Time Passes

24 years ago yesterday I met my husband. (And we're not terribly old, we just were practically children when we met!)

For a variety of reasons both the Italian and I studied German in high school. He had a teacher who pushed him towards German (and away from Russian). I picked German over French and Italian for the same reasons I picked oboe over flute and clarinet - I wanted to do the less popular thing. Even though we went to different high schools we both happened to sign up to go on a student exchange trip to German in the summer between sophomore and junior year of high school. I honestly don't remember how I happened up on this particular trip, probably my wonderful German teacher suggested it.

Our trip departed Boston on the 3rd of July. At the time, I was in Springdale, Arkansas with my family, visiting my grandmother. I remember having to get up extremely early, my father drove me to the airport, and I flew from Arkansas to Boston. A good friend met me at the airport in Boston and hung out with me for three hours or so, until it was time to go to the international terminal to meet up with the exchange trip.

One thing is worth mentioning here - I had never met any of the people I was about to spend the rest of the summer with. There had been two orientation meetings and I had missed both of them (traveling, I think.) So I walked up to this group of kids feeling a little anxious, but knowing I was going to have to make friends. There were more boys than girls, and I honestly don't remember who I ended up talking to first. (The Italian remembers his mother pointing to me and saying "why don't you go talk to her, she looks nice".)

I do remember that I ended up sitting with three other kids on the plane, including this one boy with a thick mop of gorgeous dark hair who wasn't like any other guy I had been friends with before. He was funny but in a more sly than blustery kind of way, kind of geeky, and I wasn't entirely sure about him. But we talked on the plane, and slept on top of each other in the way that teenagers who have just barely met can do (I think I leaned forward and rested on my tray table and he leaned across and rested on my back).

24 years (and one day) later it's hard to imagine what I would have thought if someone had told me I would marry this boy and move to California and have two children. Life goes where it goes, and on the whole it's a pretty good ride!

Food, and Feet

Today was all about food:

-I processed a huge bunch of dried mint (picked the leaves off and rubbed through a metal sieve so we would have dried mint for cooking).

-I made a loaf of banana bread to use up three very ripe bananas

-I made four batches of pesto sauce with basil from the farmer's market and put them in the freezer

-I snapped and cooked a huge bowl of green beans

-I made pasta all'arrabiata for dinner

This while also playing with my little boy who really wanted to be outside today. It was busy but fun.

The past couple of months have been crazy. My ankle is recovering, after 7 weeks in a cast I can now spend some part of each day in sneakers. I put my boot back on after lunch today because my ankle was feeling sore and weak, and I don't want to damage it again. Life is starting to resume its normal flow, although the beginning of summer vacation makes everything several shades more zoo-ey around here.

I am knitting. I am working on a lace shawl and I am at the point of having about 400 stitches in each row and it is slow going. Plus I have been making mistakes lately, and spending lots of time fixing them. Ugh.

Here's hoping that whatever summer brings your way is welcome.

Knitting of many kinds

There is much knitting going on here these days, of one kind or another.

But let me start at the beginning of my most recent escapade.

Saturday morning several weeks ago I got up nice and early to take Buddy and meet some friends for a hike in the woods. We met at an agreed upon parking lot and drove in one car up into the foothills to a residents only park. We set off in the woods - Buddy and me, and our friends and their grandson. It was a nice cool morning, the scenery was beautiful and the trail was narrow but well defined and easy to follow. The only thing I was concerned about was the abundance of poison oak and how to keep my son out of it.

After about 1/2 mile we had gone up the first hill and were going down the other side. The boys got a burst of energy and started running ahead down the path. I had bad visions of my son tumbling down the side of the hill through the poison oak (those of you who have been reading for a while know that he has a knack for getting into mischief) so I started moving faster, trying to catch up with him.

The next thing I knew I was lying on the ground on my back, clutching my ankle. I have vague memories of feeling my ankle twist, of hearing a pop, but it all happened very fast. Mostly I was aware of being in excruciating pain, just yelling with the pain of it. Really, it hurt quite a lot. Not as much as childbirth (having done that once completely unmedicated) but really, really painful.

I lay on the ground, clutching my ankle and moaning, for a few minutes. I had to fend off my friend who was trying to massage my leg, thinking that I had a leg cramp (I'm afraid I was a little curt, yelling "don't touch it!") Instead I asked him to go after the boys so they wouldn't get too far off by themselves. My other friend helped by reminding me to breathe, which I was quite forgetting to do.

