I received a catalog I'd never seen before - l'atelier. It has some interesting sweaters, but VERY expensive and the illustrations are all fashion drawings. When they did have photographs of sweaters they didn't really match the drawings (in my opinion). So I think I'd have to make modifications if I were to knit one of these up. Since the kits are in the range of $200, I think I'll have to pass in any case. There are some really interesting designs. It inspired me to take up my purple sweater again. I was farther along than I thought, so I think I'll just get it finished.
I have a friend whose daughter runs a very nice restaurant around here. They decorate with a textile theme. The current display is knitting by Valentina Devine. They are planning an invitational display of local knitters in September, so I'm hoping the purple sweater turns out. Otherwise I think I'll try to sell a couple shawls.
Busy weekend. I got my sister to the airport, picked Matthew up from the airport, took a load of stuff to the landfill, got the kids and llamas to the 4H meeting and FILLED MY POND! We find that most of the water plants are sold out, but at least the thing has water. While doing all the above I got to hear a lot of chatter about the boychoir tour. Sounds like they had a lot of fun. Matthew came home with a cowboy hat, lasso and bull whip. I don't understand the whip thing, but both Larry and Diane had one as kids, so I guess it's not that strange. Indiana Jones has a lasting impression on the culture. One incident on the tour where a boy snuck out a 4:00 a.m. to get burgers and was caught on the hotel security camera. Oops. I feel a little sorry for the kid, but it was a dumb thing to do.
Today I will get rid of the dirt piles and do some rock placement and planting around the pond. I also need to go to the Napa store and buy a new radiator hose for the van. I'm going to take a crack at rewiring the horse trailer. I got a call about a job, so maybe it will be a very good day.
Thursday, June 26, 2003
My sister and family are coming out this afternoon, then the whole family for dinner, so I've been cooking. 2 salads, green beans, two loafs of quick bread, spinach dip and an ice cream cake. I think I'll make them help with the rest.
My mom and dad are getting very old, dad is losing his mind and mom is very set in her ways. My sister suggested she would stop by to see them this morning before coming out here and mom said, 'Oh no, we'll see you at dinner'. So sis is going to visit anyway. She takes it personally, but really I think mom just can't handle having her daily routine disrupted. Dinner and evenings are more free form in her life and the daytime is quite rigid. Unfortunatly dad just wilts as the day goes on and by evening he can't follow conversation or remember anything. Then mom gets jealous if anyone pays more attention to dad. AHHHH. I'm glad I live close enough that I can make short visits and navigate the relationships more easily. Trying to cram a lot of quality time into a week is not very easy. And the deterioration is so much more obvious when you only come home twice a year. I get to experience it more gradually.
My knitters guild is going to do a pi shawl knit along this fall. I think it sounds fun. I have talked Diane into doing a plain version and I will do a lace one. Diane is a new knitter. About 5 years ago she had this strange ankle injury. She was running a Taekwondo school at the time and had to teach from a wheel chair. It took about 6 months for the medical community to decide what was wrong and how/if to fix it. During that time she was on crutches, casted, in a plastic boot and losing her mind. They finally decided to do surgery and then she had to sit in a chair for a few weeks. Out of desperation I suggested knitting.
Turns out she used to go to a neighbor's house and sit and knit when she was a little girl, so the prospect was soothing. She made a baby blanket for a friend, then started on pot holders. I suggested those little things that go on the end of frying pan handles. She thought they looked suggestive, especially with a couple of strategically placed jingle bells and the Weenie Warmer was born. Every male friend and relative received one for Christmas, then the knitting needles were set aside.
She picked it up again recently, because she fell in love with the picket fences vest. After making a couple of those and several hats, she's now working on an afghan. I think working on the pi shawl with the rest of the guild might be really fun for her. I think it will be fun for me too, even thought the pi shawl has never been my favorite.
Wednesday, June 25, 2003
I think I've finished digging my hole. I recently read the book 'Holes'. My daughter really liked it a few years back. I tried it then and found the first chapter so disturbing that I set it right back down. Since the movie came out I thought I'd try it again. Caitlin assured me that it gets better and she was right. But everytime I go out to dig in my pond hole I think of the book. It has been very hot here, so it adds to the effect. Of course the book takes place in the desert, so the fact that everything I was wearing was completly soaked ruins the effect somewhat.
