Hello Darlings. I promised a voting opportunity, and I have come through for you, something that you may not see in most elections. (Speaking of which, I am still waiting on my mail in ballot. Who is trying to block my vote!?) So, let me set you up with a little voter-education before you cast off(hee hee), I have five skeins of Naturally Tussock dark blue yarn, which was bought by my mom at a fantastically discounted price, so any vote is a vote for a pure blue knitted item. There will be no color work because I can't get my hands on more yarn, nor do I want to. That would require more time and thought than I have or could muster at this point in my life. So you're voting on style, not color.

Choice # 1:

Sporty Hooded Pullover from Now You're Knitting Super How-To Hand Book and Design Treasury (whew! what an exhausting title)

The pros of this is that it looks super easy, it would be a quick knit (theoretically) and it would look good in a single color. The cons are that it has a really dorky name, and a hood, which looks tricky, and let's not forget that this book also gave us the hideous-halter-feather-roach-clip-thing...can we trust the integrity of such a publication?

choice #2 Sherwood (sorry I can't seem to get a picture of these next choices, please follow the links)

pros on this guy are that it would be a very challenging knit, I might enjoy that, and that little model looks so darn cute in this sweater...

cons: it would be a very challenging knit, I might not be up for that, and that I might think the model is cuter than the sweater...I could be biased.

choice #3 Laughing Carrots

I think this is really cute, but again, it might be tricky, which could go either way. I might totally get into it, but I might hate all the thinking involved.

And finally, Choice # 4 Accordion

this one is pretty straight-forward knitting, right up till I have to sew a zipper, then I have a little fear, but it is really, really cute and would look smashing on Jack.

Ok, think of this as the preliminary election, I will carefully take into account all your votes (I am hoping for at least enough to eliminate two sweaters) and then I will ask for votes again on the remaining sweaters. How about that for an election you can believe in!?

And just for fun, here is a picture of Mimi wearing a dress that was made for me when I was a wee-lass. My mom tells me that I was wearing it as a smallish-baby, so little Miss Sassypants is quite small for her age...she looks very Holly Hobby though, doesn't she? All except for a bonnet. Cute, cute, cute!

Return of the...me

Wow, fall out of blog-land for a few months and everything changes. I nearly forgot my password, it has been so long since I logged on. What has happened? Nothing, just not particularly bloggy lately. School and all of our activities have kept us pretty busy, but that is always the case. I just fell off the map for a few months. Now I'm back...for today anyway.

I finished up the legless socks back in the first week of September and I have been wearing them frequently. Not much for spinning class (the stationary bike, not the wool spinning wheel), but that is only because I haven't been going much. I can't believe how nice hand-knit socks feel on my feet, it feels like someone is hugging my toes...

They are really cute too, no? I love them, all except the hand-washing part. Next time I think I'll go for the superwash stuff.

I have a birthday knit going on for a friend and I will hopefully be done by next Saturday so that she can actually use them, otherwise, I will have to give her a picture of the pattern, and once I miss a deadline, well, let's just say that she will probably be waiting for quite a while.

The kids have had the last two days off school and we are enjoying some gloriously warm weather, we have a walk and a trip to the park on the agenda, same as yesterday. We took a "nature hike" yesterday and collected lots of natural stuff, including some seed pods and dirt and rocks. I wish that I had had my camera, because we had a great time with the fuzz from some cattails and it was really cute to see them out enjoying such a simple pleasure. Jack and I enjoyed it a little less because it made both of us sneeze, but it sure was amazing to see how many seeds are in one cattail. Fun fun fun.

What else has been going on? Not much. We've celebrated a birthday, gone to New Mexico and Durango, had an entire season of Xcountry, started swimming, ran a 5k, harvested at least 30 tomatoes and other things that are probably everyday life. I've gotten some beautiful new wool from my mom and I think that as soon it gets cooler, I'll start a sweater for Jack Jack. Originally, I was going to make one for B, but I realized that I haven't ever knit for Jack Jack. He deserves a nice sweater. I have a few patterns in mind, and I will present them for a vote very soon. He is also in line for a pair of mittens and an hat. He is woefully unprepared for cold weather. There is no excuse for a child of a knitter to suffer wind and snow in store-bought mittens.

so long summer vacation

It is a bad sign when two of your three children ask you if the picture in the scary woman post is actually you...for the record, no, that is not me, in case you were wondering too.