After a few minutes I decided the only thing to do was to start heading back to the car. I asked my friend to check on the kids and started walking, slowly, back the way I had come. It has been pointed out to me that this may not have been the best choice, and in retrospect I probably agree. But at the time the only options I could think of were calling 911 or walking back on my own. I'm afraid I did a very female thing - I decided if I could walk it couldn't be that bad, and calling 911 would involve a lot of fuss and expense. Plus I didn't have cell reception. So I started walking, slowly and bending my ankle as little as possible. My friend caught up with me and offered to have me lean on her, but she's tiny and I didn't want to knock us both down the side of the hill. So I just kept going.

After a while I was able to call the Italian, who was with Punkin at her Saturday morning Mandarin class. Several times in the past I have had to ask for help from my husband in situations like this, and I pride myself on conveying the serious nature of the situation without being panicky. So I simply said "I need you to come and get me, I fell and hurt my ankle and it's bad." And bless his heart he just asked me where to go. I told him how to get to the parking lot and then started walking again.

I didn't make it. I got most of the way back to the car, but the last downward slope was too much, and by then I couldn't put any weight on my left leg at all. I asked my friend to meet my husband and bring him back, and I lay down on the path to wait.

The story will continue...

Ouch!

I hope all you people out there reading this had a better weekend than I did.

What did I do this past weekend?



These, my friends, are my feet. Both of them at once, attached to my body at the same time. (My feet didn't even get this swollen when I was pregnant!)

I have broken my ankle. Hiking with Buddy on Saturday morning.

It sucks.

I have lots more details and photos to share, as soon as I scrape up enough energy to put it all together. Much resting is happening these days, and even some knitting. There's an up side to everything, I guess.

Busy

I'm always torn between waiting until I have enough time to write a "good" blog post, and recognizing that were I to wait until that mythical time I would probably have grandchildren by then.

Then I look and realize it's been half a month since I last posted and decided "to hell with good, let's just get something on the page".

We have been busy. Elder child has been home sick with a whacking cough that necessitated a trip to the doctor to make sure it wasn't pneumonia. Younger child has been his usual challenging self. He had an annual checkup last week and needs to begin speech therapy - his lack of two front teeth is affecting his speech adversely.

I have been to the dentist and will need to go again sometime soon. Let's just say that age and 15 years of grinding my teeth night have not been kind to my teeth and gums.

I have been spinning (both literally and figuratively). I am pleased to be making yarn again. Photos someday.

We have been gardening. It has been four years since we did any serious maintenance of the front garden and it shows. After we finish excavating the paths we will do some rearranging, some new planting, and some repair work on the irrigation system. It is satisfying to make some progress on that front.

Work continues to be busy. Knitting on Friday is something I look forward to, although you never know what each week will bring.

I have been busy cooking and knitting - I started a new project, more details to follow.

Whew, the boy is yelling for me, gotta run.

It wasn't "good", but at least it's something.

Craving spinning

This is all Sylvia's fault.

A few weeks ago I spent several lovely hours at Sylvia's house. My parents had just finished their visit, the kids were otherwise occupied, I had the afternoon away from work, so I went to Sylvia's house and knit and talked. Sylvia is delightful company, another knitter from Friday afternoons was there, and we were very calm. (I was practically comatose, but I'm putting a positive spin on it).

One thing that I wanted to try while I was at Sylvia's house was her electric spinning wheel. I've never tried an electric wheel and I was curious. So I spent a few minutes fumbling with it (I haven't spun in a long time), which was just enough to whet my appetite. Then I spotted the latest issue of Spin Off on her table, which made me wonder why I hadn't gotten my copy.

Later that weekend I called Interweave to find out why my copy hadn't arrived, only to discover that my subscription lapsed after Summer of 08 issue (oops, I guess I can't have missed it too much if I only now realized it was gone). Sylvia generously loaned me the four issues I hadn't seen, and I've been reading them for the past week or so.

And I've been craving spinning. My spinning wheel sits in my living room, taunting me. Every time I think I might have five minutes to oil it, I don't. And by the time I get the kids into bed I'm too tired to thing straight and all I can manage is basic sock knitting (not even heels and toes).

So I'm thinking today maybe I'll spin instead of going grocery shopping, what do you think? The family won't mind if they have to eat freezer chow for a week because I needed some quality spinning time, will they? I can tie my son to a chair so he won't stick his fingers in between the spokes of the wheel can't I?

I can dream, can't I?

And just because blog posts with photos are more entertaining here's a slightly more recent shot of my Beautiful Boy:


The slightly knowing smile is him through and through.

More birthdays

Yesterday my Beautiful Boy turned four years old.

His childhood has been such a blur of running to catch him before he falls, trying to reason with him (or listening to his yelling when reasoning doesn't work).

This one, he is not like me. I am told he is much like his father, but he is a bundle of energy and emotion that is barely contained.