When taking water breaks from my digging, I did a little more swatching and then cast on for the gansey sweater last night. I knit one half of the garter welt this morning, but I am seriously afraid I don't have enough yarn. Now I'm really excited about the project so I can a) buy enough yarn of something else b) just go for it and cross that bridge when I come to it or c) buy something contrasting and have it ready just in case. None of these solutions is very good. I have bought a lot of yarn lately and I need to finish projects. I will be EXTREMELY unhappy if I end up turning this sweater into a vest. The yarn was bought from a friend. It is commercially spun rom her own wool. It is possible that she has a similar color. The original purpose of this yarn was to finish my green sweater. The yarn was too dark and too heavy so it's been sitting around for a long time, but theoretically I thought it was enough to knit a sweater when I bought it. I hate this! Here's a picture of the garter welt and the ugly argyle. The color is wrong on the welt. It is a dark teal color with bits of black spun in. It is very pretty yarn. Maybe I should finish the argyles while I ponder this problem.
My sister and her family are spending the day and night here tomorrow, then leaving Friday afternoon, so I guess I need to clean. I cleaned Saturday but somehow the house looks terrible. The kids haven't even been here so I have only myself to blame. The worst is that I came in from the hole and was too lazy to take my boots off so there are muddy footprints everywhere. Caitlin finished Harry Potter so now I can read that. My reading time lately is limited to the time I spend brushing my teeth. I am a very fast reader and spend a lot of time on the teeth so I actully finish books in a reasonable amount of time. However, Harry Potter is almost 900 pages and others will be waiting for it, so I may just have to sit and read for a while. What a sacrifice. The plan for today is to go grocery shopping, stop by the hardware store and buy some bags of sand, come home and get the pond backfilled and filled with water, then if there is any time left I will read or knit until it's time to pick up Caitlin. All in all, not a bad day.
Tuesday, June 24, 2003
Well the birthday was nowhere near as bad as expected, though not exactly fun either. We went to a restaurant close to home and the food was pretty good. I sat at the opposite end of the table from my mom and got to talk to my niece a bit. She just finished her freshman year at college and it's nice to catch up with her a bit.
I spent the afternoon planning my gansey sweater and I think I'm ready to cast on. I'm expecting this to be a really pretty sweater and if I start now maybe I can wear it all fall.
The other thing I did yesterday is apply for 4 jobs. Three are part time and won't pay much. The last is for a company that sells artificial insemination equipment and has a customer newsletter entitled 'Spermnotes'. That just cracked me up and I decided that might be a fun place to work.
What I'd really like is to continue not working. I have been doing part time programming from home, but that has dwindled and we just need a little more money. If only I'd tried harder maybe I could be making enough from the wood stuff or by selling knitting or by doing more teaching or by finding other programming clients or .... But I didn't try harder so here I am applying for work. There is still a chance that my current client will come through with more work, or that Diane will get a raise, or that she'll get domestic partner coverage, or that I could quit buying stuff and we could live on her salary, but all those things seem pretty unlikely. I actually think getting off the farm for a bit would be good for me and all these jobs sound interesting, so maybe it is a positive thing after all.
When I bought my plastic pond I bought one for my brother for Christmas. I have spent HOURS digging and still don't have mine in. He got his done in a day. Caitlin assures me that my hole is probably much better than his, but that is cold comfort. It rained this morning, so the ground is probably soft enough to dig. I think I will make one last mighty effort and get the hole finished. Then I will post pictures of my beautiful water garden. My brother gave me two water plants for my birthday, so I think I need to get them in the water. A little added incentive.
No kids tonight and no family plans that I know of, so maybe I can start knitting the gansey.
Monday, June 23, 2003
Today is my 45th birthday. I am slightly depressed, but not because I'm so old. Birthdays have always been really important to me. I think it's probably because mine were often ignored when I was a child. This is a bad time of year to get much attention at my house. So today I get to spend the day alone, then go out with the big family group tonight. The dinner might actually be fun. I think I just need to improve my attitude. It would help if they would choose a restaurant that didn't require me to drive 45 minutes by myself, jump through hoops to avoid making Diane drive and hour and a half by herself and try to figure out how to get Caitlin there.
