Crazy Times

Hello All. Things have been quite crazy around this house lately. Firstly, my dryer died for over a week, and I am just now getting caught up on laundry. I don't like to let it pile up, but it always gets that way, but let me tell you that for 7 days we could neither wash nor dry, and things got pretty ugly. I finally feel like I am back into my schedule, and I also came to realize that our family has far too much clothing. I, however, ran out of everything and spent about 4 days wearing men's clothing. Ugh. So that is now behind us, thank goodness.

I spent three fantastic days at a knitting retreat with a lovely group of women from Denver and Santa Fe in Buena Vista, Colorado. It was so great, and relaxing and wonderful, and would you believe that not a single one of us brought a camera?! The weekend was perfect, and we have all vowed to meet again next year, when I'll be sure to remember a camera. A bed and breakfast in town, The Liar's Lodge, hosts groups of knitters, quilters, scrapbookers etc. for weekend retreats. It was so nice to sit around and let someone else worry about the cooking and cleaning while we just sat around knitting and chatting. We checked out the local yarn shop, Serendipity, which had quite an extensive bunch of yarns, books, and gifts for such a small town. I didn't buy a single skein of yarn, but I picked up a pretty cool purse/knitting bag, which I am pretty excited about. It is from Tute-La bags, and is the Rosa style. I love that it has pockets on the inside where I can stash needles, or my cell-phone and other stuff that I used daily. I am using it as a purse that can carry knitting, too.

I worked on the side to side shawl pattern that I purchased a few days before we left. I am a little under half way through it, and I am enjoying the mindless knitting. It is on size 13's and is done in Patons Showers of Flowers. This picture shows the variegation very well, it is beautiful. I also made a little sweetheart hat for Mimi, seeing how her birthday is on Saturday. It is cute, and I want her to wear it now, but I am holding off till her birthday. It is perfect for a gal born on Valentine's day. Susan B. Anderson wrote the pattern, and is the author of Itty-bitty Hats, so I knew that I wouldn't have any trouble knitting this up, her patterns are so easy to follow and so straight forward. I'll post some pictures of her wearing it.

The exciting news in our house is that we are getting a dog. Yes, you read right. We are getting a little Australian Shepard/Corgi mix. My mom is on her way to bring him this very moment. I might have just made the worst decision of my life, but I am sure that the kids will love him, and at the very least, he will keep my floor clean after the kids eat...We haven't picked a name yet, but we are narrowing it down. I hope my marriage will survive, J isn't thrilled at the idea of it, but I think he will learn to enjoy him too, as long as he doesn't eat any of his fly-rods!

Other than that, we are pretty much hating winter, ready for the terrible wind storms to stop and are looking forward to spring.