Thursday, May 31, 2007

Sunny smiles

Though you can't see it properly, my youngest is showing off a little model police car (Doc Hudson/Paul Newman) from the movie Cars. She had a very nice little birthday with cupcakes and chinese food (her choice for dinner). The actual party is on Saturday, we're going roller skating. There was a party at daycare and the little monkey was quite exhausted by the time we got done with dinner. She fell asleep while she was telling me goodnight. I can't believe my baby is five. sigh Time really flies, at light speed.

My oldest scored some pressies too. Grandma usually sends stuff for both girls, she's afraid someone will get hurt feelings. I think they are old enough now that it isn't a problem, but Grandma will do as she likes. One of the oldests' gifts is the family joke. Her great-grandma has a real horror of snails/worms/slugs. For a joke one year, I sent a wooden slug to her in a present. She sent it back with the next package to me and we started a special tradition between the two of us. I had to explain it a few years ago to my oldest, and she thought it was an awesome joke and wanted to help me decide how to hide it, or where to put it in the packages, etc. I shared this info with great-grandma and now she sends the slug to my oldest instead of me, much to DD's delight. Ah, the passing on of tradition. The little things that make you feel special and loved, even if it is a bit weird. Here she is holding up the slug. Sorry, it seems to blend into her hair.


It was a good day, but way too busy for knitting. I did finally read through all toe decrease instructions for the various sock patterns I've been using. Hmm. You experienced sock knitters probably know that they are all kind of the same, or so it seems. Both of my patterns are the same, they are just written differently since one is for DPNs and the other is for circs. That's reassuring to me. Now I can just get down to doing it, you know, in theory. First I've got to sit down for a few minutes while I'm at home. Something I've not really done in the past week. Still, I'm hopeful I'll find the time by Sunday to finish that sock off. There will be much rejoicing!

Then I'd probably better cast on the second one lest I lose all hope of having a PAIR of socks. The next socks I do are going to be on heavier weight yarn. That's all I'm saying... LOL

Tuesday, May 29, 2007

It fits!


This lovely picture is brought to you by my 5 (tomorrow!) year old. Sorry I didn't have time to tidy it up, but if I took the time for that, there wouldn't be any picture for a few more days. Please note the really nice sunburn. Yes. Mommy cleverly considered sunscreen for the kids, but completely forgot about very fair-skinned mom. Typical.

So, the shirt I tried the sweater over was a bit loose and made it an awkward sort of experiment, but I am confident that the sweater is a good fit so far. It might be a tidge (is that a word?) snug at the hips, but we'll see. This pattern calls for a bit of a split on the sides at the bottom, so that may not be a problem after all. The color is good with the hair, and the sunburn, and I am pleased with the whole project right now. I will say, however, that the sweater is very scratchy on sunburned skin. Weird. Everyone who sees the sweater and pets it comments on how very soft it is. Put it on a sunburn, it is the scratchiest of fibers. Amazing.

The sunburn is a result of an entire day in the sun in Seattle. I know! Crazy! Himself and his band played at the Folklife Festival and so we were out all day listening to music, entertaining the kids and eating overpriced food. We had a good time, but I did get burned pretty good. I had planned to bring some knitting along (the sock, in fact) but didn't quite have enough room in our bag for it, so I was without knitting for the day. I was actually quite bothered by the lack of knitting while out and about, but I did have it in the car. I guess I could have gone to the car for a "fix" or something, but it was a bit of a walk to the parking spot. The kids rode some rides at the park at Seattle Center and I rode a few with the oldest. Lots of fun, but I was exhausted!

I have nearly reached the end of the Endless Sock! I multi-tasked a bit on the knitting front this past week. I'm ready to do the toe decreases! I can't believe it! I was planning to finish off the sock yesterday, but I got sidetracked by getting new dishes. (I bought the Lisbon pattern in a mix of the three colors.) Hopefully I can get it done this week. I'm having to sort between patterns a bit. The pattern I'm knitting is for dpns, but I've knit it up on two circs. I'm trying to determine if I need to sort out the dpn toe on circs, put it back on dpns or modify directions for the toe on two circs to fit the number of stitches I have on my needles. Confused? Me too! I'm sure all of these ideas would work, but I'd like to be sure I'm doing all the math right before I get going. Fancy that. LOL

So once I brought the new dishes home, I had to make room for them. This started a whole ordeal, maybe this sort of thing is familiar to you. I cleaned out the cabinets, the tried to get "organized" and make better use of space. Mwahahahahahah. Uh-huh. By the end of the day, I made a trip out to get a stand-alone cabinet to put the kids melamine (non-breakable) dishware in, washed all the new dishes, part of it by hand, and got most of the stuff back in the cabinets. I was also able to get out some of my husbands favorite glasses that he hasn't seen in a while. Specialized beer/wine glasses, like our beer hoons (typo on the box, should have been 'horn', but we like the 'hoon'). I think we may tweak some placement stuff, but for now, it fits better than it has for a while and the kids love having their stuff in an easier to reach location. That new cabinet may have to be moved to a different part of the room, I'm not crazy about where it is currently standing, but we'll see.