I finally mastered one of the Playstation skills. Caitlin sent me an e-mail telling me how proud she was and telling me I would have to improve a lot if I wanted to avoid ridicule when Matthew gets home. I think I'll just leave the thing turned off. Much easier.
In honor of my birthday I am going to do some knitting today. First I will balance the checkbook and pay bills in order to get completly depressed, then I'll cheer myself up by swatching and getting the Gansey started. Or I may start a last minute birthday present for Maria. My brother lives with a woman from Columbia. I like her a lot. She became a citizen last summer and finally has enough English that we can communicate. My brother has been alone for a long time and he and Maria look so good together. I want her to stick around. Anyway, when they were at my house for dinner last week for his birthday she was looking through a magazine and showed him a picture of something she liked. I pullled it out and it is a shapely Shawlette. Can I knit one by Thursday night? Do I even want to try? Maria's birthday is Friday. We have never acknowledged it before and I'd like to do something for her. So I may take a quick trip to the yarn store this morning and work on Shawlette knitting for the next few days. We'll see how long the bills take.
Sunday, June 22, 2003
Not a single stitch of knitting yesterday. Caitlin and I loaded the llamas and drove them to the 4H meeting. Sometimes I'm in the mood to prove how capable and self-sufficient I am. Sometimes I totally lose that and want someone else to just take over and handle things - I hate to admit it but I want a MAN around the house. Anything involving pulling an animal trailer puts me in the second state of mind. I almost backed out of the llama trip, but we did it. The van is dangerously low on gas, but there was no way I was going to pull into a gas station. We did make it home, but on the way back the trailer was squeaking really loudly. I got out to check the hitch and everything seemed okay, but when I went to unhitch I realized I'd never connected it properly. I guess I was unbelievably lucky. Now I'm afraid I won't make it to town to get gas, so I will have to go fill the gas can, come back home and put 5 gallons in the van and then go fill it up. The problem is that the thing has a 34 GALLON gas tank and we didn't feel like spending the money to fill it last time we drove it into town.
We had mice last winter. I hate dead things, so it was Diane's job to dispose of the traps. We have a deal. I handle vomit, she handles dead mice. Matthew had a vomit incident this spring that makes up for years of dead mice, so I think it's fair. Anyway a few weeks ago Matthew found a dried up mouse in one of the traps. I suggested that being the man of the house he should deal with it. He told me we were the powerful women so it was our problem. I honestly don't know where he came up with the powerful women thing.
My sister and her family arrive this evening. My birthday is tomorrow. So mom wants to take everyone out to dinner tomorrow night. I HATE going out to dinner with my mother. Tomorrow is my spinning guild meeting. Caitlin is with her dad, so I have to ask for a change in the schedule. Why do I let my mother dictate my life? I am much, much better than I used to be, but there are times when I just can't handle the conflict so I give in. She keeps asking me where I want to go and then refuses to consider my suggestions. I strive for emotional distance. Do we ever stop being daughters and become adults?
Caitlin and I went to the neighbor's graduation party yesterday and it was actually fun. I tend to be shy and don't do really well when I don't know anyone, but I had some good conversations. Then we went and picked up the Harry Potter book. I showed incredible generosity and let Caitlin have it first. Even though I was home alone last night and this morning and probably could have read the book. Then instead of spending my time alone finishing the stupid, ugly, argyle sock I played with the Playstation. Oh well. Here comes another week.
The crows are going crazy this morning. I wonder what's up?
Saturday, June 21, 2003
We got the hay unloaded. What a job. I think we stacked a little over one hundred bales - way more than I thought would fit in the barn. We probably could have found room for a few more, but we just pooped out. Funny how the bales on the bottom of the wagon are so much heavier than the ones on the top.
One thing I discovered when I moved out here is that I am allergic to grass. So by the end of our hay experience my nose was dripping and I was having a little trouble breathing. It seemed like a good time to stop. I may go up and try to stack a few more bales this morning before Dick comes back for the hay wagon.
Caitlin is doing a photography project for the county fair. Her category is black and white photos of people. She went to a gay pride parade in Boston and got some really great photos of people. I think she's a little concerned about whether drag queens are an appropriate subject matter for the county fair. I'm not sure either - but they are great pictures. She really had fun at the parade and wanted to know if we have one here. We do, but I've never gone. I think it is a little more subdued than Boston's, but I'm sure we can find a few drag queens for her.
