Peace & Sereknitty

Ooooh I'm a bad blogger....these days I'm more inclined to tune into some of my favorite blogs and lurk rather than put my harried thoughts together to form a cohesive sentence....

I do have a finished object though:

A Baby Surprise Jacket for my friend Donna's newest nephew.  Made out of Socks that Rock Heavyweight in Farmhouse.  I loved it so much (though the pattern is a bit hinky) that I've cast on another for my Vet who is due in May with a girl.  And upon stash diving found some more lovely Socks That Rock  in Watermelon Tourmaline this time in Mediumweight.  Same needle size.  Unfortunately I made a mistake yesterday and had to rip back half of my progress last night.  I hate that when that happpens....

Mom and I planned a new and much needed garden in front of my house which we will implement next weekend upon the arrival of 10 yards of dirt.  Ugh!  I'm hoping that it will help with making the house look finished and be easy to take care of because it will be mostly shrubs.  I have two 6 ft. high lilacs that are behind a tree and not getting enough light so we'll be transplanting those to this new garden too.  That should be a lovely ordeal....There are two other gardens to tackle and clean up and re-work and I'm hoping to get them done before summer.  And plant the cottage gardens with veggies....And Keep The Chickens And Turkeys Out!  They are everywhere!  So fencing of some sort must be pondered.

I'm off to re-knit what I knit yesterday....

Here's an ugly chick-pic:

Where do I begin?  Life is happening so fast that it's either a blur of Mondays or Fridays...You know what I mean?  I don't even know what I've done in all that time.  There's been snow (!!!!) and rice krispie treats and knitting.  A visit to a science museum in Portland (I tried to give my family the address to Yarn Garden but they didn't fall for it...), the yarn store I work at moved to a new location and last, but not least, Riley got her driver's permit!  My whole family had last week off so I took off from working out and caught up on my sleep. 

Sleep has been a bit spotty lately with one cat running into our room in the middle of the night to scratch on our box spring from underneath and then run around the room and out the door.  And if it isn't the cat, then I can hear the stupid chicks (which are huge but not completely feathered out yet) turn over their food pan and tap on it with their beaks.  Sometimes I can sleep through that kind of stuff and sometimes not so much.  Maybe I'm not drinking enough....

Finally there is some tv worth watching, even if its all on Sunday nights--we're enjoying John Adams and it looks like OPB is going to pull its head out of its ass and finally show the rest of the Jane Austen series.  Next week BBCA will start airing Wire in the Blood so I should be set for good stuff to watch while I knit on Sundays.  We've been watching DVDs of 30 Rock, It's Always Sunny in Philadelphia and Saturday Night Live.  We did see Run, Fat Boy, Run with Simon Pegg who is always a hoot.  We liked it (even Ri and Hen), just enough gross humor for constant giggles.

Well, I must be off to change sheets, get laundry ready for next week and stir the chili for dinner tonight.  I'll leave you with the mental picture of my youngest sister with oversized plastic easter eggs hiding in her bra for our easter egg hunt....I did get that on film but I was threatened with death if I posted it....

Well, even though I know it's spring  apparently someone forgot to tell Mother Nature....It's so frickin' cold outside!  Frost and sub-freezing temps in the morning?  Enough already....

It's  been a busy week:  the yarn store I work at moved to a new location and will reopen on Monday so any free time this week was spent there.  And of course there were Easter preparations to accomplish....

Little boxes with pink colored, egg-shaped rice krispie treats for my nieces. 

Adding a bit of pink food coloring was just the ticket to make the rice krispie treats look delicious.

Some spring flowers for mom and Ali....

My latest hat:  Emma from Knitting Little Luxuries.  This hat was fun to make and I was able to whip it up last Sunday (of course that's all I did....).  It's made from my new fave, Ultra Alpaca.  I've got to knit me a sweater out of this stuff--it knits and washes up so nicely!

