And December took hold

Every year the same thing happens I get a bit obsessed 'some' may say (you know who you are!). I have a million projects swimming in my brain and only a small pin size hole of time to extricate them. It is complete torture.

I spent the first weekend at our local holiday bizarre trying to make a bit of money selling my craftiness. Mara joined me in our first miserable attempt to market our wares. We had a terrible location in the very bowels of the craft fair. Perhaps this is why we didn't sell much. Okay, that is our story and we're sticking to it!

My hardest work (making all these skirts for little girls) got the funniest comments.


A handful of people asked if they were aprons and 2 people actually in all seriousness asked me if they were lamp shades!! I got a good laugh out of that comment all day. To give you an idea of what I've been up to last month I'll post pictures because I cannot list everything...okay I'll try: 10 skirts, 5 knitted hats, 4 head/ear-warmers, 20 pairs of earrings, 8 sets of glass beaded stitch markers, 2 wool hats, 15 oragami star folded journals, and 5 ribbon wands. That sounds close.

Here in all my glory I present some of the fruits of my labor.

Martha would be so proud!

And so am I :). Mara and I put together a "Gross Buffet" for the little ones for Halloween night.


Our menu:
Gruesome guts (meatloaf, green pasta, and marinara sauce)
Bones (twisted bread sticks)
Finger food (mozzarella sticks with green bell pepper fingernails)
Mummy toes (cocktail sausages wrapped in tortillas with a dollop of ketchup)
Eyeballs (deviled eggs with olives)
Monster scales (roasted pumpkin seeds)
and a veggie platter shaped like a skeleton.


Let me introduce the party goers in all their glory...
The chicken, pink cat, sedated-psychiatric-patient-zombie, unicorn, batman (for the third time--yes we got our $$'s worth out of that costume), and Superman (yes she insisted we called her SuperMAN, not Supergirl)

I'm Dyeing

Wool yarn + Kool-aid = Fun Fun Fun Colorful dyeing. The colors are so fun the satisfaction I get from something so little as this is just lovely.

I found all this beautiful wool at a thrift store in town for 5 bucks a skein and it just soaks up the colors. I'm going to try my pokey sticks at that Mobius basket that Cat Bordhi makes look so easy (yeah right!). It looks like rocket science to me at the moment; however, if I can have a few hours kid free in the wee hours of the night I *may* just be able to get it.

In the meantime I've knit up one of these lovely calorimetry's which is so groovy that I'm gifting them this year to all my friends, neighbors, and relatives. I'm also making a funky little hat with some pretty Noro (let there be enough for me to finish...are the yarn Goddesses' listening?). Pictures to come soon.

Ode to my neglected blog

I have a hard time with commitment (see neglected blog). So, here are a ton of pictures of what I've been knitting and one of some sewing to make up for it. Somewhere in the pictureapalooza are a baby shrug, a toddler tank (my own pattern), a fruit loop inspired hat with pom pom, a white foo foo cat, my first real attempt at lace in a garment and some fingernails in need of a manicure.

Raiden's "Milestone Moment" and I miss it!

Raiden (4 1/2) had a big accomplishment today. He rode his bicycle with OUT his training-wheels and I missed it :(. Edward took the kids to the park while I went to a cycling class at the gym and I missed my cutie pie little man on 2 wheels. I guess I can't witness *ALL* the firsts.

Raiden described it very nonchalantly and said he did it fine on the first try. Sure enough Chloe was beaming with excitement for her little brother and took over the story telling since he didn't seem to impressed with it all. She bragged how he just got on and took off riding, Dad barely even had a hand on him.

What I did get out of him was a promise for a repeat performance.

He told me: "Don't worry Mommy I'll ride my bike for you tomorrow." He didn't see the big deal over the whole thing apparently.

Stupid Running Shorts

Note to self: Do not ever use the "pocket" option inside your running shorts to function responsibly.