After we gave up on the hay, we rented a movie and sat for the rest of the night, so I got a couple inches on the sock done. Almost to the toe shaping, so the end is in sight. Today we are going to try to catch llamas and take them to the 4H project meeting, then the neighbor's graduation party. My sister and family arrive tomorrow, so I guess I'll try to vacuum up the hay that is scattered all over the house.
I have a cat sitting on my left hand so typing is getting difficult. He never used to like to be in my lap at the computer, but he is very needy these days and grabs every opportunity he can.
Friday, June 20, 2003
I finished the duplicate stitch and will soon finish the sock. I hope the next one looks better. I am no longer excited about these socks, but since it will take so little to get them done I guess I'll just bite the bullet.
I was so tired yesterday I accomplished practically nothing. The man I buy hay from stopped by and said he'd charge less if he could just make hay and deliver it instead of making it, storing it, reloading it and delivering it. So we are getting a full load of hay today. I'm not really sure where to put it, and Caitlin will not be happy helping unload it, but it will do her good.
Caitlin is a budding ballerina. She cracked her foot during the Nutcracker last winter and hasn't danced in 7 months. Last night was her first ballet class. I was so nervous. I don't know when I became such a mom. I used to be wild and unconventional, now I drive a mini van and bake a lot. One advantage to sharing these children with their dad is that I do get half a week to NOT be a mom. I get an embarassing amount of pleasure from driving my big white farm van. I love doing the physical work of feeding and fencing. I'm glad we have our little acreage, even though it makes a lot of life more difficult.
Anyway the budding ballerina wants to go to dance camp for two weeks. In addition to the camp costs we have to transport her to and from Bemidji, MN and buy A LOT of dance wear and shoes. So my plan is she can work around here to pay off the cost of the dance wear. Unloading hay will be the first duty. She is actually good at fencing, so we can work on that next week. Maybe by the end of the summer she'll actually enjoy the feeling of using her muscles.
It is a beautiful day here. I will spend the morning mowing and meditating. I bought a new sprinkler and will set it safely off the ground before I start!
Thursday, June 19, 2003
I'm not happy with this sock! I decided to duplicate stitch in the diagonal lines of the argyle and it looks really bad. I think it may be because my gauge is so small and the yarn is less compacted with the duplicate stitch. I guess I will try knitting in the lines on the second sock. I don't have any ideas on how to make the duplicate stitch look better. Besides it takes a long time. To top it all off, this sock is not going to fit me - the pattern is for someone with daintier feet. Maybe someone else in my household will wear them, except that one is going to be so ugly. Good thing a pair of socks for wearing was not the main goal of this project!
Matthew and the choir flew off to Texas this morning. I decided getting up at 4 did not warrant going back to bed later, so I'm planning to stay awake until bed time. Since Diane left too, bedtime may be 8:00 tonight. She called me from the airport and said lines were very long and she was afraid she would miss her flight. I haven't heard again, so I guess she made it. It will be just me and Caitlin for a couple days. Maybe we can get her bedroom painted, or at least spend some quality time with the llamas.
Wednesday, June 18, 2003
I'm back to the heel gusset on the sock, but things are not going smoothly now. I realized this morning that I had picked up the gusset stitches on the instep instead of the heel flap, so another rip out. Good thing I view this as a practice sock. The next will be much better.
I ordered more of the willow yarn and it arrived yesterday, so I think my next project is a vest. I'll some time with the stitch dictionaries and see what ideas I can come up with. This is pretty yarn.
I spent a lot of time digging my pond hole yesterday, thought I was done and found that the pond doesn't really fit in the hole. I'm not sure why - it fit great at one point. I'm getting discouraged. I think I'll have to get a second opinion.
Caitlin got home last night. She is very tired so I didn't hear much about the trip, except she got VERY seasick on a whale watching trip. Matthew leaves for Texas in the morning so we'll spend today packing and picking up last minute items. Diane is also going away tomorrow, so Caitlin and I will have a few days home alone. We'll spend most of it fighting about who gets first crack at the new Harry Potter book.
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
I had to rip out most of the sock. I went to duplicate stitch in the diagonal lines and realized I'd made the diamonds one row short, so back to the first half of the first diamond. Not as upsetting as I would have thought.