He is a charmer and a hellion, a mass of contradictions. I went into labor with him three and a half weeks early, then he took more than 24 hours to make his way into the world. He can be utterly sweet and charming, and a stubborn mass of raw id.

I love him absolutely. He is my boy.

My beautiful girl

My beautiful girl, my firstborn child, my Punkin turned 8 years old today.

She is a fascinating, wonderful, challenging person. She's so much like me that it's painful sometimes.

She loves to read. She's very emotional. She relates better to people who aren't her age than to her peers.

She loves her brother and he drives her nuts. She is precocious and precious and I can't believe how grown up she already is.

Happy Birthday my beautiful girl.

Conversations with my daughter

My parents are visiting for a while and have rented a minivan for the duration. Yesterday afternoon all of us (the Italian, Buddy, Punkin, Grandma, Grandpa and I) were driving somewhere in the minivan. I was driving, Punkin was in the way back with the Italian.

Punkin was telling us about a book she had read recently that had something to do with dragons, I don't remember what. The book was one of the volumes of the Magic Treehouse series, a name which any of you with young children will recognize and the rest of you won't. She started telling him about how great the series was in general. The next thing I hear from her was this:

Punkin: It's a really nice series. Each book is about one half expository text and one half fiction.

The Italian: Hmmm? Really.

Me: [stifled snort as I try not to drive off the road while I laugh and marvel at my 7 year old daughter].

In other news there is little other news. My parental visit is consuming most of my energy and leaving me drained. It is great to see them and it wears me out. More on that some other time.

Knitting on Friday was great, I enjoy very much the friendships I have made through knitting and it's nice to know that others feel the same. I wish I had more time to knit, my sanity could use it these days. Plus my mother brought along two socks with holes in them, so it looks like between her and the Italian I'll be darning socks for a while!

Why it's my least favorite LYS

I have a very strange work schedule, as some of you who have tried to keep track of it can attest (thank the gods for iCal, it's saved my bacon many times). Every third week I have Tuesday off because I work on Saturday. Because I "usually" work on Tuesdays the children go to day care/after school anyway and once every three weeks I get an afternoon to myself. Don't get too excited, I usually try to organize my desk, or clean, or cook. I can't think of the last time I just goofed off.

Anyway, this week is one of those weeks. On Tuesday as I was tidying I came across the pair of socks the Italian has worn a hole through, and the other pair of socks that is only one wearing away from wearing a hole through. Both pairs were made from Cherry Tree Hill Supersock, a 100% merino sock yarn that I particularly enjoy. Much as I love knitting socks, and as thrilled as I am that he wears them enough to wear them out, these socks are not more than six months old and I'd like them to last a little bit longer than that. I decided to do a little research into reinforcing yarn, the kind you knit along with in high wear areas.

Unfortunately, Tuesday is the day that my two favorite local yarn shops are closed (Purlescence Yarns and Full Thread Ahead, in case you were wondering). I tried calling another shop that isn't quite so close, only to discover that it had closed in December of 2008. (Yarn shops are dropping like flies these days - ArtFibers, Creative Hands, CommuKnity, Knitters Studio, Knitting Arts all have closed in the past 8 months!)

So I called my least favorite LYS, the one that's been in business for years, the one I've shopped in for at least the past 12 years, the one where they have never, not once been friendly to me). I wasn't planning on buying anything there, I just wanted some information. And this is the conversation I had:

Her: Hello, [name of Local Yarn Shop}, may I help you?

Me: Yes, I'm calling to find out if you carry reinforcing socks yarn, the kind that you knit in to reinforce high wear areas like heels and toes?

Her: (in a whiny voice) No, you know, most sock yarns these days are part polyester and don't need that. If you really want to, you can use polyester thread.

Me: you mean sewing thread?

Her: Yes, regular sewing thread.

Me: Okay, thank you.

Now I've heard pros and cons about using sewing thread as sock reinforcing yarn, so I'm not going to slam her for that. But come on, "most sock yarns have polyester now"? First of all, it's not polyester, it's usually nylon, which is not the same. Second of all, I think most of the yarn companies and indie dyers who make gorgeous 100% merino sock yarn would dispute the notion that "most" sock yarns are blends. And third, this is the same yarn shop that prides itself on carrying Koigu KPPPM! Not a bit of "polyester" in that yarn, which is frequently used for knitting socks.

Plus, her whole tone and attitude was so dismissive, so condescending, like every other time I've encountered employees of this shop. Maybe that kind of approach works for some people, but it doesn't work for me. I may not be spending much money at any yarn stores these days, but what little I'm spending I will spend somewhere else.

Humph.