Knitting news is spotty at best, I have another knitted bunny off the needles, and I am working away on a second sock for my spinning shoes. It is great fun to knit short socks, because you basically do only the fun parts that make sock knitting so satisfying. Ribbing, heel flap, turn and reducing. I may actually forgo legs on all my socks from now on, just because they are so much more interesting, not to mention, less time consuming. I can probably knit a pair in less than two days, if I actually put the time in.

School is starting tomorrow for B, the fifth-grader. We shopped for supplies last night, which is crazy expensive, and I hate getting all the junk back at the end of the school year. I get notebooks that have hardly been used, all the folders jam packed full of papers, and lots of sharpened-to-the-nub pencils. What is a mother supposed to do with all that stuff? Is it wrong to throw it all away? I mean, seriously, I have maybe three or four things that I made as a child, and that pleases me. I would have to get a separate storage unit to house all this stuff that comes home, times three...I usually throw it out the night before school starts in the fall, having had the best intentions of going through it all all summer long, but never quite getting around to it. So, that is on the agenda tonight, right after the ice-cream social.

As for me, I've been staying up every night watching the Olympics. It is quite addicting, but also incredibly stressful. I hardly breath during the gymnastics routines, the swimming finds me on the edge of my seat with stomach cramps and my hands clenched in fists. I couldn't figure out why I was so sore and exhausted for the past few days, then I realized that I was a bundle of nerves due to the Olympics. It is a good thing that it only happens every two years. I would probably have bleeding ulcers and insomnia. I guess it is fair to say I internalize everything. I was depressed all day today on account of the women's gymnastics flub last night. I don't think it is really fair to call it a flub, silver is nothing to sneeze at, but still, they had such high hopes and I am as crushed for them as they are.

Here are a few pictures of our summer fun that is about to come to an end. Enjoy.

scary woman syndrome

Today is the kind of day where I need to be left alone, on a deserted island with about 60 pounds of chocolate, an endless supply of Lay's potato chips and lots of cold beer...

If loving a vacuum is wrong, I don't want to be right

I just spent the past hour vacuuming my downstairs with a borrowed vacuum. It happens to be a Dyson, and though I've never used one before today, from the first time I saw a commercial, I intuitively knew that I must have one. Seriously, this thing should come with a number to the vacuholics anonymous hot line. I. Can't. Stop. Vacuuming. And I can't believe the amount of nastiness that it is picking up from my carpet, this is the "clean" carpet, people. I shudder to think what it will do upstairs. I messed around with it a little this morning up there, but not with all the fun attachments.

Ok, tomorrow I will return the Dyson and resume knitting, but for now, I have to go do the stairs, they are calling...

Things I wish I knew in college

1. How to knit
2. That if I bought art and furniture a little at a time, I would have a house full of things I love by now
3. That dieting doesn't work, but exercising does
4. That all the money that was handed to me in student loans would take almost all of my adult life to pay off
5. How to budget so I could retire by fifty
6. How to design a webpage, and make millions inventing by e-bay
7. That true love doesn't hurt
8. That God is real
9. That thirty was only ten short years away
10. That ten years would fly by in a flash
11. How to swim
12. That "can't" is the most defeating word I've ever uttered
13. How to manage my time
14. That working toward a doctorate would have been a good idea
15. That a master's degree would have helped my get better jobs, and wouldn't have taken too much longer
16. How to communicate my wishes to others
17. That jelly shoes and skinny jeans would someday be back in style
18. That family is really, really important
19. That there are things that I will have to explain to my children
20. That after 18, the world expects you to act like an adult
21. That I would end up one of those annoying advise-giving people
22. That force-feeding company is a sign of love
23. That a husband is a helpmate AND a best friend
24. That I was made with a purpose
25. That parenting is not for the feint of heart
26. When to shut up
27. When to keep talking

Of iTunes and funny bunnies

Ok, you all know how much I love my iPod, there is no doubt that it is the greatest invention of all time and I think it has done more to unite the human race than any amount of foreign diplomacy or humanitarian aide. All hail the amazing iPod. But seriously, I do love the iPod. I don't, however, love the iTunes. It just erased every spanking song on my iPod. How? I have no idea, nor do I care. What I care about is user-friendly software that I can't screw up. iTunes is irritating to me, therefore I hate it. But enough of that.