Inside everybody's running shorts there is a sharp tooth snail and if your not careful he might bit off your nail...oops I went all Shel Silverstein.

Inside everybodys running shorts there is a pocket. You can pretty much assume it is for your one teeny tiny but nonetheless VERY IMPORTANT ITEM: the key to your car. Let me save you the trouble...it is a faux pocket. Very similar to the useless shallow pockets they put on your toddlers overalls or your maternity clothes (if you are lucky). As I was 1 mile into my shorty 2 mile run today I had this panic of OMG where is my car key?! I look down my new spiffy (yes ppl still say spiffy) running shorts and have the moment of horror where I think I lost said key. I go on to curse the faux pocket and open my shorts up further because I remember the panty insert option. Thank the running god ::banging head:: what is his winged helmet head name anyhow? Again, I digress. I found the key the blessed key to my vehicle that will get me up the blasted hill to my house, but OUCH I would have discovered the key in a mere microsecond after my epiphany because...it.was.not.where.it.belonged. Again, I'll say it: Thank goodness for the panty insert option of running shorts, kind of like your favorite baseball mit. See how I creatively dart around the one sentence I could have just provided you all to actually say what really happened with the key up my crotch today. Oh but it was so blog worthy and I got to link you to one of my favorite children's authors in the process.

My knitting is taking a backseat

Since the weather up here has improved I've been getting outdoors more. I got it into my head that I could perhaps, possibly, maybe, start training to do a little mini triathalon in July. We'll see. I need some goals to achieve.

Right now I'm going to train for it and see how fast my body & mind respond. Last week I started running, biking, hiking and lifting weights....it's a start. I have this great road behind my house that is 2miles long and quite hilly so it makes for good practice both running and biking. The running isn't too bad (my knees hurt), but my body hasn't been too sore about it. The biking however is kicking my butt quite literally. I got the mountain biking bug again when I jumped on dh's goliath of a bike and started racing down our dirt backyard paths and now I'm hooked (on the downhill part). I could do without the climbing part.

This weekend I'm going to attempt a ride here in town. There are 2 options 18 miles pretty flat. Or should I be brave and try to tackle the 32 mile ride with 1,000 ft of elevation? I am feeling pretty chicken if you ask me today, but after my second cup of coffee I might have a different answer.

The pics I had to post are of Silver Falls where I did an 8 mile group hike on Saturday. It was a really slow pace, but a gorgeous day and good company. 10!! waterfalls on this loop. A handfull were over 100ft!!

Atlas "Shrugged"

Yeah so much for clever titles...

Here is the latest garment of mass construction: I bring you the shrug/capelet...whateveryoucallit. A little garment that serves barely the function of warming your upper torso and when you are umm..endowed it doesn't cover much and draws all the attention to your ummm...upper torso. I'm just not feelin' it.

I followed this pattern. I used this yummy fuzzy alpaca yarn I got at my LYS (8 -50g balls for 20 bucks!--used 5 balls) what a deal, but it is so sheddy I just don't know what to do? I need a cool broach. I am not the best model for this creature...it belongs on my cutie pie 8 yr old with some novelty buttons me thinks.

In other news I've been on a crazy hat knitting obsession/quest. Those I'll post later. In other other news I am now a chicken mama...to 4 lovely girls who lay us a dozen eggs a week.

We are off for the week to Silver Falls, OR to meet up with our friends and some good times. How is all this in non cohesive writing.

eh...that's me.

Knitting ADD

I cannot commit all of my attention to a project lately. Exibit A: See all those projects. Is this normal?Perhaps, but my world view is small lately. My whole frame of reference pretty much exists within the confines of this house (winter blues much?). Here I sit comparing my attention span to 3 young children and my intrinsically motivated over achieving hubby. Hmm...sooooo unfair it just isn't really an objective comparison. Dr. Laura would suggest that I just put my children on a bike and take a ride outside to clear my head then I could come back to "focus". It's great advice, but I live up here in scary rural driving land with no bike lanes. One child on the back of a bike...yeah that was easy... 8 yrs ago! Phew got that out. ;) Where was I?

