Where have all the flowers gone??

**I have an apology to those of you still reading (and I know there is at least one of you) for my long absence. I have no acceptable excuse other than the extremely busy life of a "stay-at-home" mom. After our trip to Springer, I jumped in the car and we went to Durango for a few days, then my sister and I caravaned back to here to enjoy spring break. We have been quite busy exploring and visiting. I actually related all this on the blog and somehow was unable to post it, so sorry.**

Every year around this time, I begin to worry. It just feels as if spring is going to be missed and all the new growth is going to freeze and die and we will be left with an extremely dry, sad and colorless summer. We had a huge temperature dip and it really froze and snowed and felt like winter again. I am not sure what really constitutes a hard freeze, but I'm willing to bet that anything colder than 33 degrees is a hard freeze to a newly bloomed daffodil. So, the shorts and sandals that we were all enjoying two weeks ago are all put away and I pulled out my heavy winter jacket for a trip to Target last night.

There has been almost no knitting at all to speak of since I left for Durango. I have nothing, NOTHING to show.

Well, that isn't totally true. I have some failed sock attempts and this:

It is not knitting, and I didn't make it, but it is wool and I love it. LOVE. IT. My brother brought it back from France for me. I adore it, and it makes this whole return of winter thing a little less painful. I need to block it a little bit, it was flattened on its way back to the united states. Nothing a little steam can't handle. And I have to get some lovely orangy wool to make some mittens to match it. It looks so spanking cute with my blue wool coat, it almost makes me want to move somewhere colder so I can wear it all the time.

And here are the "socks" that I have been working on. This is actually a photographic depiction of denial. About six inches of denial. The angel's rest pattern is so gorgeous on this Italian Sock yarn, but if you look carefully, you can see that it won't fit me, or you or anyone else who doesn't have toothpicks for legs. First I said that it would stretch, then I said I'll give them to someone who can wear them (!?) and then I decided I would make them into wrist warmers. Anything to avoid frogging them. And all the while, I kept knitting, knowing full well that it was a fools mission. I mean, the yarn is absolutely beautiful, no pooling, perfectly suited to this pattern, who can blame me? But they won't work, that is the truth. Now I can move on, and maybe even start over. Has anyone ever researched the stages of knitting denial? I would love to see it. The other half inch is another example of denial, in the other direction. Too big. I really need to get some two's and stop trying to knit that Fixation on the trees. That is the third beginning of a sock that will be frogged.

Has anyone seen The Namesake? I saw that it was being made into a movie and was mildly interested. I had read the book, so I know the story, though for the life of me I can;'t imagine why someone thought it was movie material. Who is in charge of this stuff? And the other problem is that the main character (Gogle) is played by a bad guy on 24. How can I ever sympathize with the guy who put all that nasty business into action?? And who am I kidding anyway? I never go to movies, at least not of the adult genre...and Harry Potter, of course!

Oh yeah, we also went to the zoo the other day, so I'll be showing some pictures of that soon!