We are getting ready to go to Springer for the long Fourth of July weekend. I love it when a holiday falls on either a Monday or a Friday. The best is when Christmas Eve falls on a Wednesday because no one has to work on the Friday after Christmas, usually. It is a pleasing situation when a person has a five day weekend. So, we are off to the rancho for some fun and some work. Although, getting together with family is always fun, so even when we are working, it hardly seems like it. Now that Jack Jack rides a 2 wheeler, he gets to rub elbows with the big boys all weekend, and I am looking forward to not having to watch him like a hawk in our front yard the whole time he is on his bicycle. B insists that he will be staying for a month, but I have my doubts that he will hold up that long. I give him 2, maybe 2 1/2 weeks before homesickness gets the best of him. Though, he may surprise me. The other day, I asked him if he thought I was a mean mom and he said "mostly" so he might need a break from me. I need a break from the constant fighting that goes on in our house. I feel like a prison warden most of the time when they play, because playing for them involves a lot of wrestling and crying, and tattle-tailing. And it seems that the more they fight, the less they want to be apart. Weird.

So, in knitting news, you will be glad to know that there has been a completed object, and a new one on the needles. Check out the swatch bunny. The pattern actually calls it the knitted bunny, but I like the fact that you can make it out of a little gauge swatch, isn't it realistic? And cute?

Oops, that IS a real bunny. There are about a zillion of them living in our neighborhood. Here is the knitted bunny:

That cute little bunny came from this simple square of fabric, no bigger than four inches across. If you didn't feel like knitting, I'll bet you could make one out if a wash cloth or some other square piece of material. It has caused no shortage of tears between my children since there are three of them, and only one little bunny. So I had to cast on another for Jack, but it had to be pink. B requested an alien bunny with three heads and five ears. I don't know how that will work out. Probably not very well. Here is a shot of our tomato plants, which have grown about a foot since I took this picture last week. Yay, tomatoes.

Uhh, no good title

Oh, my heck, this video cracks me up. This is from the other night in Denver at the museum of Nature and History. We were there so I could run my second 5k, the Summer Solstice Race. This one was for the Kristin Michelle O'Connor Foundation, which benefits research for Melanoma. Colorado has the highest rate of Melanoma in the country, which isn't surprising with the 300+ days of intense, high-altitude sunshine that we get. It is something that needs more attention, and it was a fun way to support a good cause. The race was a lot bigger than the last one that I did, and it was a flat course. My goal was to beat my last time, which I did by a little over a minute, so I was glad. I hope that there will be at least one more race this summer, because J told me he would run one with me...

I popped into a knitting shop up in Arvada, called Knit Knack, right down the street from one of J's favorite fly shops. I browsed the yarns and Mimi played with the shop dog. A lot of fly shops have what I like to call a shop dog. Usually, they are huge golden retriever type dogs that are super friendly and just lay right in the middle of the floor. This was a little version of the shop dog. He was a little guy, but so friendly and cute. Mimi is a dog lover, and it made her day to play with him. I got a pattern for a stuffed bunny that I can't wait to cast on for. It takes about as much yarn as a swatch, and it is really cool. I think I might have some left over alpaca from the invisibility shawl, that will be perfect. Yeah, yeah, I know what you're thinking, I have an Internet glove that needs some attention. And I haven't even mentioned that Berroco Bonsai that I picked up months ago. That is just because I don't know what to make from it. But the bunny. I can make the bunny quickly, it might even pull me out of my lazy knitting slump. Even if it doesn't, it is summer time. Who needs fingerless gloves in the summer?

The rain is falling now, which makes me nervous about lightning striking my computer and blowing my hands off. I'm not sure if I've ever mentioned my irrational, yet very real fear of being struck by lightning. I am terrified of lightning. I'm pretty sure that it started in childhood, because that is when I started obsessing about rubber-soled shoes to insulate me against high voltage and fearing that lighting could strike through windows. Anyway, thirty years later, and things are not much better, let's just say you won't find me wearing wooden shoes.