Parade of Finished Objects, day 1

I have been on a tear in the past few months. I have been Finishing Things. (I decided that phrase needed to be capitalized. Somehow in a very Charles Dickens kind of way it sounds more important, more momentous if it is capitalized.)

Don't worry, I have also started a few new things along the way, but sometime before Christmas I got tired of all the project bags piling up and of never being able to find the needle points or cables that I need because they are in some other project.

Plus there's something very gratifying about finishing a project that has been lingering, and these days I'll take satisfaction like that wherever I can find it.

So, I present to you the lead in our little parade of Finished Objects:

The Octopus!





I started this project a while ago, I'm not sure exactly when.

I took the following photo in January of 2007 on a day that I tried to photograph all of my works in progress.



I'm pretty sure I had started this only just before taking the picture - I plowed through knitting the parts pretty quickly, then stalled out when it came to assembling. This was started as a gift for one of my nephews, I think it was going to be a birthday present that year. I have several books of knitted toys, this was from Kath Dalmeney's World of Knitted Toys. Like I said, I got all the parts knitted up quickly, out of some coned yarn that I had that I help doubled. I even got the felt and the stuffing, and then I got nowhere for quite a while. I would pick it up and sew one leg, and then put it down again (and when you've got eight legs to sew, that takes a while!) One of the regulars at the Library knitting group started asking me about it a few months ago and I finally decided that enough was enough. Plus, if I finished it before Christmas it could be a present for my niece, since my nephews were a little too old by now. So I bucked up and just kept going and I finished it in early December. I mailed it off and according to all accounts my niece loves it, and my nephew reports that it makes an excellent hat!

testing the new-fangled whatch-a-ma-thingy

Supposedly my blog is now linked to my Facebook and when I write a blog post it will show up on FB.

Let's see if it works.

Inching toward the finish line

I am getting tantalizingly close to finishing a project that has been a while in the works.

I haven't let myself look back in my photos to see when I first started swatching this, I'll wait to do that until I'm done.

I'm up to my elbows in finishing, lots of it.



I've got this band facing to finish sewing down, I need to finish doing reverse single crochet down one front and across the bottom edge (on a 2mm hook it takes a while), weave in a bunch of ends and sew on the buttons.

That sounds like a lot, but it's nothing compared to what I've already done. I'm tired of this sweater but I have to finish it because it is for Buddy and if I don't get it done soon he will be too big for it.

I've been daydreaming for weeks about what I'm going to work on next.

Plumbing

The Italian is trying to remove his tonsils by coughing them out, my sinuses are packed, and Punkin has clogged the toilet so bad that I can't get it unplugged. And we have only one toilet in the house.*

How does a 7 year old manage to clog the toilet almost every time she uses it, can someone tell me that?

And does anybody have any tips for unclogging a toilet, since my plunging skills clearly aren't up to the job?

*(Granted, we do have another toilet in the building in the back, but that is a dark, muddy walk across the backyard to do in the middle of the night).

I'm going to bed, tomorrow has got to be better.

More conversations with my son (part ?)

My son, who was fairly non-verbal when he was younger, continues to talk more and more. And more. (He's still not as talkative as his sister, who could talk the ears off a fence post, but that's okay).

It doesn't seem to bother him that people can't always understand him, and sometimes it seems that he doesn't even need others to respond, he just likes talking and telling stories.

One night at dinner recently he was talking and telling a story about some crazy thing (elephants, cannons, you name it) as if it was something that had happened to him that day. I watched, listened, nodded, and when he stopped I looked around the table at the Italian and Punkin and said "does anybody have any idea what he's talking about?"

Without missing a beat Buddy looked right back at me and said "my do!"

And, in the end, I suppose that's what really counts.

In the Kitchen

But not barefoot (or pregnant!)

I spent much of last weekend (and part of the previous week) cooking like a mad-woman.

On Friday I made sourdough bread from scratch using my sourdough starter. Even though I've had this starter for a while (ever since I killed the last one) I've only ever used it to make sourdough pancakes (which are the best pancakes in the world, by the way. Comment if you want the recipe, or you want to come over for brunch some time).

This time though I wanted to make sourdough bread. So I started the night before and made the bread on Friday morning. While the bread was rising I decided to keep the oven warm by using the oven to make a double batch of bran muffins. I started eating bran muffins regularly when I was pregnant (I had anemia with my first pregnancy and the iron supplements, combined with just being pregnant, slowed down my digestive system substantially). I tried different recipes until I found one I really like and have just kept eating them ever since.

On Saturday we had a dinner guest, so I baked double chocolate brownies in the morning and cooked Chinese pork tenderloin for dinner. It turned out great and we enjoyed our dinner.

