. It was freaky-weird-cool to get to see the results of those skeins in person, so thanks again for bringing them, Maura!



I got a chance to chat with Susan and Sally for a few minutes - I feel so badly for Sally, who is out of commission knitting-wise for the next several weeks. But at least she has a sweater or two to keep her warm. Both Susan and Sally had on their fabulous sweaters tonight, and although Susan hates having her picture taken, I think they are both quite photogenic. Susan, I'll e-mail you a copy in the next day or so as well. And by the way, if you don't read their blog yet, you really should. They do amazing work, are quite prolific, and are great about sharing the details of technique and finishing.



The Blankie was with me, and got lots of attention and petting from various folks, not least of which was the Harlot herself. It was such a pleasure to chat with Stephanie again, and she is incredibly gracious. I actually posed with her and got my book signed early on, but then went back for a second try on the photos because both of us looked pretty freaky in the first version of the picture (me more than her, I'm afraid). It's amazing how if the person taking your picture is short, you look like you have big double-chins, but if they raise the camera up high, it's quite slimming.



So that picture is actually at the very end of the night when Stephanie has just talked to a million people, but she's smiling gamely and even had them take several shots just to be sure. Thanks!

Okay, and saving some of the best for last, the pre-show was pretty amazingly funny. Jess, Angie, Scott and Eric from the Yarnery got together to form the Yarnery Family Singers. They performed several songs spoofing Sound of Music tunes, only with special Harlot lyrics. Following are four short videos showing the songs You have to watch these - they are hilarious!

How Do You Host a Knitter Like the Harlot Part one





How Do you Host a Knitter Like the Harlot Part two



Favorite Things


And here's the last one - I have to warn you - this one is probably the funniest, but they had the lyrics up on the screen and everyone was singing along, and I couldn't help myself I started singing along too...except I'm totally tone deaf. Forgive me, it's bad. Try to ignore the off-key crooning on my part and enjoy the "real" singers up on the stage.



I think Stephanie really enjoyed the performance from her place backstage, but was also a little freaked out by it. The first thing she said when she came out was something like "I think this has gone a little too far now." I thought it was brilliant.

Thanks again to Stephanie for coming, for Maura and Shelly at the Yarnery for helping to get her here, to the Yarnery Family singers for being so brilliant and funny, and to all the other fans who were there to watch, rub elbows, pet sweaters, and generally enjoy the spectacle together. I had a blast.

Oh, and the trip home was fun as well. As I walked out to the parking ramp with a couple other knitters at the end of the night, I saw thunder-snow for the first time in my life. It was snowing big, wet, melty flakes again, and the ground was inch-deep in slippery slush. And then there were flashes in the sky and one of my companions said "What was that?" and then there was thunder. Car-ay-zay! But really neat. Kind of like the whole evening.

Ready, Set...

I was going to write this post last night, but Sophie was gassy and took forever to go to sleep, then I was busy doing stuff to get ready, and then Sophie woke up again and I ended up just taking her to bed with me. So I'm writing this on Harlot day. My third Harlot day so far...

Harlot day is a special one, because yes, of course, Stephanie Pearl-McPhee is coming to town and will be speaking, and she is crazy-funny. The last two times I listened to her speak, I laughed till my face hurt and my voice was hoarse. But it's become much more than that in my mind.

When the Yarn Harlot comes to town, people come from miles and miles and hours and hours around. It is a huge gathering of not just knitters but wildly enthusiastic knitters. It is so much fun to meet up with bloggers and Ravelry-ers from near and not so near. It is, as I have found out in the last couple of years, a little nerve-wracking, yet exhilarating, to be met by my loyal readers who know so much about me.

Please - if you see me tonight - try to come up and say hello. And also please don't be offended if I am busy right at that moment - I expect the time leading up to the speech will be very rush-rush, but there will be lot s of time for chatting after while people wait for their books to be signed. I promise there will be plenty of opportunities for blankie-fondling for those who are interested.