And as it is 5 AM on a Sunday and I've been up since 4 after a CRAPPY night of no sleep (no more coffee at night!)  I think I'll feed the dogs and head back to bed so that Henry can wake me up in 45 minutes to check out his easter basket.

I'll leave you with a picture of one of our fields yesterday.

Knitting pictures:

This is my Natalie Portman Hat.  When I was in Tacoma one of the movies we watched as we knitted and "Miked" (Mikes Hard Lime), was Beautiful Girls in which Natalie Portman (who is about 16 and very cute) wears a stocking cap as she's skating.  I decided I had to have one, and though I'm no Natalie Portman, I do love the hat.  It's knit out of home-dyed, home spun BFL and I'm really happy with the results.  Here's a close-up of the stitches:

As you can see from the pictures its a bit grey and raining today so probably no outdoor chores will be accomplished but there will be knitting and lots of it!  I've got to make up for the lack of knitting content during the week....

And in case you're wondering and even if you aren't : Thank you, my ass is doing much better.....

I must be a really boring person:  I was on the phone with my sister Alison a few days ago, telling her about my workout when I noticed how quiet the phone line was.  I said ,"hello, hello" a few times to no response.  I looked at my phone which said it was still connected but figured the call must have been dropped so I closed my phone and figured I'd call her back in a few minutes.  As I set my phone down, it rang.  Alison began by apologizing--"I'm so sorry!  So sorry!  I fell asleep as you were talking..."  What????!!!  "Your voice was soothing and you were talking about your achilles tendon and I just fell asleep...."  Now, I know she was in bed and that I had probably awakened her from snoozing but to fall asleep a few sentences into a conversation.....Me and my melodious voice.....

Chicks!  We now have 6 new freeloaders residing in our bathroom enjoying the spa atmosphere of a warming lamp among the other amenities.  I got one of each:  a leghorn, a silver laced wyandotte, a golden laced wyandotte, a golden sexlink, a barred rock and, just to have some fun:  a white crested black polish.  Those are the ones who look like their always wearing a hat that Phyllis Diller would wear.  Already I'm tired of the intrusion and can't wait until they move out to their own abode.  And the cats sit outside the bathroom door in a creepy way listening to the chicks chirp......

I'm still struggling to get everything done and still find time to knit like I was able to do in the winter but its not looking good.  I'm thinking I'm going to have to start getting up even earlier than 5:45 or get up but not lie in bed with my coffee and the news for a half hour....

In good news, we spent a bit of last Sunday out in the yard, cleaning up and taking stock of what winter had wreaked.  We freed some budding (!) lilac bushes in the back from the clutches of the noxious blackberry vines that cover everything like those fast growing vines in Jumanji.  I was able to prune lots of roses and hopefully Doug will be able to fix the fence so that the damn deer will have to look at my garden fondly from outside as opposed to using my plants as their personal salad bar.  It was lovely to be outside and I really enjoyed it.  The daffodils in my field are blooming so I took it upon myself to pick three bucketsfull to have in the house and take to work.  However, my rear end was SCREAMING at me every time I bent over to pick the blooms.  I guess my work out on Friday had some lasting effects.  Every time I bent over, I held my breath and either groaned or moaned or whimpered in pain.  At one point, Doug was working near me and asked,"What the hell is wrong with you?"  I told him of my gluteal ailment and he giggled.  Butthead....

I recently watched the SouthPark episode where Cartman pretends he has Tourette's Syndrom--I love that one!  So I will leave you with an appropriate cry of "Ass!  Asssss!"

Now that the ducks are in the chicken yard, my lovely free-ranging chickens who aren't laying, are always hanging out on the front porch.  I come home to piles of dust (they take their dirt baths in the area right next to the porch and then hop onto the porch to shake off), and poo.  Lots of chicken poo on the front porch.  Its a lovely touch to our zoo atmosphere.  Be that as it may, I am starting to smell the blooming Daphne Odora (through the chicken poo smell) and am excited that spring really will arrive.  (I'm sure that along with it will come more poo....)