This & That

We spent the last few days in Springer, NM helping J's parents with some stuff around their place. The kids love it so much there, and it is always great to spend time with the grandparents. And then on the weekend, with their cousins. The farm is growing with some new chickens and calves. There were twin calves born in early March, they are so cute, and the kids loved watching them drink milk. Ben gathered eggs and rode his bike all over the place. Mimi was so busy playing, eating and riding in her backpack. We really need to get that girl up and walking. She gets into way more trouble crawling. Jack was stuck on his Papa's hip the whole time we were there, he barely lets him out of his sight.We had a great time and the weather was so beautiful, if a little hot. I really love Springer, and I often think about my first visits there. I never thought that New Mexico could be beautiful, because all I knew was Farmington and Albuquerque, which are both dry and deserty. Then I went to Springer and saw the beauty of the small town. It is sort of funny to imagine that I ended up there right out of college. I had such big plans for living in San Deigo or New York City, and the minute I fell in love, I headed straight to Springer with a population less than a single apartment building in the big city. Ahh, well, I loved it then and I still love it now. One thing about it is the quietness of the little town (aside form the occasional train whistle). We lived on the busiest street in town and about four cars an hour drove by, and usually they were the same four cars. In small towns, people still cruise on main street. The other amazing thing is the amount of animal-life that a person can see in a single day. On Saturday I took my mother in law to Cimmarron, a small town about twenty miles west and on the way there we saw a pheasant, some antelope, an emu, some buffalo, sheep and hawks. Of course, the emu, sheep and the buffalo are not wild there, but still, where else in the world would I see an emu grazing in a cattle field? Oh yeah, there were cows and horses and naughty Dexter (the farm dog) chasing my wheels. When we got home,J, Mimi and I took the "mule" cart down to the river and looked at bob cat tracks and imagined owning our own piece of land and raising our kids where they could run around outside all day in the sun and air. J is a son of the soil and I know that there will be a day when we move back. Who knows when though? Would you like to see some of what we saw?

The 7:00 am view from Donna's back door

Jackson on Papa's "truck"

B fossil hunting

" U-tratoe"

Here we found a dinosaur track...or a broken rock.

Mimi and I at the river

Going for a dive...

A field at the rancho

These might be the twins, but I am not certain...they all look the same to me.

Sadly, with all the time I spent playing Laura Ingalls, I missed out on some VKT (valuable knitting time). I got about a quarter of the way down the leg of a new angel's nest sock, (I'll tell you the whole ugly story tomorrow) before I decided to rip it out because it was twice as big as it needed to be. It could have been a tube-dress for Mimi. When I was at the laundr-o-mat (cleaning our pile and J's parent's laundry whilst the men-folk had the water turned off) on Saturday, I forced myself to seam one of B's slippers, but I still have the other one to seam before I can felt them. I think I'll do that in Durango on Thursday in my mom's top loader. I just have too many dirty clothes to tie up my washer with anything but actual laundry. Ugh, the saga continues...

What else is new? I got a nasty letter from the HOA about my double jogging stroller being stored on the front porch this weekend. I totally appreciate that they don't want our neighborhood looking trashy, but I swear! It is so much less offensive than half the so-called decorations that people use on their front porches, and half the neighborhood still has their Christmas wreaths on their doors. I ask you, what would you rather see? A plastic lawn chair or a beautiful purple stroller? I mean, it's not like I duct taped some umbrella strollers together and threw them out the front door. Anyway, now I have to figure out where the spank to store the thing because I can't very well leave it in my living room. It is huge! I am tempted to take the wheels off and set it out on the porch and call it a two seated bench. Do you think that if I put a wreath over it anyone will object?

The Day of J

He is a man of integrity who earns more respect than he ever receives from me. He has given me three beautiful children and has been my partner in their upbringing. He treats me like one of those exotic Persian princesses and does so much for me (not the least of which is buying me a new snappy pair of shoes.) He is way more encouraging of my knitting than I am of his fishing. He always takes the high road, never says unkind things about people, even if they deserve it. He sees the good in all situations and works to make things fair for everyone. He donates to charities and has the address labels to prove it. He has worked hard to support this family, and has sacrificed greatly so that I can stay home and knit and blog and take care of the kids. He never says anything if the house isn't clean or if dinner stinks (or if there isn't dinner at all). He loves me better than I thought was possible, puts up with my silly tantrums, and calms my nerves. He is a tonic of peace and tranquility, his presence makes me feel centered. He was created so that I could love him, and I am blessed daily by having him in my life.

Happy *early* birthday to my wonderful, handsome and loving husband. Truly the man of my dreams! Did I mention that he looks hot in waders too?

*I had to post early because I will be out of service when the big day comes on Wednesday.

Back to the empty nest...