I bought a plastic pond on sale last fall and have the hole for it mostly dug. It was rainy here so I kind of lost momentum, but today I feel like finishing. Unfortunately I think the ground is probably too hard, but I'll give it a shot.
Caitlin gets home tonight, Matthew leaves early Thursday morning and my sister arrives on Sunday. My sister's visit is bound to be stressful. She is expecting her kids to reconnect with their grandparents, but my dad (who has alzheimer's) is probably not able to do that. It is difficult for me to watch him go down hill, but since I see him often I am able to hang on to the bits of his personality that are still there. I think it's much more difficult when all the interactions are by phone and the change is so apparent from one visit to the next. It's recently gotten to the point where dad can't keep track of who is on the phone when my siblings call. The whole thing is very sad and I fervently hope it doesn't happen to me. Knitting is supposed to help.
Monday, June 16, 2003
The weather here is perfect this week. Warm and sunny days with cool nights perfect for sleeping. The first firefly appeared Saturday night, then a couple last night. Soon we'll have our light show back in the evenings. I love this time of year.
I started an argyle sock with my wool/silk blend yarn. I have finished the heel gusset, so the rest is a breeze. I'm very pleased with how it's working out. The intarsia is neat on both sides. I've always hated intarsia, but I think I was making it harder than it needs to be. I've decided to get back to work on the TKGA master knitters program. I did level one a few years back, started level two and never finished. I'd like to get it wrapped up.
I also started my butterfly shawl, but I'm just not very excited about it, so I think I'll set it aside for a while. It fits in my purse, so once it gets big enough to fit on circular needles it will be a good carry around project.
Today I have to hem a bunch of boychoir pants, then I'm done with my last tour wardrobe. YIPPEE!
Saturday, June 14, 2003
The Bonsai workshop last night was really good. Roy Nagatoshi worked well with Matthew. One of the things I have problems with in a lot of workshops is when the teacher does everything for you. Roy told Matthew what to do and why, then went off and let him do it. Matthew certainly made some mistakes, but I think he learned a lot and the whole process makes more sense. Here is our new tree.
I needed something to knit that would fit in my purse, so I started my butterfly shawl. I only have about 16 stitches knit, but I guess that's a start. I see on the shawl list that someone got some weird yarn. I like this club and I like the yarns, but they don't necessarily look anything like the pictures on the web site and Joslyn doesn't quite have the business end of things under control. I've finally given up any hope of ever seeing the shawl kit and yarn I ordered back in February.
We finished cleaning out the stalls in the barn this morning. YUCK. Tomorrow we are having my brother out to celebrate his 50th birthday, so I need to start on the cake. We are having Bailey's Irish Cream Mousse cake since there will be no children present and I have 4 bottles of the stuff - enough to last the rest of my life and still have some to pass on to the grandkids at the rate I'm drinking it.
Friday, June 13, 2003
Got up at 3:00 this morning to take Caitlin to the airport for her trip to Boston. Turns out they don't even open security until 5:00, so we could have left home at 4:00 and done just fine. I came home, went back to bed and slept until noon.
Tonight a Bonsai master from Japan is in town. I'm going to take Matthew to a workshop and he will style a tree with the master's help. It will be kind of cool to watch. I suggested that Matthew might feel less inhibited if I didn't stay, but he kept telling me it would be okay to stay if I want to, so I think HE wants me to. This guy styled the trees for the Karate kid movies and is supposed to work well with children, but since there aren't very many children who do bonsai (at least in this country) I'm a little worried about the whole thing. I'm glad I'm not 12 anymore. Someday I will post pictures of Matthew's little Bonsai garden, but at the moment none of the trees have leaves and they don't look very good. There are little buds and I'm sure leaves are in our future, but we tend to have a very young Bonsai garden since most of our trees die early.
On the knitting front, I finished my green sweater. This project has been in the works for close to 15 years, so it feels like a real accomplishment. In fact it feels so good I think I will finish something else before I start something new!
Wednesday, June 11, 2003
Today would have been my 26th wedding anniversary if I had made it more than 20 years. It seems an incredibly long time and yet I feel like I've been living my present life forever. Strange how time expands and contracts.
