Crazy Woman escapes from Home

Run for your lives!  We're on the loose.  I've been packing up for a road trip to the mountains.

I have some super secret knitting on the needles, a nifty little project that hopefully will come out like I am picturing it in my very foggy head.

I have been casting on and ripping things all week so there's just nothing to show.  It's the kids' last week of school.  

Big Brother is leaving for two weeks in Europe (lucky stinker) in the wee hours of the morning, and his stuff is all over the living room floor, couch and coffee table.  Gotta love the way the boy packs.  The biggest thing in his suitcase is lots of snack/survival food.  They are on a tight schedule and the teacher running the show has them with no down time what-so-ever so running to the corner store for a little nibble will not be an option.  He's worried, being a full-time grazer, that he will be hungry.  So he packed up a bunch of snack food stuff and he has filled his suitcase with it.  This kid cracks me up.

PeeWee has been in full swing this week.  Crazy Hat Day, Crazy Hair Day, waterplay, you name it they are doing it all this last week of school.  We're missing the last day, but I figure with her being 3 and all there's not a whole lot she's going to miss that last half-day so we're taking a risk and hitting the road.

Ah, the mountains.  It should be fun.  We have friends coming for the ride and I think Marky Mark may be in a little over his head with this bunch.  Mr Quiet will have no choice but to come on out of his shell and say hello.  Speaking of Mr Quiet... the other night we celebrated the fact that in 8 days both my parents turned 70.  There was a late night adventure which I missed that involved taking the under-aged kids along with their Grand-Dad to see a traditional burlesque show.  The one and only Chris Owens.

I missed the evening, but understand it was quite an event.  It's very audience involved and not only did my 14 year old get on stage and dance, but my 70 year old dad got himself a lap dance.  I have seen videos (wish I could get my hands on one) of my quiet reserved painfully shy husband shaking his booty for all the world to see.  A night out indeed.

Just in time

Socks for my dad's birthday.  We're leaving here in about 20 minutes to go to their house.  Just finished weaving in the ends and boxed them up.  Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays.  4 balls Sublime, which is lovely to knit with.  These will be rarely worn around the house kind of socks so I am sure they will hold up well.  Dang feet are size 12s!  What is it with the men I knit for needing such enormous items!?!

Hope everyone has a great Memorial Day weekend.  Enjoy the holiday if you have it and if you are like Big Brother and have to take exams, good luck!

Feast or Famine

It is all or nothing with me.  I either have weeks where I am trying to find a second to come up for air or weeks where I'm hearing crickets and nothing is happening.

The last few weeks of school for the kids are always over booked.  I put myself on the back burner and it still ends up being crazy busy.

I'm working in a few quiet days for myself, now while I can, but even those are being taken over.  I wouldn't mind being the little munchkins who get to hang out here:

Just for a morning or two.

I'm working away on my father's birthday present socks.  The Log Cabin ones.  I need to grab another ball of yarn from my LYS to finish them.  Quick so far but since I have until Saturday to wrap them up it's looking a little iffy.  I have a meeting today and I will bring them along for that.  It's at a Mexican restaurant so I am not sure they will even leave the bag unless it's a mostly business meeting.  The idea of pico on them makes me shudder.

The vegetable garden here is thriving.  So are our satsumas.  The navel oranges have no fruit at all but these are doing pretty good.

We're going to have baby zucchinis in the next day or two.  PeeWee is excited about that prospect.  She has to check on her garden every single day.  It's so cute how excited she gets.  

Big Brother is in the midst of exams.  I do not envy him.  He's working pretty hard and will hopefully have a lot of good to show for his work.  He leaves for a tour of Europe, thanks to his grandparents, the end of this  month.  I do envy him that.  We're working out our travel plans for the summer, they go from exciting to disappointing in about 4 seconds.  While showing Mark what was available on a trip to Alaska, the best room for us was booked.  It's one of about 3 places we wants to go and is willing to go so we're trying to figure out another solution.

Any great places to go where it is actually not 856 degrees?  We're open to suggestions!

Unravelled

I've been on Ravelry since last fall.  I finally actually went there and spent some time.  If I think of it as an organizing tool it will work for me.  One day this week I'll take the computer up to the yarn closet and start adding yarns.  And books.  And projects.  I kind of like it.  I can see how it works.  I couldn't before.  I think I can stay away from people and their Junior High nonsense I have heard about too.  Because I have no idea where that stuff is.

I've started the Log Cabin Socks from Handknit Holidays.  No pictures.  I am lazzzzyyyyyy.  Plus they are only partway finished.  I actually have two pairs of them on the needles.  I started a pair for me then started a pair for my father for his 70th birthday which was the other day.  Yep, both parents turn 70 within 8 days of each other.  Kind of cute, huh?  I must really like this pattern because I made it for my Sockapalooza partner last year.  It's quick and interesting and a lot easier this time around.  