Can you believe that for the last two nights I haven't even knit?  I've been so crashing tired that I set myself up in bed with my plumpy pillows, knitting chart, project, clickers for the tv, phone (someone always calls as soon as I've settled in and the phone is always out of reach), ready to make some headway on my lace shawl and then....fall asleep.  Two nights ago I fell asleep with my head on Angus' head and then he lifted his head to listen to something and I put my head back down and we fell back to sleep with his big noggin on my head.  Thank goodness when I woke up to turn off the light and put away the un-knitting, I didn't have drool in my hair or ear...Needless to say I'm not looking forward to losing an hour this weekend due to daylight savings time.  I'm anxiously waiting for the 4 days of excercise a week to kick in and give me the energy I so badly need!

And speaking of excercise--I really had no idea how much I got done in the mornings between dropping Hank off at school and going to work!  I guess its better to be working out than sitting somewhere and knitting for an hour but dang, I'm missing that extra knitting time!  Maybe I just need to organize my time better....yeah, right......

I'm back from the Madrona retreat and even though Doug really kept everything together, I'm still waging a war with laundry.  I finally sat down Sunday and was able to process some pictures for Ravelry and for my blog--I'm making progress!

The retreat was a ton of fun!  Kelli, Nan and I got along so well and enjoyed each others company that we're planning on going again next year.  It was so inspirational to see and be surrounded by so many (540!) knitting, fiber enthusiasts!  Among the highlights were seeing and feeling a real Bohus sweater in the flesh, talking to Stephanie Pearl-McPhee and finding that she really is as she presents herself in her books, and, of course, the vendor area with all it's lovely yarn and fiber and Blue Moon Fiber Arts Yarn.  It was lovely to see Tina again--she's always so friendly and warm and her yarn is to die for....

We girls saw lots of beautiful stuff, took naps, ate RoundTable Pizza (one of my favorites that is not available where I live) knit, had a few drinks but, thankfully, restrained ourselves from climbing onto the ridiculous horse lamp in the lobby.  A wonderful time was had by all.  Who knew cupcakes were such a big thing in the Pacific NW?  This cute little bike was parked in front of Hello, Cupcake!  A charming cupcake bakery with yummy treats that I did not pass by without trying (hence the 3 times a week at the gym before work now....)

In the meantime, I've finished at least two more fake isle's (I think this has become a full-on sickness now and I'm waiting for someone to try an intervention....)and some wristwarmers for myself out of Blue Moon sock yarn doubled.  Nan, Kelli and I have decided we're all going to attempt a lace shawl and I've found my pattern:  Scheherazade.  I couldn't wait so I cast on last night.  I'm actually finding it more enjoyable then I thought I would.  We'll see if I actually finish it but at least it's keeping me away from casting on another fake isle.....

The weather is starting to warm up so maybe it will all be good.  My daffodils in the field are starting to look like they might bloom in the next week or so--I guess that means I better get working in my garden!  I'm dying to pick up my camera and take some pictures but there is always so much other stuff to do and when I do find the time its either pouring rain or the sun is too bright or the wind to strong...

It's almost time to get chicks again.  Our older hens have really slowed down their production so its time to get some new layers.  I'm not looking forward to the chicks in the bathroom  phase of the process but we'll get through it.  It will be interesting now that there are 4 cats roaming around....

Well, I'm off to whip up an apron for one of Riley's friends for her birthday party tonight....wish me luck!

I mean to sit down and post--really I do!  I'm trying to get things in order so that I can make the trek to Tacoma with my friends Nan and Kelli to the Madrona fiber fest.  Nan and I aren't taking any classes--we're going along for the ride for some relaxation and down time.  Napping, spinning, knitting....more napping.....In the meantime I'm trying to get things organized so that Doug doesn't have such a tough time trying to manage it all.

As promised, here's a picture of Uncle Bill and his Fake Isle Hat taken on his birthday last month.

He looks considerably better in this picture than he does in real life right now because my sister's whole family, Bill included, has the flu.  The poor things are coughing their brains out and all feel like they've been run over by a fleet of trucks.  I feel awful for them...