On Sunday morning I made a double batch of sourdough pancakes and bacon for breakfast. I put the pancake batter into a modified squirt bottle so I could make shape pancakes, and then dropped chocolate chips on top once they were on the griddle, because the kids love them that way. (I would feel worse about feeding them chocolate in the morning, but neither of them uses syrup if they have the chips, so I think it's a wash).

Then I was putting food away and noticed that there were a lot of apples in the fridge, none of them getting any younger. So I made a double batch of applesauce, and used my new food strainer attachment for my Kitchen Aid mixer, which is great.

On Sunday night we made Japanese food, although I was just assisting - the Italian was in charge.

On Monday we went out to the Leonardo exhibit at the Tech Museum in San Jose for the day. The exhibit was nice and the kids had a good time. I was a little disappointed, I thought they could have done much more with the material, but it was still good to go.

And for my final food event on Monday night, after the kids were in bed, I made sausage. We've done it a couple of times before and the results were really good, so I had purchased the supplies on Saturday and needed to do something with the meat. Even though it's a multi-step process it's not hard, just somewhat messy. I use the food grinder and sausage stuffer attachments for the Kitchen Aid, and it is actually pretty fun.

I worry sometimes that I spend too much time involved with food, that I should be doing more with the kids instead. But I've come to feel that if the children grow up having good food in their lives, food that they know how to cook and enjoy, they will have a healthier relationship with food and may be healthier for it for the rest of their lives. So it's a good thing.

So it's been all about the food lately. The past few days have been less about the food (there's only so much time in the kitchen that I can stand). The one bit of kitchen news that is exciting (at least to me) - the Italian was able to track down replacement parts for the dishwasher - we may soon have a functioning dishwasher! (Ours has been broken since before Thanksgiving). Who knew that I could get so excited about an appliance!

Photo fun

Thanks to Kathy I'm starting out the New Year with a look back. The task is to go to the 4th photo folder and choose the 4th photo and tell four things about it.

I don't have photo folders, and in fact I don't have a lot of photos on my computer since my husband tends to store most of our family photos on his computer, but I went into iPhoto and viewed my photos by event and chose the 4th photo from the 4th event.

So here goes:


1. This photo was taken in July of 2005. We were on a trip back East with the kids, the first trip with my son who was only a few months old.

2. This particular day the kids and I spent with my cousin and her kids. My cousin J (who is actually a third cousin, not a first cousin) has been my best friend for as long as I can remember. We've known each other since we were two years old, and lived next door to each other from age 7 to about age 11. Growing up in a town with a small population the fact that we were next door neighbors also meant that she was the only other kid within reasonable walking distance at that age. The fact that her older sister and my older brother were the same age meant that the four of us spent a lot of time together (and the fact that they had a swimming pool didn't hurt!)

3. For a variety of reasons this trip to Boston had been really stressful and difficult, and the day I spent with J and her kids was so relaxing I almost cried. Punkin played with her cousins (who are one year older and one year younger, so they played together really well) and I just sat and held Buddy and talked with my cousin, and it was the first time I felt like I was on vacation in years.

4. My cousin lives on a pond. It's actually more of a small lake, but this being New England they call it a pond. Their house is 10-15 feet from the edge of the water, and their kids spend lots of time swimming. This day Punkin put on a water floaty and the three kids just swam and splashed and had so much fun. At some point during the day J even took the older kids out for a spin in the canoe - what fun!

Last summer when we went back east J once again came through - she took both my kids for an overnight so the Italian and I could get away for a night together. Nobody has done that for us before or since, and it was a slice of heaven. Once again the kids spent lots of time in the water and they didn't want to leave.

Even though we talk on the phone a lot I really miss my cousin. She is a good friend, a nice person, a great mother, and I wish that she and I were not three thousand miles apart.

We Made It

Hello and welcome to the end of one hellish year. (At least assuming that we make it through the rest of the day).

I've been thinking of blogging lately, but that's as far as I get. The reality of the holiday season with two small children and one possibly broken toe has left me ragged and weary most of the time.

I have been knitting and finishing things. I was very modest in my gift knitting for the holiday and am glad that I was realistic in my goals.

That's all for now, must go get New Year's Bread out of the oven.

Conversations with my son

My son, who is 3 1/2 years old, wants to be an astronaut ("spacer" in his vocabulary). This is a driving theme in his life.

My son is fairly careless, one would say reckless, little guy. His personal health and safety isn't a high priority for him.

I've been trying for years to get him to be more careful (no running in the house, jumping off things, careening about the house, etc.) to no avail. He's just not interested in safety.