See. Vicious cycles of not ever getting to my point ending in yes....craft derailment.

My ADD isn't limited to knitting. It also floods my ability to keep my house in any order. To be fair to correct diagnosis I'd say my housekeeping skills are along the bi-polar diagnosis. I fluctuate between a house that is super duper tidy and one that is plagued by disarray.

In other totally unrelated news I have a huge ass spider bite upon my face. It is accompanied with 2 lumps on my neck below my ear and a pinched nerve/sore neck thing. So along with my bipolar sense of housekeeping, my ADD knitting, I now am a hypochondriac wondering if I've indeed been bitten by the infamous brown recluse or maybe I have cystitis. I really should stop googling NOW! Wikipedia is too much too much. Information overload!!!

Forgive me, sometimes a girl's just got to exercise her degree. Put down the mouse...pick up the needles :) Now that is a serene picture.

Lace, dishcloths...yo, psso, ssk, s1 I now know those pattern abbr.!!! Horay for me!

Sweater Longies

I love the way these turned out. I need to improve on sewing my work together though...ah well. They were done using this pattern and with Patons Classic Wool, not the softest of yarns for my baby's bum, but she can wear something under them to prevent "wool itch". The pants were a labor of love. I had them on the needles for well over 3 months. It wasn't like they were a difficult project, just one of those procrastination projects tucked away and almost forgotten.

S loves them and the only enemy of the pants are her evil VELCRO SHOES. Velcro and yarn just do not mix.

Snowboarding and a sidenote of knitting

So my knitting blog is turning into my photo blog of kid misc. "stuff" aw what the hell, big damn dirty deal. Knitting details follow below....

Chloe has been hitting the slopes every Sunday for the month of January. She has taken up this new-found love for snowboarding (aka: Daddy and daughter bonding). So I have to share. See above.

Now for my comments on all that freaks a Mom out!

Okay and thank the holy stars of the universe that I wasn't around when my first born child in the care of her father whom I trust (when I'm not there and have to) was raised up in the metal contraption of the "lift" above those crazed bastards flying high on peppermint shnapps and who knows what "else" okay I'll say it "ELSE". Whoa! don't I sound all grown up and maternal now on my holy horse.

Off to ride that horse into the distance...hang on...! So, we were talking about my first born on a lift HIGH above the slopes while I'm sure her father waits all beaming proud below capturing it all on video tape. Uh huh! He's gonna get the lecture of his life :) I love you BTW Edward :). Were those enough smilies to keep a marriage alive?

On to things that make me less frightened of the world and my children in it.
Knitting: On the needles right this instant are a pair of incredibly cute (or so *I* invision them to be) soaker (ok) sweater pants (with ruffles). They will be off the needles tonight and ready to sew together by noon.

Happy Birthday Chloe

Now,














Then,










HAPPY 8th Chloe!!

One hat two hat, red hat, blue hat...

or...
Look at my nice family who lets me knit warm hats for them.

Self imposed restriction

I haven't picked up my sticks to knit anything for days. I have myself on restriction until my house gets in order. It is actually motivating me to clean. I am aiming for Monday to be able to knit again. I figure I'll have caught up on the mess by then. :eek:

Nice mind games I play huh?

But...!! It has worked so well. I have my office all decluttered and shined up, 4 closets in order, a junk drawer decluttered and I'm going to tackle the kitchen later today.

It is back breaking work this whole "keeping your house tidy thing" and I don't know how well I'll be keeping it up.

In other news I've joined an "Adventure Group" and various camping groups to get some information on exploring the great NW. Edward mentioned to me that the adventure group might just be an undercover singles group. Geez, I hope not that would be uncomfortable tomorrow night at the first meeting. I'm thinking of joining this group too, it looks exactly what I'm looking for.