Why not me?

I am sitting here at the computer in complete silence. Mimi is fast asleep, and Jack is playing at the neighbors. The vacuuming and dishes are done, clothes are spinning in the dryer, I still have a room to clean (my own) but I am just sitting here listening to nothing. Glorious silence. It doesn't happen very often in this house. And it can't last. So I will quickly update you on my life before I go on and do some more laundry:

Katja is coming along. I have made and connected both cups (though, for a small baby, I hesitated to call them "cups", maybe there is a better term out there, I'll be thinking of one) and have about eight rows into the body. Not speedy knitting by any means, but it is being knit in the loll between projects that I am excited about. I also loathe knitting acrylic on bamboo, it catches and it feels like I am knitting on fly paper or something. But it should be done pretty soon.

I also stabbed myself in the foot with a size zero sock needle yesterday. Or should I say pierced? I am fairly certain that it made exit from another hole before I jerked my foot out and cursed like a sailor. Ow. Not pretty.

Saturday, I tried something new and something that I swore I wouldn't ever do. I ran with my neighbor. And I didn't hate it. Weird. For the last fifteen or so years, I've told myself and anyone who would listen that I couldn't run. That I was not a runner and that I would only run when something was chasing me (never). But then my friend took up marathon running and she said something to me that made me think. She said she had always said she couldn't run either, and then she got this letter asking her to train for a marathon, and she said "not me..." after some thought, she said "Why not me?" and it changed the way she felt about her self. Well, I am not exactly going for marathon training, but it makes me realize how self-defeating my thought process can be. Why not me? Because I never gave myself a chance, that's why. J, don't look for me at the runners nest or what ever it is, but the fact is, I'm thirty now. I have to make up for some of the fun that I had in my twenties...none of it healthy... And I really do want to do something that I never thought I could do. 1/2 mile today, tomorrow, the world! Or 3/4 of a mile, anyway.

One other positively exciting thing, I am going to visit Chicago with a friend this summer for a few days! Yippeee. I've never been there and I can't wait!

Well, the dryer just stopped, and that means that I have to get going. Enjoy your Monday...

Steppin'Out

Here we see miss Mimi doing her signature one step wonder. She has made as many as three steps in a row, but she is still working on it. She is taking her dogs (or are they sheep??) for a walk. Notice the pink high heel at her feet? She is determined to wear those little shoes and it is a source of frustration and joy for her each time she gets them on. She will work for half an hour to get them both on and then she will try to stand in them, only to have them fall off the second that she moves her foot. She is ambitious though, I'll give her that. I've been walking with some success for over thirty years and I still can't walk in heels!

And here she is helping make dinner. She did that all her self, clever girl.

Here is Jack Jack showing his excellent sense of style, he dressed himself, see? What is it with the footwear in this family?? This photo is the stuff that high school blackmail is made of...And just to show that all my kids are as cute as I think they are, here is B making his "crazy-tasty" face. He poses for the camera, so I have to act like I'm not taking his picture to get a natural shot:

He is such a great looking kid, check out those eyelashes! Of course, he had his mouth full in this picture, but it doesn't take away from his cuteness.

In knitting news, I started Katja from last springs Knitty for Mimi. I have some Red Heart laying around, and I figured that if I couldn't make my socks work, it would be less painful to just work on something small and less complicated. I know that I was crying about not wanting to use cheap yarn, but since it is all I have, and there is a certain amount of pain involved in watching a crawling baby drag her cotton/merino sweater all over every floor and having to hand wash scarves and hats that have been made for the boys, I just sucked it up and cast on. I made Katja last summer when Mimi was a wee little bit who had no control over her neck muscles and I just didn't like the way it was on an infant. I decided to make some alterations, namely making it longer and attaching the straps to the back so not to make it a halter top, and I am definitely layering it over a tee-shirt. It is so cute on the pattern, I think that it may work better this time around...

It is snowing again, and I refuse to get freaked out about this. What can I do? Knit and read, that is what. One thing about this weather is that it makes me want to hold wool and get all snugly with books. Yup, looking on the bright side...definitely not freaking out....

My Fears Realized

The past forty eight or so hours have been nothing short of tragic. It has not reached temperatures over 25 degrees. It has been misty and freezing rain has made everything droop with ice and it is simply depressing. There was a red robin, the harbinger of spring, sitting on the sidewalk huddled into himself this morning because it was too cold to fly. Does this mean that all the baby birds are going to freeze like all the delicate buds of trees and the daffodils and tulips that were opening up to meet spring? I could almost hear the cries of all the new grass as it froze to death.

The other fear that has been realized is that I have to really evaluate my knitting habit, can I really even call this a knitting blog these days? Probably not technically. But The Thing is that I can't really afford yarn right now. I am not talking about the kind of yarn diet that some knitters go on where they can still buy things like the occasional skein of sock yarn. No, this is a full-on yarn famine. I can't afford the yarn that I would like to buy, and I don't want to be a yarn snob, but I don't want to shop red heart either. Not for what I want to make. I need quality yarn to make the things that I want to make. I need wool for felting, I need denim for the hat that I want to make. I need things that I can not afford. What is a knitter to do? Should I get a job? I can't really justify putting the kids in day care so I can knit, and when would I find time to knit if I work? It is ugly, and yes, kind of tragic. It is what I love to do. I can't do it. That is sad.

I have very little knitting news, as usual. I cast on the green socks again, and again I screwed them up. Why do I keep trying? As I write, the felting of B's slippers is at hand. I just have to clear out the washer of a load of towels, and in they go. Yeah, I know that I was supposed to felt them when I was in Durango, but I underestimated the amount of energy that it takes to supervise small children in a house that is not child proof. I also visited a great friend that I haven't seen since Jack was a smallish-type baby, and we had a family get together on Saturday where the teal and purple slippers were presented to my grandmother. (she loved them, and they fit her.) And we had a trip to the emergency room (if anyone is counting, that is the second in as many months) that ate up about a day of my life. So, there was no felting then.

Jack turned three yesterday, which was bittersweet for me. It seems so fast that he is already past toddler-hood and onto the next stage. We had a little Thomas The Tank Engine party...well, we had Thomas napkins and cups at any rate. He was pleased. It was fun, he got toys and ate ice-cream cake. Good times were had by all.

My Useful little Engine having his birthday dinner.

Miss Mimi took her first step this morning, and then she went and did it again. Won't be but a few more weeks and we will have a new toddler running around the house. We really are surprised at how long it took her to start this walking stuff, considering she crawled at six months. Well, it is probably just as well, since a walking baby opens up a whole other kind of trouble!

Frozen egg hunt!
Jack was more interesed in eating snow off his sword than hunting for eggs!

Happy Easter! Thanks be to God for His indescribable gift!

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.