So what have I been up to while I wait for Harlot day to arrive?

Well, I ordered a bunch of Moo cards, but they haven't arrived yet - there's a chance that they'll arrive with today's post before I leave, but I had to assume that they wouldn't and printed up the business cards I had on hand at home (for all the people who want to know more about the blankie and need the URL for my web page - it does attract knitters like a magnet, and I ran out of cards at the Knit-Out).

I've got a large supply of plain-sock knitting at the ready. I don't know how much actual mindless-knitting time I'll have tonight, but I think I'll be getting more on Saturday, and there are all the sneaky minutes day-to-day around here. I have almost enough mindless knitting set up to feel pretty comfortable. You just never do know when you're going to need some. I think I'll have one of the blue striped socks with me tonight.



Oh, and I bought and read the book. It's very nice - very much what I expected. I've said it before and I'll say it again. I like Stephanie's books. I really do. I *love* her blog. I buy the books to support the blog. But the books are a lot of fun, too.

What else?

Well, I had to print up a bunch of patterns - the Yarnery will have samples of my baby and adult versions of the quilted slip-stitch hats and the baby pants in their display tonight, and the patterns will be for sale there.

A reader asked if I could bring her some sourdough starter, so I fed Fanny again and split some up into a new container to take along. I'm really going to try to not leave Fanny's little sisters in the fridge in my rush out the door tonight.

I washed a load of pants so that I would have something clean to wear, and I stood in front of my sock drawer for a few foggy minutes this morning trying to decide which ones were best. I also stood in front of the mirror wishing away the giant zit on my chin. Please try not to look at the zit on my chin, okay?

I double-checked the camera batteries, I've been reading the Ravelry forums wishing I were going to be at Pat Thai to meet up with those guys before the event - in case you hadn't heard, there will be a meet-up starting at 4:30 there. But also I think there will be a blogger/Raveler meet-up point at the theater, so get there in plenty of time to mingle.

Oh! and the doors open at 6, so I'd get there as soon as possible to scope out a seat and the pre-show will start probably at 6:30 or so. I can't say much about it because my co-workers would kill me if I spoiled the surprise, but I saw a preview at the staff meeting on Sunday and the pre-show is going to rock this year. Talk about your face hurting from laughing so hard!

I better change the subject before I get myself in trouble - hey look! New project on the horizon!



I ripped out the Wooly Stripes sweater that I machine knit last winter and never bothered finishing. I'm going to hand-knit the yarn instead. I swatched and blocked the swatch - to get the required gauge I had to go down to a size four from the recommended seven. So typical for me! Now I am going to force myself to finish the lace scarf before I start the sweater - and that will give me time hopefully to pick at least one very experienced knitter brain who has already worked this project before I cast on - maybe two if I'm lucky - Sally's in town tonight.

I've also been getting ready for Yarnover. I'm taking an all-day class with Joan Schrouder on set-in sleeves, and I did my homework like a good student. I know I hate it when my students show up without their homework even started.



Doesn't look like much, does it?

Oh! and after the April 1st snow storm, I waited a week and thought to myself "No more winter weather coming now - time to clean up the back entry way. I'd better wash the woolies before I put them away for the summer."



They needed it - this is the dirty water after the second rinse. Blech!



And so of course - guess what the weather says now? We've got another winter storm warning for into the weekend. I'm hoping it won't interfere too much with folks' travel plans - as far as I can tell, it's mostly supposed to fall north of us, and to hit more on Friday than today. There's Yarnover to worry about on Saturday too, though.

Alright - two more hours till Joe gets home and the fun really starts. I have just a couple more things to do before I'm ready to leave, and I also need to feed the kids lunch and get Sophie down for her nap...

The other nice thing about a Harlot day? Almost as important as all the knitterly fun? It's a guaranteed chance for me to get Joe to come home early and take over the girls. I will be there, and I will probably be a bit giddy both from all the knitterly company and the wool fumes and the Stephanie-related laughter. But I will be giddy before I even get there from the release of driving away from my house by myself with an evening of grown-up fun before me. Whatever responsibility I have as Yarnery staff tonight will feel like fun after endless days of child-wrangling.