I thought I was about done with my cold, but I just wilted yesterday afternoon and I still feel very tired today. I did the shopping and made my pies, then thought I'd sit and knit for a bit before making dinner and fell asleep in my chair.
After my little nap we went to the community band concert. It was really fun. The band plays well and I like the other 4H parents. My partner came along and had a nice time too. We have been living in a very progressive city and weren't really sure how the more rural community would feel about us, thus we haven't done much local stuff together for the last year. But it seems to be okay in our little neighborhood and the people we've met so far.
I did get a little knitting done before I fell asleep. I'm almost done with the second sleeve of my green sweater. I'm going to put on my rubber boots and do some barn and pasture clean-up, then it's going to rain so I can knit all afternoon without feeling guilty. Kids come this afternoon, so time gets more scarce for the next few days. My Blackberry Ridge yarn came yesterday. I am astounded at how fast it gets here. The colors are better than I expected. I think I may order a couple more skeins and make a vest or sweater instead of socks. There is this yellow green color called Willow that really speaks to me at the moment.
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
The kids knitting class went really well. The kids loved feeding the goats and llamas, the little girls each knit a little piece of garter stitch and they were very proud. One even named hers. I enjoyed the mom. They may come back later in the summer to learn to purl. I hope so.
I was at Wal-Mart looking for a gift for my mom and saw a sprinkler. Sturdy, metal, 59 different spray patterns (like I'm EVER going to figure that out) and ON SALE. So I bought it. And yesterday I ran over it with the mower. I can't believe it. So now I'm back to my broken plastic sprinkler. Why couldn't I run over that one? It is my birthday month, so maybe someone will give me a new fancy schmancy sprinkler.
Blackberry Ridge Woolen mill had a couple yarns on sale. I've been resisting for a long time, but I finally gave in a bought 4 skeins of a wool/silk blend. I'm going to knit socks. My work in progress list is so long I can't believe I'm adding to it, but I was in a sock mood I guess. I have the yarn samples and they really are very pretty colors, my feet were cold last winter and I think wool/silk socks will be very nice.
I have to bake 2 rhubarb pies for an ice cream social tonight. This is for the kids 4H group. Of course they are with their dad tonight and won't be there. At least he gave me rhubarb for the pies! It's also the community band concert, so it may be fun, except it looks like thunderstorms. I received a weather radio as a birthday month present so I've been waiting for severe weather to see if it works. Just my luck it will alert while I'm actually out in it.
Monday, June 9, 2003
Busy weekend, but I did finish one sleeve of my green sweater. We are almost done with an audio book and need to find out how it ends, so an evening of knitting and listening is in store.
My 15 year old daughter is going to Boston on Thursday and decided she wanted to learn to knit so she'd have something to do on the plane. She has actually tried knitting several times in the past but never stuck with it long enough to finish anything. So we bought yarn for one of those fun fur scarves and she sat down and got it done by the next morning. So much for the plane trip. I was so pleased she finally FINSHED something I was ready to pick her out another project, but a wiser head convinced me to mind my own business. She has yarn for a second fun fur scarf so that should do it.
We spent her first day of summer vacation sorting clothes for the boychoir tour. We had our 30 bags of shirts all sorted out and labeled and had shirts left over. So we had to go back through all the bags and figure out who we'd skipped. I figured she deserved a shpping trip after that.
I have 4 kids coming out for a knitting class this afternoon, so I have to get all the day's work done this morning, then mow until dinner time. It's a beautiful day and there certainly would be worse ways to spend it.
Friday, June 6, 2003
I have been reading some of the discussions on the wedding dress in Interweave Knits. I knit a wedding dress once, so here's my story.
It is rainy and I'm getting a cold. Today is the first day of summer vacation for my high school freshman. She and I have been having some problems lately, so maybe we can chat a little today. I got out my gansey graph and it doesn't seem to bear any resemblance to the swatch I made. I can't find my sheet with the numbers on it so I don't know if I screwed up or had another plan in mind. So I guess I start over. In some ways life would be easier if I lived alone so I could leave my stuff lying around. Today seems like a good knitting day and maybe not like a good start over on the gansey day, so maybe I'll finish sleeves on the green sweater after all.