June bug -vs- hurricane

Well, I have spent the last two weeks making sure that I will never have another visitor again. Have you ever noticed that when things are clean and looking nice, no one feels like they need to stop by? But kick up your feet with a good book or some knitting for a couple of hours while your house falls apart and see what happens. Try going in your pajamas for an entire day and see how many unannounced visitors will knock at your door. I often wonder if my working friends believe that my job as a "stay-at-home" mom is easy. I get to do things on a daily basis that the rest of the working world has to squeeze in on the weekends, like going to the library, the gym, walks, visiting on the phone, blogging, etc. There is no happy balance, you either stay continually busy keeping your home and family looking nice, or you do something you enjoy, while it all falls apart. And the more you "stay at home" the more house work needs to be done. No one is sitting still while the house is getting clean, oh no, they are all busy working to ensure my job security. I like to joke that if I ever get fired, I will have to get a paying job. But that was a huge aside from the whole point I am making, which is that I have been on a massive de-cluttering mission (ala www.flylady.net) these last weeks. My upstairs looks incredible, and I have managed to keep it that way. It has been a lot of work, not to mention a lot of tossing and goodwill heaps, but wow, if sure feels good. I started the downstairs yesterday. The downstairs is where J keeps all his fishing goodies and the kids keep all their toys. There is a lot of junk down here that needs to be pitched, but taking little steps, I think I can do it and find some sanity. My dream is to fit everything I own in one car load. I hate stuff. Over the years, I have managed to cull my pile into something manageable, basically only the things that I really use. My family, understandably, likes their stuff and wants to keep it, I am trying to make them see how much more useful things are when you can actually find them. I am desperate to make them understand that horizontal surfaces are not to stack stuff upon. Everything should have a place, and it it doesn't fit in that place, then something has to go. It isn't easy to convince a bunch of stuff-lovers that they don't need so much stuff. But when I am the person responsible for keeping up with all their things ("where is that lego that I placed on the entertainment center last year?" "I can't find that Thomas the Tank toy that I left in the kitchen eight months ago." "Who has been messing with my huge box of flies that has been sitting out opened for as long as you've known me?"), I should get to expect them to see things my way. "Where is that ___? Have you checked Goodwill??"

Run Forest, Run!

Well, my 5k was a lot of fun, so much fun that I am going to run another one on the 18th. I don't know my place, but I am pretty sure that I wasn't last, I am also sure that I wasn't first. I know for a fact that a lady with a huge toddler in a jogging stroller, the kid in unlaced skateboarding shoes AND a firefighter wearing all his gear, including his air tank, beat me. My goal was to run more than I walked, and I did. I guess we probably ran at least two miles, or a little more. My time was 36 minutes. Not bad for a chick who had reconstructive knee surgery less than nine months ago. I didn't run this huge, long, neverending hill, seeing how I haven't ran a hill since last summer, but I am planning on remedying that this week.

Here are some pictures of the last few seconds of the race. Unless you are an olympic runner, I am not sure that it is good to see yourself running, at least in still photos. I had this mental image of myself looking tall and powerful with arms at my sides, pumping away. I didn't realize how poor my running posture is, until I saw these pictures. It is a little disappointing to know that I look like I am in severe pain, which I was at that point, but still. No one wants to have their idealic image shattered. Maybe next time, I'll have J take pictures at the starting line, to see if I look less on the verge of collapse. In the meantime, I am going to focus on staying more upright in the future.

The kids ran the kids 300 meter race, which was fun to see. Jack loves running, but I don't think he likes being passed. He is still talking about it, he wants to run again. Mimi came in dead last, but she was smiling and running the whole way. It was so cute, unfortunatly, you'll never see any pictures of that, since we didn't take any. B was conserving energy (which I told him to do) until it was too late to catch up, but he still ran it in a little over a minute, and thinks he came in fifth or sixth. All in all, we are all hoping to improve the next time around, but we had a great time.

Where have I been?

Where have I been? Uh, nowhere really. Just too lazy to blog these days. It is a vicious cycle really. I haven't been knitting, so I feel that I can't really blog because this is supposed to be a knitting blog, but if I wait to blog until I knit, well, then it won't be much of a blog at all, will it? So the guilt keeps me frozen. To blog, or not to blog, to knit or not to knit? Both good questions. I'm taking the middle road tonight. I can't sleep, so I thought it would be a good time to knit, or blog. I guess blogging won out this round.

So, what has been happening around here? Well, first, I'll throw in some obligatory knitting content, for those keeping track. I handed off the dayglo slippers and hat to a very hugely pregnant forth grade teacher well over a month ago. She actually really like them, and then quickly gave birth to a baby girl so she could try them out. I hear tell (tale?) that the baby has already outgrown them, after only wearing them a few times, which is probably for the better, now that the weather is getting warmer...not. Anyway, I started the other fingerless glove on a trip to the Arkansas River a while back, but since I hadn't worked on it for so long, I forgot which needles I was using, and now I have to start all over again. This will be the second time, since one ill-fated morning, Mimi drank my cold coffee,(while I was showering, under the watchful eye of her four year old brother) and in a caffeine-fueled rage, ripped out the entire thing. So, I can't remember what I did to achieve the darn thing in the first place. I'll need to play around with that...