See you tonight if you're local, and if you can't be there, look for pictures tomorrow!

Further Adventures in Sourdough

So this morning I was cleaning out the refrigerator just a little bit - getting ready to throw out some nasty leftovers that had overstayed their welcome just a bit. And I glanced to the back of the fridge and noticed my little yeastie friends hangin' out in the reused yogurt container in the corner.



You know, I've heard mention that sometimes people name their sourdough starters - they are, after all, living things. Living things that live for years and years - well, at least as a collective colony kind of thing. They're kind of like a pet. My little pet fungi. Fanny. Fanny the fungi. I like how that sounds - cause, you know, their whole purpose in life is to break wind. Buwahahaha. I literally just made myself laugh out loud! Oh, the cheese.

So anyway, I figured that my little friends deserved a little attention. My friend Jean, who gave them to me, says I could ignore them for months and months back there in the fridge and they'd be just fine, but if I'm going to keep my little pets around, I may as well get to know them a little better. So I decided to go ahead and feed them and use some of the slime to make a little more bread.



But this isn't just any old bread. We still have a chunk of the last loaf from the last batch I made - It saves really well in the freezer, and I just thawed it out yesterday when we were out of other bread. And I needed some awesome yummy treat to take to the parenting group in the morning because it's my turn.



So I made cinnamon-raisin swirl bread. Kind of on-the-fly, and it turned out gooooood. With a crunchy crust and fluffy insides. mmmmm! But there was a little something missing.



Well, I fixed that right up. What was good is now amazingly yummy! And there are two loaves - one for tomorrow and one for the freezer.

Signs

Yesterday during my little solo trip to the grocery store, I noticed that the asparagus was looking especially good - nice tiny, thin sticks that would steam up crisp-tender. Joe doesn't like eating asparagus because of the next-day smell thing, but I kind of like it, and I figured it would be okay paired up with Joe's favorite of steak and baked potatoes, and I even whipped up a little Hollandaise sauce to serve with it.

Julie pulled the "I don't want any" trick, followed by my standard "Okay, you don't have to eat it, I'm just going to put a couple on your plate." So she ignored it and ate her grilled salmon (Joe gets just steak, the rest of us get half salmon half steak). Then, 2/3 of the way through the meal, she was suddenly dipping her asparagus in her sauce and eating it without comment.



We do our best not to make a big deal about whether or not the kids eat their veggies - we just keep putting them on the plates, and eating them ourselves. I hate it when we're out somewhere in public or with family and someone makes a big deal about what our kids are eating - yes, they have pretty refined palates compared to most small children, but they don't know it, and they don't need to know it.

It's not easy dealing with the what-feels-like-rejection every time when they refuse the veggies, but last night was the pay-off. Julie sat there and ate four servings of asparagus and then I finally just put the serving plate in front of her and she kept eating till I finally stopped her after a few more servings' worth. I'm sure next time I serve it she'll turn up her nose, and I will have to put on the game face and go with the flow.

Today was our first park play-date of the season! The weather was warm - upper 40s or maybe low 50s, and even though there is still snow on the ground we took the opportunity to get out and play after five months stuck mostly in the house.



Sophie kept losing her boots - they're a little big on her, and Julie's are a little tight. We'll have to shop for a couple new pairs in the next few days.



The swings are ever-popular, and the big girls are *almost* big enough to do it on their own.





And then came the real fun...



So often I'm yelling at the girls to "stay out of the water" "Don't splash in the puddles!" Well, today all bets were off. I told them to go ahead and get a little muddy.



And they did! Both of the little ones ended up getting a little wetter than anyone planned or desired, but it was fine - a distracting snack on the way home, and naptime was solid this afternoon.