Lately I've been appealing to his long-term interests. The other day he was playing with a toothpick, carrying it around in his hand (and these are strong, pointy bamboo toothpicks). I stopped him and we had the following conversation:

Me: Buddy, please don't play with the toothpick.
Him: But my need it for my robot!
Me: Buddy, the toothpick has a sharp point. (At this point I poked him in the hand with it). How does that feel? What would happen if you fell and poked yourself with that?
Him: My would have an owie.
Me: What do you think would happen if you fell and poked yourself in the eye with the toothpick?
Him: My would have a big owie.
Me: You'd have an owie, and you probably wouldn't be able to see out of that eye, you'd go blind.
Him: Oh.
Me: And you know, if you are blind in one eye, you can't be a spacer.

At this point he paused and thought for a moment, looked up at me, and said brightly:

Him: My would be a pirate!

How's that for a complex bit of problem solving? I had to keep myself from bursting out laughing while I carefully explained that being a pirate isn't necessarily the best career goal. It's nice to know he has options, though!

Better late than never

I am a relatively organized person in some regards, but there are plenty of things that go undone, unfiled, etc.

Apparently I have passed this trait on to my daughter.


This is my daughter, fastidiously writing thank you notes for the presents she received at her birthday party.

Which was eight months ago.

Better late than never. The kicked is that the reason she was finally motivated to write the notes was because she laid her hands on the gold paint pen which I had told her was reserved for special writing. This, apparently, was the only thing that really got her fired up (not thanking people for the gifts!)

I am amused and embarrassed all at the same time.

And while I'm being amused here was the scene I found on the kitchen floor one recent evening:


That's Punkin explaining the comics to Buddy. What a pair, I do love them.

Halloween update

Just in time for Thanksgiving I've got a Halloween photo for you:



Punkin decided to be Pippi Longstocking this year for Halloween. The idea was hers and most of the costume was put together out of things we already had.

The hair was the biggest challenge, but the Italian bought some armature wire and Nathania suggested where to look for spray-on hair color and I did the braids, so it was a group effort.

The braids were a challenge but once I mastered braiding around the wire it came together.

Punkin was very happy with the total effect, and the costume held up from 8:30 am school parade through 8:30 pm trick or treating.

Buddy was a mouse again this year - the costume still just barely fit him. The photos of him are on the Italian's camera, and I'm not qualified to sort that out, so no pics of him right now!

Still spinning

My head, that is. I haven't done any spinning on the wheel in months.

The past few weeks have been such a busy time and my head is still spinning from it all.

My mother in law was here for an 8 day visit and I really enjoyed having her here. She is a lovely houseguest and great company and can sometimes provide some perspective on my husband that is much appreciated.

Halloween came and went with much hoopla. Punkin was Pippi and Buddy was a mouse. It was an easy Halloween - the boy's costume was made years ago (between two children it was worn for four different Halloweens - not bad!) and Punkin just needed help with the hair and the striped stockings. We took them trick or treating and had a lot of fun.

But mostly I'm still feeling the after effects of the election. It's strange to have been thinking about all this for so long and to have it mostly work out the way I hoped. I'm a little unnerved by how excited I am about the presidential election. I'm really looking forward to having someone as president that I respect and admire.

But I'm deeply saddened that Proposition 8 passed (that's the ban on gay marriage here in California, in case you're wondering). I am so disappointed that so many people voted based on fear and bigotry, and angered that so many religious groups helped incite that fear and anger. I'm also ashamed of myself - I felt strongly about this issue and did nothing to help defeat this proposition. I should have gotten off my behind and done something instead of just talking about it. It's too late for this election, but I will do things differently next time.

So now it's back to the regular grind - watching the economy fumble around and worry about what that means to us, watch my parents get old and worry about what comes next for them, watching my children age and worry that I'm not being the parent I want to be, etc.

I started a new knitting project - the German Stocking sock pattern by Cookie A. It's been a rough start but I think it's going smoothly now. I need to start a mindless sock pattern, but haven't had enough wits together at one time in one place to manage it!

My didn't be hungry

My son has an interesting grasp of the English language. He manages to communicate pretty well most of the time with people who know his language. His pronunciation is a little funky (especially with the two missing front teeth) but what makes it extra challenging to understand him is his grammar.

He doesn't really grasp pronouns yet. Any time he refers to himself it is "my". Any time he refers to a group that he's part of it is "us".

Which is how we get sentences like "us went to wall-e theater" (he's decided that movie theaters are wall-e theaters. Not too surprising since Wall-e is the only movie he has seen in a theater).

And my most recent favorite: "my didn't be hungry". This was in response to my question about why he hadn't eaten all of his lunch earlier in the day.

I try not to stress about it, try to reassure myself that he will figure it out one of these days.

In the meantime I just try not to laugh.

Girls Gone Wild

No, not that kind.