Thursday, June 5, 2003
The graduation was nice, but too long as usual. The chairman of the board (one of my knitting students) received a book "The Knitting Goddess'. I hadn't seen this one before. It looks like a fun book. I told her to let me know if she likes it since I have a birthday coming up...
Here's pictures of the finished baby gifts and the new shawl kit. The hat fits a cantaloupe, but I'm a little concerned about a human child. How big IS a two year old head? I'm ready for some more complex knitting, so I think I will get back to the gansey and maybe use the shawl as the carry-around-in-my-purse-to-do-in-odd-moments project. It doesn't look like a pattern that will take long to learn and lace has the advantage of not taking up too much space.
We are going to a high school graduation party on Saturday, after helping at Breakfast on the Farm, a soccer game and a boychoir picnic. Then another boychoir concert. I would ordinarily skip some of the choir stuff, but this is the end of the road there and I don't want to miss any opportunities to hear them sing. I love boy choirs and am very grateful that my guy chose to sing in one.
The mom of the high school graduate was just about the only person in the world who was supportive when my partner and I got together, so I think it's back to the garage to make another pen. Can't skip this party.
Wednesday, June 4, 2003
Tonight is the graduation ceremony for the boychoir. My boy soprano is now a tenor so he is leaving the group. A very bittersweet moment for me. I volunteered in a moment of madness to make pens for all the staff as a gift from the graduating boys. So I have spent much of the last two days in the garage. I have super glue stuck to my fingers, dust in my hair and I sneeze a lot. Knitting is such a CLEAN activity. But the pens are done and I decided to reward myself by finishing up baby presents this morning. The two tomten jackets are complete, along with a cute crocheted hat for the big sister.
So now I get to cross something off my list and decide what to tackle next. The new shawl kit arrived and is very tempting. I would also like to get back to my gansey planning. Actually finishing one of the other things sitting around would also be nice. I think I will knit the sleeves of the green sweater, then start the shawl.
The llamas are walking in a local parade on Sunday. We are also counting down to the county fair. I will have to have the vet come out for a health certificate. Since I am paying for a farm visit, I'll have her look at a couple of the goats. I have one very old goat that is getting thinner and more tired looking every day. The vet says they have trouble metabolizing the food when they get geriatric. Every day I count goats first thing in the morning. The death will be very hard, even though I've only had these goats for a few months.
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
I finished the second tomten jacket last night, all that's left is to sew in the zipper. Since both the babies I was knitting the jacket for have been born, it's about time - though I always make things for babies to wear when they are bigger. One of the babies has a big sister, so I'm planning to make a floppy brimmed hat for her. Then I just need to decide which jacket goes to which kid. The jackets were fun, but I probably shouldn't have planned two. They are simple and the construction was interesting, but the second got a little boring. I've always wanted to make one of these because I think they are really cute. Can't wait to see how one looks on a real kid.
I've been subscribing for a while to an online audio bookstore. I download two books a month on a little MP3 player and listen whenever I'm doing something relatively quiet that doesn't require too much concentration - like knitting. Recently they added the option of burning the books to CD, so my sweetie and I have been listening to books and knitting whenever we are home in the evening without kids, mostly Sunday evenings. This week I was really looking forward to some knitting time, but I picked a fight and we ended up having a long serious discussion over a bottle of wine. It was a very nice talk. She woke up the next morning with a serious migraine, the worst I've ever seen. Probably should have skipped the wine. She finally dragged herself out of bed last night and lay on the couch while I listened to the book and got the jacket finished. Today is rainy, she's still lying in bed and it would be perfect knitting time again, but kids arrive this afternoon and the grocery store calls.
Still no new shawl kit.
Monday, June 2, 2003
I haven't done much knitting of my own this week, it seems the house and yard always take priority. I once said I'd never own a house again, now here I am with about an acre of lawn, animals in the barn and a seemingly unending supply of work. I made myself a daily schedule once and included an hour a day of spinning wheel time. I think I need to do that again. Why does that kind of thing take second place? I feel guilty if I sit down with my knitting, but it is VERY important to me, makes me happy.
I came home one day last week and saw a mushy package attached to the mail box. A shawl kit!? No, but now the idea has entered my head I will be mailbox watching. It is June after all and the next kit should arrive soon. Actually it may be two kits and some extra yarn because I ordered some things a long time back that haven't arrived yet.