Have I been in a blog-slump or just a knitting slump? Neither, really, but I had my mom visiting for a few days and I am behind on everything, not just knitting. You know how it is when you have company. Things get neglected so that you can enjoy your visitors, and when they leave, well, things look bad. It looks like I hosted a band of vikings for the week, so I have to clean up, and I haven't even read any mail or anything.
My mom treated B and me to see Night at the Museum at the Imax theater last night. It was amazing. I've never really paid attention to things like say...shoes in a movie. But when they are roughly the size of a semi truck, I notice. I noticed jewelry on the characters, I thought of things like hand knit sweaters and how precise you would have to follow patterns so that you wouldn't see mistakes on the big BIG screen. I remember reading about the woman who hand knit all the sweaters for Harry Potter, and how they all had to be identical (she would knit several of each one) and I thought, who cares if they are all exactly the same? How would you even notice? Now I know, any difference would stand out like a sore thumb on a screen that big. It really would make a difference. Another modern marvel...Imax movies. I have to tell you, my minuscule tv screen looks even smaller today. I may never watch a movie in a regular theater again.
Knitting is slow slow slow today. I am trying to make some progress on B's slippers, and then I want to start some socks, and another sweater. What will I do? I usually have a rule about finishing one project before beginning another, but knitting is somewhat different. I can have different things for different times. When I go to open knit, it is smart to have something that is easy (like, say, hundreds of miles of seed stitch) so that I can "chitter" and not have to think too hard about what my hands are up to. When I am travelling, I like to carry around something portable, a sock usually, but sometimes a hat. Then there are the hours and hours of free time that I have at home (not the sarcasm?) where I work on bigger projects, like blankets or things that are more precise, like lace. Now that I am back into a productive knitting swing, I don't mind casting on things when others aren't done. I concentrated solely on Mimi's sweater due to time constrictions, but now that my grandmother's slippers are done, I might make more than one or two things to break up the monotony. But then again, there might be something to this one project at a time knitting. I might actually finish things that are started.

slipper-sliding away

Do these shoes make my feet look big??

For perspective, check out my toes in the edge of the photo...

And here they are all felted and ready to go, except that they're wet.

I am mostly happy with the slippers (not clogs) other than I used my super energy efficient front loader washing machine and it took me a long, long time to felt them. Like over an hour. That is a long time compared to the 20-30 minutes that it used to take me in a top loader. They feel big still, but I don't think they are too big. Maybe they need some nice warm wool socks to wear inside them...

Stats: Fiber Trends Felted Slippers, knit on 13's in 3 skeins of Cascade 220

B was so impressed that he asked me to make him a pair, so today I ran to the yarn shop to get soles for the ones I just finished (and they were out, waaa) and picked out some lovely green and black Cascade 220, I'll start those this evening. I also got a little loose with the plastic and picked up three balls of Cascade Fixation. I can't wait to make a pair of socks with it. It is pretty cool stuff, and should make some great socks. I just need to decide who is deserving of a new pair. Me, maybe...

Guess Who's Back?

Look who I found creeping around the coat closet this morning. The Alien Illusion Scarf from Stitch N' Bitch that I knit for B a few years ago. I made it before I realized how poorly children treat their woolens. The very day that he wore it the first time, it came home fairly dripping in Elmer's glue. I re-washed and re-blocked it and the very next night he lost it. When I asked him what he did with it, he said it was lost and that he guessed that I would have to knit a new one....you non-knitters take heed, those words are like poison darts shooting into a knitter's ears. We found it and he wore it the rest of the winter and it pilled and rolled in on itself and the fringe dread-locked and the alien was all but invisible, and that is the state that I found him in this morning. I decided that I would see what blocking could do for him, though I wasn't hopeful. I should have taken a picture pre-blocking, but the thing was in such bad shape that I was afraid of incriminating myself, and that I would find out the hard way that the Yarn Harlot is wrong and there really are knitting police....It really was a crime, the way the poor thing was treated. Anyway, he is happily blocking on the guest bed (if you stay at my house and you smell wet sheep, now you know why) and he should be wearable by tomorrow.