Over the weekend I took Punkin on an overnight trip with seven other girls from her Brownie troupe (and six other mothers). We stayed overnight in the beach home of one of the girls, and it was a blast. It was great to get to know the other mothers, and fun to watch the girls interact in a group.

It wasn't very conducive to sleeping, though. The girls were all asleep by 11:00, and up at 6:30. Punkin told me the next day that after the first lights out the girls all climbed out of their sleeping bags and had a "silent dance party". Seven year olds. What a riot.

Life has been very busy lately - lots of social obligations, work obligations, and family obligations. The whole family drove up to Santa Rosa to see the Harlot last weekend - lots of fun, as always.

A little knitting has been happening - I blocked the pieces of Serrano today, and I'm almost finished with the current socks. I'm trying to start the next socks (Cookie A's German Stocking Pattern) but running into problems. I'm on the second sleeve for the Dale Fair Isle cardigan for Buddy - definitely need to finish it for him to wear this winter.

Must run along to bed - shouldn't be up this late to begin with!

Two Wheeling!

Last Friday evening my beautiful, smart, challenging, way-too-grown-up-already Punkin rode her bike without training wheels and with pedals for the first time ever.

She was wonderful.





I'm as proud of her as I can be. Many things come easily to this child, but activities that rely on gross motor skills are not among them. Riding her bike has been somewhat of a challenge and she has worked hard at it. Her delight in her achievement was wonderful to behold.

Not a Stitch

Not even one.

Yesterday I didn't knit a single stitch, not even one. This is unusual for me, I try to sneak in even just a few minutes each day. It helps me feel like I accomplished something tangible with my efforts.

But yesterday was all about everything else. Mostly trying to regain some sort of order out of the chaos. I got the girl to school and volunteered at her library first thing in the morning (how fun to volunteer in a library where I'm not in charge!) then came home to help the guys assemble yet another Lego project.

Kitchen cleanup consumed a bunch of the morning just in time to take the boy to day care. Yesterday was one of my special Tuesdays (once every three weeks I have Tuesday off because I work Saturday instead) so after dropping the boy off I did a couple of errands, came home and scarfed lunch before heading out to acupuncture for an hour of wonderful.

A couple more errands after that and I was home at 2:30, with approximately two and a half hours to myself. Once every three weeks. The challenge is trying to pick one or two from among hundreds of things that need to get done.

Yesterday I focused on cleaning up my work area, also known as the laundry room/studio/garage/place to dump anything that doesn't belong somewhere else. It was so bad that there wasn't any way to get anything done because of the piles everywhere that had no place to be moved. I did laundry, put stuff away, shoved some stuff in the other part of the garage, and generally tried to tame the mess. It's a little better now, but still a long way from being done. There's stuff I have to get rid of - breast pump, old vacuum, old weaving magazines, maternity clothes - and that will require time to deal with Craig's List/eBay. But I made some headway.

Then time to make dinner while the Italian retrieved the children, eat dinner, and then get the kids to bed (after putting clean sheets on both kids' beds). Then cleanup the kitchen, and finally spend the last two hours of the day watching TV and folding laundry. Honestly, it felt like I hadn't folded laundry since some time in 2007, there was so much to fold. I filled a whole basket with Punkin's clothes, another whole basket with Buddy's clothes, and that's not accounting for the Italian's and my clothes or the towels and sheets. I didn't even try to put stuff away, by the time I was done folding it was after 11:00 and time to go to bed.

It was a good day, I got a lot done. Not particularly exciting, but productive.
Today is back to my other job, the one they pay me for. Maybe I'll knit during my 15 minute break.

Anybody sign up for a Stitches class? There's one I'm on the fence about, but they are so expensive...

Bah

So I made the mistake of sitting and watching some of the Republican convention the other night for a few minutes.

Apparently, according to Sarah Palin, because I didn't grow up in a small Midwest town and because I dare to think and question what my government does I'm not as patriotic of an American as other people who meet those qualifications.

Well, this East Coast liberal, over-educated, government-questioning librarian mother (and not the hockey type) is just as patriotic as the next person, thank you very much.

I shouldn't watch politics.

Almost busted my A$$

And I mean that literally.

After some weeks of pain and some self-diagnosis I finally visited the doctor earlier this week and determined that while I have not broken anything I have definitely bruised my tailbone (coccydynia is the technical term, in case you care).

Basically I have damaged the soft tissue over and around the bottom of my spine. Nobody can tell me how this happened, or what I should do to avoid doing again. Treatment consists of staying off my tailbone as much as possible and applying ice. Taking anti-inflammatory drugs would help with the pain but I can't take those.