What else, what else? My new gym opened up, and I was going a lot at first, then our entire family (excluding B, but it is early yet) got way-laid by a nasty stomach flu. I really wanted to blame J for it, but since I can't very well trace the origins before it hit him, I guess I'll let him off the hook. Luckily it goes through a person rather quickly, so only an entire productive week was lost. (there are five of us, twenty-four hour bug, you do the math) And since I have a rule that no child of mine will set foot in any kind of nursery within forty-eight hours of vomiting, there goes my whole week. But we are all feeling better by the minute, and hopefully B will be spared. I was really hoping to miss this one, since I signed up for a 5k on Sunday. Yes, you read right, I am running a 5k, or at least part of it. I got some new running shoes and I have been running a little on the treadmill at the gym. They have TVs, so I get a little excited about hanging out on them, especially since they also have cable. The other day, I ran right through Beverly Hillbillies. It was great! And my knee was fine. So, I am going to participate in my first ever race, with my friend from Denver. I am a little excited, and I was worried I was going to miss it because I felt so badly yesterday.

We (as in J and I) watched the new Rambo tonight. Don't worry if you haven't seen the first eight, I never have and I was able to keep up with the plot just fine. Although, to call it a "plot" may be a bit of a stretch. There was maybe three seconds of dialogue and then there was about fifty-five minutes of fantastically gory fighting scenes and then it was over. J and I both agreed that a good fighting flick shouldn't try to be too deep, just blood, guts and vomit, thank you very much. There are some edgy-artsy-type scenes where blood and body parts actually come flying right into the camera lens. Genius, I tell you. Ugh, not really. I gather that Rambo hasn't really transcended his past, and that there may be another movie in his future...Maybe they will show it in the cardio-cinema. That would probably get J to join me at the gym.

We took a nice trip to Springer for Memorial day. The kids love going there so much, it is always so much fun to see them play with their cousins and enjoy their grandparents. Except for the wind, it was perfect.

Yes, that is a giagantic mud pie, and here is the mastermind behind it:

We had a lovely dinner on the fine china, we got to drag stuff around with a tractor, and I even made a gate, which was strangely satisfying. I might take up metal arts...stay tuned. Anyway, I love to see my husband do farm-type stuff. He knows so much and it is attractive to see my life-long companion using his brawn, as well as his brains. It makes me remember that I chose an alfa male. No wonder he likes Rambo.

Trojan comes full circle

Back when I was a smallish-type child, there was a book in my local library that showed a picture of a big wooden horse on wheels, and then in a little side picture, it showed that the horse was full of men, waiting to sac a kingdom once it was pulled inside the castle gates. It was a trick, the trojan horse. It was bad and you didn't want it.
Then, when I was a lot older, trojan meant something totally different. It meant protection, and you definitely wanted it. The trojan was good and it worked. Trojan was your friend.
Now, a few weeks ago, I got a little window on my virus scanner that said it had detected a trojan. This trojan is bad, you don't want it. End of internet, end of word, end of e-mail, myspace, blogger, facebook, msn. Beginning of major headaches, worry (Who has been reading my bank statements? How will I know if my identity has been stolen before someone buys a yacht in my name?) irritation, frustration. This trojan is a real pain in the patella, and I don't say that lightly. Trojan is bad again.

I heart the nineties

Lets take a stroll down memory lane, shall we?

Remember when huge geometric buttons and bicycle shorts were all the rage? How about when you wore skintight jean shorts rolled up just over you knees and buttoned just under your breasts, with an awesomely huge magical hyper-color tee-shirt? High-topped white Reebok sneakers and leather fanny packs, anyone? During the eighties, people fried their brains on drugs, in the nineties,we fried our retinas with day-glo. It was nation-wide hysteria, of this, I'm sure. Fast forward to a much more fashionably sensible time, like yesterday. Here is what I bound off the needles:
What child of the nineties can look at that baby bootie and not immediately conjure up images of the oh-so-heinous AquaSock? I never had a pair, but I may have fantasized about them...

