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.