The doctor said if it wasn't better in a couple of months to come back, so we're not looking for a short term fix here.

"Trying to stay off your coccyx" sounds all well and good unless you live in the suburbs and work at a desk job. I need to get one of those cushions with a cutout where the coccyx is, but I haven't done that yet.

Sounds like fun, huh?

Needless to say I'm not getting too much knitting done these days.

Out with the old, in with the...

...nothing.

Life with a family of four in 1,000 square feet is crowded at the best of times. Add in the fact that more than half the family members are pack rats, and it can get ugly.

We are attempting to do something about this. We had a yard sale this morning and we are really trying to get rid of stuff that we no longer need or use.

It feels good to find new homes for things we no longer use, and make better use of what we have because we can get to it (I found a bunch of the kids' games that had been "missing" for a while because the cupboard they were in was completely blocked by stuff).

And while I'm not ready to attempt to go 90 days without buying anything new (I stumbled across a blog of someone who was doing that) I'm definitely working to use up what we have before buying more, whether it be food, toiletries, yarn or fabric.

Punkin and I found five lengths of cloth that she liked here in my boxes of fabric and tomorrow we are going to the store to buy some sewing patterns (Jo-Ann's is having a sale) and make her some new clothes with fabric that's been sitting around for years. I don't know where I'm going to get the time to sew, but I'll do my best.

As the Italian likes to say, "our house weighs less now". It's good.

Knitting update

Hold onto your socks everyone, there's actual knitting content in this here post!



Ene's Shawl by Nancy Bush from Scarf Style. I took a class with Nancy at Stitches and liked the style of the Estonian lace garments she showed us. I was intrigued by the fact that they weren't knit out of superfine yarns - the yarns used were closer to fingering weight than pace weight. I tend to veer toward extremes and have worked with some very fine yarn (although never with cobweb weight, yet) and I wanted to do something a little more moderate.

Yarn used: Jaggerspun 2/8 wool in color maize. I used to do a lot of felting of items that I machine knit, and I have a bunch of cones of this yarn sitting around. I haven't been doing as much machine knitting lately (I don't have big chunks of time available) so I wanted to use some of this yarn for hand knitting. I skeined the yarn onto my niddy-noddy and prewashed it to remove the spinning oil. It bloomed a fair amount in that first wash, and I expect it to bloom more when I was the finished garment.

Needles: size 6 Boye interchangeable aluminum. These have been my workhorse needles for a long time, and while they have their flaws (the cable is stiff, the join isn't great) they usually do the trick. I discovered partway into this project that one of the needles had a rough spot right at the join so I used some very fine grade sandpaper to gently smooth the rough spot and it worked much better.

I'm glad I snapped this progress picture when I did (yesterday morning) because I am now almost done. I just have to graft/bind off the last 16 stitches then it is ready for washing and blocking. This is the first time I have knit a bottom up shawl and it was fun to have the rows go faster and faster as I went along. I started this less than month ago (probably on July 5th or 6th) and it is basically done. July was a pretty bad month and I guess I really worked on this to try to work out some of my stress and fatigue. Who knew how productive stress would make me!

I'm not sure yet who will be the recipient of this garment. In choosing the color I tried to reach outside my normal tendencies in lace knitting (black, grey, white) and I'm not sure how much I would actually wear this color. On the other hand, many of my knitted lace objects are so fine that I'm wary of damaging them and they don't actually get worn that much. I think this would be a very wearable, functional garment. However, Punkin has asked me numerous times to knit her a shawl, and this might be a good match for her - not too big, not too delicate, and a happy, cheerful color. I don't know.

What's next? I don't know yet. I love knitting lace and would be happy to start another project, but I have many unfinished things that I should wrap up. I may try to finish my Ribby Cardi (just needs a zipper) and make some progress on Buddy's Fair Isle cardigan before starting something new.

I realized that I haven't documented our trip to Boston and I don't think I have the brains or energy to do so in a logical, rational way, but I have some photos to share:





Close to the end of our trip we went with the kids and the Italian's aunt (who recently retired after teaching elementary school for 30 years) to Drumlin Farm and we had a wonderful time. We wanted to go on an outing and do something outdoors but this was toward the end of our trip and we were getting tired so we wanted to do something local and modest in scale. Drumlin Farm was perfect. The kids got to see and pet some animals, go on a hay ride, run around outside, and it didn't take all day. It wasn't particularly crowded so the grownups got to enjoy each other's company without being too stressed about losing track of the kids, and the weather was perfect.

The kids were particularly entranced by the pigs, as you can see from the photos above. There were a number of pigs, both big and small, but the one that they couldn't tear themselves away from was the 600 lb. mother pig that was happily sleeping the day away. I think they were awed by her size!