I made these little shoes for B's forth grade teacher who is about to burst forth with child. Please, don't misunderstand my intentions. I am not trying to have B flunked out of elementary school, nor am I trying to damage the delicate mechanisms of newborn eyes. I let B choose the colors, and seeing how he was born in the late nineties, after the day-glo craze had died down, how could he have known that such a color-combination would bring back some memories that are better left unremembered (is that a word, spellcheck says yes)? He loves them, and thinks they are perfect for her baby. I have my suspicions that they may be perfect for goodwill, but what the hey. He is happy. To make myself a little happier with them, and to make them look less like AquaSocks, I went ahead and slapped on a couple of little flowers. Cute(er), no?

I'm working on a hat to match. A girl can never have too much day-glo in her newborn layette...

My Hips Don't Lie...

Well, maybe they do a little bit. Or maybe my mom does. She said that people with hips look good belly dancing and that it is easier for them. I took a belly dancing class yesterday, and maybe my hips just don't know what is expected of them, perhaps they think it is funny to be so large and useless (except in childbirth, in which case, they have outlived their usefulness) but they simply refused to do anything right. I was really hoping that it would be something that would come easily and that I would surprise myself by being good naturally, that I would look like Shakira. Nope. But I did have fun. I didn't feel very feminine, actually I felt like an awkward teen aged boy, it was a little silly. And speaking of teen aged boys, I was at the gym the other day and didn't bring anything to read on the elliptical, so I grabbed a magazine from the rack. I find it somewhat annoying that the only magazines at the gym are Vogue and Popular Mechanics. I would sooner have bamboo shoved under my fingernails than read Popular Mechanics, so I grabbed Vogue. Does anyone else think that all those "super" models look like really awkward teenage boys? And what is up with they way they jut their heads out the way that they do? Is that supposed to be attractive? They all look like they are dead. Ga-ross. And the funny thing is, I found it at the gym, shouldn't they be promoting health and vitality there? Not a bunch of women who look like death sucking on a lifesaver. Let me tell you, it wasn't very motivating. I felt like having a nice burger and milk shake, just to affirm life.

Ok, enough of that. I have some knitting to show you...well, fifty percent of a finished object. And, AND it is sort of my own design. I give you the Surfing Glove!

These are from that Brown Sheep Hand Paint Original that I picked up a few months ago. I looked around for a pattern for it, but as I have mentioned before, the yarn contains mohair, and I can't even fathom putting that around my neck or on any other skin, except my hands which are dishpan hands anyway. Less sensitive...Anyway, I found a pattern for a fingerless glove called Jacoby from Berroco. I cast on the recommended 60 stitches and found that it was big, so big that I thought that my gauge was off, but no, I was right on. So I am not sure what is going on with the pattern. So, I cast on 45 and just winged it. And it worked. I used the thumb instructions for the House Mittens from Charmed Knits as a guide, isn't that so smart of me? I feel so accomplished. I almost had an original idea. Too bad that if you get on ravelry, there are a kajillion different patterns for fingerless gloves. I'd be willing to bet there is one that is the same as mine. So, why do I call them Surfing Gloves? Because I plan to use them while surfing the net, and on those rare occasions that I play games online. My hands, particularly my right hand, gets really cold when I spend a lot of time mousing. So, I am hoping that they will take care of that problem for me... That is my angry fist, for J. Not because I'm angry at him, but because he says it looks harmless. It isn't meant to look cute and harmless, it is meant to incite fear and obedience into the heart of those I shake it at...fear me. Stop that laughing...

And here is a birthday shot of Jack on his new bicycle. He could probably sleep on that thing if I let him. My baby boy is a big four year old now. Time flies when we're having fun!

Cuter than Cute

These are my second pair of newborn slippers which are found here, as a free pattern. LOVE LOVE LOVE them, could they be any cuter? And they are easy too, perfect for all the babies in the world. I know the picture is a little dark, I couldn't get a decent shot with the flash on. I modeled them on this freaky little Urkle doll, who, oddly, has the same size feet as a newborn baby. Bizarre, I know, but kinda fun too.

Spring break is in full force right now, and we spent our Easter with J's parents. It was fun, and then they took the boys for a few days, so the house is sort of quiet. It is a little boring actually. I don't have anyone to play trains with me. Or anyone to take swimming. But they are having great fun, and they'll be home soon enough. And these are J's parent's neighbor's horses. Twenty pregnant ladies, all looking miserable and ready to pop. The cool thing was that you could see the little horses (foals) moving around in those big pregnant bellies. That is something I will always remember feeling and I still miss it, but just seeing these mares looking so ready makes me thankful it isn't me that is about to burst!