Here is a picture of one of my nieces modelling her hat:

As usual, I'm slow on the pix as I've completed three more hats and have no pictures to show for them.  Maybe I'll do that before I leave.  The latest one, made of Silk Garden, made it onto my mom's head and walked out the door with her so I'll have to snap a picture of it on her head....

I'll be taking my computer with me and hope to have pictures from Tacoma and be able to post from there too.  If I can rouse myself from naps....

And, also, a big thank you to Rebecca at Poshyarns for her sweet words--her blog is one of my favorites and I feel a connection with her even though we live oceans away from each other and have never met.  She's one of those people that I just know I would be able to pop into her family room, plop down on the sofa with my knitting and chat for hours....

Those are my ducks enjoying a treat of Kix in the snow.  That's Quackers who looks like he's dancing "to the left..."   My chickens, however didn't fare quite so well in the snow and sub-freezing temps.  They decided to spend the night outside the coop on a night that got down to 22 degrees.  I woke up the next morning and saw a chicken perched on the back of the bench where she had been hanging out the day before and was worried that she had frozen to death and was frozen to the bench.  I through on my jacket over my pajamas and my Uggs, put on my earflap hat and my Bird in Hand mittens, and tromped outside to find out her fate.  She was alive but cold and easy to catch so I grabbed her and stuck her in my jacket to warm her up (she was shivering).  I started toward the house when Doug asked me where I was going, to which I replied, "By the fire to warm Lizzie  up...."  Doug said no f-ing way was I bringing a chicken in the house (I don't know why not; the freakin cat brings in birds, mice, bunnies and moles...) and to put the chicken down so that she could eat some food that he'd set down for her.  My instincts told me she needed to warm up first so I held her in my jacket for about 15 minutes until I could feel the warmth of her body before I put her down.  I do think she quite liked it as she didn't make a peep and she didn't try to get away.  Doug can be a poopoohead.

The snow has been pretty and fun and my kids have been to school 5 out of the last 8 days and most of those days have been 2 hour delay days.  It keeps it exciting, I guess.

All is well with Angus as long as he has a tennis ball--it doesn't matter if it's frozen solid....

I'm trying desperately to finish a pair of socks for me and I'm really enjoying listening to Outlander on my ipod--I started it last friday and I've finished 8 hours out of 32.  Its nice to have something good to listen to with all the crap that's on tv because of the writers strike.  I've been spinning a bit too and Riley's become entranced with my new wheel and she's spinning in her free time when she's not studying for finals.

Otherwise, all is well and at the usual level of chaos.  Ruby got straight A's her first quarter at college, Riley is loving high school and is getting fabulous grades as well, and Hen is driving us crazy (I swear he's a mini Ed!)  and starting his basketball season.  Doug and I just try to keep up and make sure that everyone (fowl, cats and dogs included) has food.  You all know what I mean...

And because I know you're not bored yet--more Fake Isle Hat pics soon!

I'm excited to sit by the fire and watch the games today.  We did all our house cleaning yesterday before having the whole family over for dinner so there aren't many chores to be done. (Of course there are tons more to be done but why do today what you can put off until tomorrow?)

The heater is fixed again (for now) so our house is warm and that problem solved.  Now we just have to deal with the smart cats who are using the new dog door to bring in live mice and rabbits and then hunting them in the house.  We've also seen bird feathers under the dining room table (the eating place of choice) but no live birds thank goodness....We are also happy we haven't seen this fat guy in the house either.....

Notice his fat ass is inside  the bag of cat food that he just finished gorging himself on....He hung around on our porch the whole evening and was gone in morning.  Doug was convinced his slowness and reluctance to move on was due to a seriously stuffed belly.  Weirdly enough he was actually sort of cute....

I'm sure I'll have some more knitting pics this week--I've completed another Fake Isle out of Kochoran for me and I'm making one out of Kureyon for Uncle Bill.

Enjoy your sunday....