Tonight bedtime was quick and fairly painless too. We've continued to have restless nights all week, though. Tonight before bed I had a little talk with Sophie and told her I'd really appreciate it if she could stay in her own bed tonight. I said "If you wake up in the night tonight, it's okay to just grab Sheepy and roll over and go back to sleep. Mama's really tired and could use a good night's sleep." I'm going to keep the expectations low, but this tactic has worked in the past, so I'm hoping maybe tonight I'll get some sleep.

But first I'm going to work on the snowflake scarf for a while. I'm up to seven motifs, and I'm not sure how much farther I should take it.



At least ten, I'm thinking, maybe more. I have plenty of yarn. hmmmm.

MIL Love

Mothers-in-law are not always so easy to love. Anyone who has one can tell you that. Today, though, I am feeling all about the love for my MIL. She came over and played with the girls from 10 till around 3. In that time I was able to:

• Scrub the upstairs bathroom till it is about as clean as I have ever seen it.*
• Vacuum the upstairs carpet (no more crushed cheerios!)**
• Change the sheets
• Dust the bedroom (and there were real, live dust bunnies hiding under the night stands!)
• Take a load of dirty diapers to the basement, get them through two wash cycles and the dryer and back upstairs folded before bedtime.
• Scrub the downstairs bathroom (which is much easier to keep clean)
• Wash the kitchen floor
• Feed everyone lunch
• Go to the grocery store by myself

I can not begin to describe how happy this makes me. To have so many chores out of the way all in one day, to not have them hanging over my head, to not walk through the house and feel lousy every minute for not having the energy to scrub toilets and keep an eye on the girls at the same time, etc. And best of all, I have not had two little girls literally hanging on me all day - despite having worked my tail off today, I actually have a bit of energy left.

Oh, how I wish my MIL would come over like that at least once a month, but I'd take her every week if she'd be willing! But for today I am incredibly grateful and happy. I must try to think of something nice that I can do for her that she would actually like.

I'm off to bask in my own glow and do some knitting.


*We have some mildew issues up there, plus some idiot decided that the grout needed re-grouting, and instead of picking out the old grout first, they just slathered new grout over it - so any time I try to scrub the shower, I end up scrubbing away big chunks of loose grout. I've been trying to use non-toxic household cleaners, but the vinegar-water just wasn't working on the creeping mildew, and so I finally broke down and bought a bottle of the evil mildew-remover stuff, and suddenly what used to look like the shower of a shared bachelor apartment with five roommates now looks like something I can step into in the morning without cringing.


**Sometimes when we sleep in on weekdays and I need to get a shower in even after Joe has left for work, I bring up a little snack for the girls consisting of little bowls of dried cheerios mixed with raisins. They love it when I do that, and the raisins are usually no trouble to spot and pick up off the floor. The cheerios happen to match our carpet exactly, though, and can be harder to pick up before someone steps on them. Also, we don't buy actual cheerios, which are full of sugar, but instead buy the organic non-sugary version from the local co-op. They taste at least as good as the big-business name-brand ones, but are a little more expensive.

Big Bird Go Potty

That's what Sophie came to me and said after setting this little scene
up. Now she's reading him a book.

No Foolin'

Today Joe's parents were going to take the girls out for the day. So I
could run to an appointment and then have some rare alone time in the
house. Which I was going to spend cleaning. All I wanted to do was scrub
my nasty toilets and vaccume the crushed cheerios out of the carpet -
how's that for a dream?

Well, they came over alright, but Sophie woke up with a fever this
morning after a restless night. No trip to the Maul of America for her
today. At least I made it to my appointment, and may have even snuck off
to a LYS for a few sneaky peeky minutes. But the moment I arrived back
in my filthy house (I was *counting* on some hard-core cleaning today,
dammit!) they beat tracks straight out of here.

Left with two children, one bored and one clingy, and a mama who's
exhausted in the first place and practically dead after another
sleepless night, I decided that a pick-us-up was in order.

Julie decided that the peanut butter-chocolate chip variety was what we
needed, and Sophie was pleasantly surprised when she woke up from her
nap.