If you read it, I will blog...

I thought it might be fun to see if anyone besides my mom reads my blog, so if you do, give me a shout out in the comments and I will be happy. Creating a blog is so much fun, and I hope that there might be a few people out there lurking around not commenting because they think I am too cool and will not care. Not true, I am a total nerd AND I care, I really, really do. Holy Cow, that is pathetic, almost up there with buying friends on myspace. But still, I like to know who is reading.

Ok, commence commenting. Then tomorrow I'll post a real entry with a FO. Deal?

Wet and wild...and hairy

I am about to say something so unknitterly that I may be blackballed from the knitting world forever, but since I'm not known for holding my opinions to myself often (just ask my husband), I'll go ahead and say it...

I hate mohair! (A collective gasp goes out through knit-topia) There, that has been on my chest for a while now, every since I made my first felted purse.

Now, before you go and form an angry mob, put down those pitchforks and torches and let me tell you why. (Beware, this is a heavily parenthesized post)

I hate mohair because it is...so hairy. Seriously, if I wanted to look like a crazy cat lady, I would adopt a few dozen cats, but every time I knit with mohair, I have to bust out the packing tape and clean off all the long hairs that are all over me. This was especially bad when I was wearing a knee brace, because I would pull off the brace and the Velcro would literally be packed, the whole brace would look like I rolled it around in a kennel, or even worse, the hole where my knee stuck through would be covered and the rest of my leg would be hair free where it was covered by the brace. All the doctors thought that I ran a humane society. Not a good look...

Reason number two: It sticks to my hands when it is wet, (as when felting) I know that this is a result of its hairy-ness, which could be added above, but I still hate it, and since this is my blog, I get to put it as its own reason. When you reach into the garment bag to check your felting (or worse, when you put your feet into wet clogs) that mohair is all over the place, sticking and hairy...like petting a wet angora goat. Not that I've ever done that, but I imagine it a comparable experience, considering that the angora goat is the source behind mohair.

And lastly, I don't like it cause it is itchy. Yeah, so is wool, I know. But it is not as itchy as mohair, and it isn't as hairy. So the question which begs to be asked...why the spank do I keep buying it!? I. Don't. Know. Crazy cat lady, I'm just a step behind you.

This weekend was somewhat eventful. Friday was J's birthday, and even though I didn't make a post to tell him how much I love and enjoy him, I do. See, I even got him a can of menudo for his birthday, lucky guy! We also had dinner at the food court in the mall, can a husband ask for more??Jack and I made a cake, and then Mimi helped to frost it. It was like a knitting pattern. Spread, lick, *spread, lick, repeat from (*)

We usually clean our table off before we sit to eat, so all that mess is birthday-related. Just so ya know.

Saturday was crazy because J wanted to go to a promotional thing at a sporting-goods store, and then the gym that I am now a member of had a St. Patrick's day "party." There was free food which I find highly motivating, so we went. It was so cold! And the free food was somewhat skimpy. "Naked" burritos and a little bit of pizza. (I'm not sure what I was expecting from a gym promotion, most people would have realized that the food would be on the health conscious side) I could have gone for more food, but the trip was worth it when the Boulder Running Company gave away awesome water bottles and we all got one...free. The funny part of that is that I had actually bought a water bottle (the first one since in about eight years) at the sporting-goods store because when I use my Nalgene bottle on the treadmill, I dump water all over myself. Now I have two, though Mimi has claimed the one that I actually paid for.

Sunday found us in Denver for a Purim carnival, which the kids loved. We loved it too, but not as much because we were too big for the inflatables. We chased them all over for a few hours while they played games like Burst Haman's Bubble, Crown Esther and Purim Plinko. The biggest hit was the cotton candy which was devoured in record time. Fun times had by all.

B wore his hair like Albert Einstein, and his full-sleeve tattoo. Princess Mimi made her own crown and played the part well.Jumpin' Jack (with Robin Hood hat in hand)Then we went to an authentic-like New Mexican restaurant, which is one of the things we miss the most from New Mexico. I really love Denver, but I guess I am a little biased since it is the Capital of my home state.

Knitting news is nil, but I might have some time when I quit playing on Ravelry. Yeah, I was warned that it is a time sucker by every blogger in the world, but I still got on and I can't seem to quit.