Anyone else redo a pattern some time later?  This one clicked this time around and last time I was keeping sticky notes with where I was the whole time, using a counter and generally fighting it the whole way.  For some reason this time I just have it down.  Amazing what 18 months or so of knitting will do for you abilities isn't it?

FO Sighting in New Orleans

Ta-Da!!!
A mere yards of yarn left.  I even had to graft yarn to one sock to finish it.  Talk about knitting two socks on two needles.  I was knitting them from two end of the same last few yards of yarn!

These are for my mother for her 70th birthday next week.  Not only an FO but even finished early.  Early!!  Never happens around here.  At least not lately. 

Several other wads of tangled knotted looped up yarn are on needles now, teasing me that they will indeed turn into wearable garments before long.  Nothing worth showing pictures of.

The other needles in my life- the sewing machine type- have been really busy lately though.  I've been whipping up aprons and cute skirt and shirt sets for etsy.  I have a nice little assembly line set up in my sewing room.  I haven't done this much sewing since Big Brother was about PeeWee's age.  And if you're wondering, she's already at that I can't smile like a normal human being for the next 14 years stage.  So much for sweet smiles in pictures from now on!

About time!!!

Finally.  Fiber Chic's prize. I love this yarn but can not figure out what to do with it.  Some Rowan Kidsilk Haze, two balls, and some Jolie, partially used up, but two full balls and two with a little from them.  Send me an email and I'll get them out to you.

Soooooo, what have I been doing this incredibly busy week?  This.  No, I'm just kidding, but you can thank me later when you have to just try one more time.  I love Shaun the Sheep so I couldn't resist passing that one on.

It has been just nuts here, but things are quieting down this week for me.  I'm hoping to get in some knitting time so I have something to actually show off next week.  I have projects piling up all around me calling my name and sadly I can't get to them just yet.

I didn't forget!

If I could list the things I have been doing this week it would make your head spin so I'm just popping on to announce the winner from the blogiversary commenters...

FiberChic!

Details, the loot and all that soon, I promise!

Gotta go do carpool...

Got the blues

Everything I am knitting is blue.  Or some shade of it.  Even the planned knitting I have up my sleeve.  It must be because it's gotten hot.  Not quite drowning while breathing hot yet but that's coming.  

The socks I've been working on are tight.  My mother is turning 70 in a few weeks so I hope I can wrap them up for her by then.  The cable crosses with this pattern are new to me, complete with a decrease and yo in the cable, and they snugged things up a bit.  I'm also gauging the yarn usage and thinking they are going to come up short so her dainty girl feet will be better suited to them than my thick manish feet.  Check gauge?  Why when you can always find a foot to fit?

I started a little dress for PeeWee.  It's blue.  And blue.  Her newest favorite color.  Since she changes her mind every 18 minutes lately we'll see how she feels about blue when it's finished.  I always said 3 was tougher than 2 and this kid is proving my theory right lately.  We went on a walk around the block last night after dinner and after deciding 32 different times which way we were going to walk the second half of the block home, Marky Mark picked her up and she screamed about wanting to go that way for about 40 minutes.  We kept asking her if she wanted to go back out and walk the other way around the block but NOOoooo!!! she didn't want to go on another walk she just wanted us to know she wanted to go that way.  Oh man.  She is something else.

The next project is going to be using this squishy bit of yarn.  Not sure what it'll turn into yet but it's next up for me.

The veggie garden we put in is thriving. I can't wait to get some harvest. The zucchini is going crazy and everything else looks ready to bloom or is working blooms for about a week now. PeeWee is thrilled with her little project. Big Brother and I always had a little pot garden but we had lots of shade so stuck with cucumbers and such which would tolerate it better. Here we have a good bit of sun. And Marky Mark was willing to sacrifice beauty in a tiny corner along the driveway for us. Asking a landscaper to fit a veggie garden in his yard when he has grand ideas? It took a little convincing and we're lucky he did the grunt work.

We're having more plumbing issues.  Have I mentioned I am sick to death of this house?  I love our block too much to even think of moving but I really really hate this place today.  After rebuilding it you would think I would have a certain appreciation for it but instead I am ready to walk away and not look back.  

The winner for the blogiversary comments will be coming shortly.  Big Brother will be picking a name when he gets out of school this afternoon.  Thanks for the comments.  I think for now I'll stick with my random posts until I can narrow things down a bit.  I'd gotten to hearing crickets when I post and was wondering if it was worth it to keep up with things.  It sounds like I do have an audience so for now I'll still be here!