A good three-day weekend, but crazy busy. I can't believe that I didn't sit down and just rest all weekend long. I am worn out and I have a busy week to go. The youngest turns 5 tomorrow and the party is on Saturday (Pirates! & roller skating, should be fun). Now if I can just work in the sock...

Friday, May 25, 2007

Just a quickie

Hello! I can't believe I haven't been able to post for so long, but things are a bit chaotic. Since my last post:

1. the hamster got sick and had to go back to the pet store for treatment (we opted to wait for her recovery rather than get a new hamster). This takes 2-3 weeks.
2. oldest DD got strep throat (or a really nasty virus) Friday last, and we had a busy, busy weekend planned and her play was on Monday (she had the starring role)
3. my family (back in Texas) and some sort of meltdown across multiple areas of life and called me in panic mode - nothing inherently life threatening, but very complicated
4. work is a bit of a panic as well, lots of big-wigs coming through (not that anyone every introduces me to them) asking lots of questions & generally putting the pressure on the new director to look sharp - also, we're nearing the fiscal year and I've got spend, spend, spend on new materials here right at the last (I'm behind from all of the hiring/firing I've been doing)
5. we were supposed to have testing last night for Taekwondo, but oldest DD seems to have a different bug this week and spent the evening throwing up. Needless to say, we didn't make it to the testing and I'm not yet sure if she's better this morning or if there's more fun ahead
6. my very dear, but senior neighbor (the one who cut the branches off of my tree last year) seems to have decided that we belong to some freaky cult because my children don't know the sunday school songs protestant children seem to know (we're Orthodox Christians and my kids know different songs). It is annoying and frustrating to me, but hopefully now that he has expressed his concerns he will move on. That is probably too much to hope for, though.
7. birthday preparations for the youngest DD had to get done so that we can get them out to everyone. I wanted them out at the beginning of the week, they went out today. Oh well.

In knitting news, I've been plugging away at the blue sweater and I've been making some real progress. I'm easily halfway done now. I've decided that I'm going to move my live stitches onto some waste yarn and try it on. It looks like it is a bit small, but I know that might be because it is on circs, and they pull it in and make it look smaller than it is. Still, I'd like to reassure myself that the gauge swatch mattered and the thing will fit. I'd rather find out the truth now, while I can rip and correct part of the sweater, rather than find out after I've finished all the edges and there's no way I'm ripping anything.

Also, a former coworker who has moved away has gotten in touch and has been sharing some of her knitting successes. She is such a lovely lady and I've really enjoyed sharing knitting stories with her. It is such fun to see her progress and swap photos with her. She's really brightened my week this week.

I'll try to have a better knitting related post next week, with pictures, have a good weekend!

Tuesday, May 15, 2007

Pink is the new something


Oh yes. Pink. You are looking at the newest member of our family Princess Diamond (That's what the 5 y.o. has decreed.) She lives in something call the Pink Princess Castle, and let me tell you, it is PINK. Excessively so, but then I'm not a young girl under 10. Mind you, I don't dislike pink, in general, but whoa. The main body of the cage is clear, so the poor thing isn't completely viewing life through rose colored plastic, but ouch. Here's another image of the whole cage.


The oldest is a bit grumpy as Princess was not waking up to play as she had hoped. They are very anxious to get the hamster out and running in the ball. I keep explaining that Princess needs some time to get used to us and her new home, but the 7 y.o. is not big on patience. She's learning. We were able to pet Princess in the cage, but we're not trying to pick her up yet. My oldest finally made peace with that idea. As long as she can touch her, even a little, she is okay. The youngest just wants her in the ball. Whatever. I'm just wondering what the heck we were thinking when we agreed to the hamster.

Himself is out of town at a conference in Minneapolis (Society for Technical Communicators), sounds nice and dweeby. He calls every night from an Irish pub because "they have free wireless and he can get dinner and work there." Sure honey, whatever works for you. LOL I think he's enjoying the break, but he misses his girls. They, however, don't talk on the phone well when there's a hamster in the room. They've really been missing their dad, though. The oldest has been really moody since he left. She forbids me to speak of him, it makes her sad. The youngest won't stop talking about him, it makes her feel better. As you can see, lots of fun keeping everyone happy. At least Princess is distracting them when we're home. It is pathetic really. He's only gone for four days, but we really just never go places except as a whole family, so it is a weird experience. Even when it was just the two of us, we just didn't travel alone. This year will be our 17th anniversary (October), so that is a long time to be always together. Eh. It would be less bothersome if it were just me. Think of all the knitting I could get done! The girls and I checked out Spiderman 3 on Sunday and made a huge batch of chocolate chip cookies. We saved a big glob of dough and we've made quite the event out of cookie dough and cookies and, well, Princess.

I have gotten a good bit of knitting done since last Friday. I weeded on Saturday and we went to my Mother's Day lunch (since Himself left on Sunday a.m.). Then some house cleaning (Himself did a fair bit on his own too) and then some lovely knitting. I had actually planned to get some spinning done on Sunday, but we had a busy day with the movie, cookies and hamster viewing, so no spinning. I'm down to the last bobbin on this fiber, and I'd really like to finish it up and ply it. I'm thinking maybe this weekend. I'd like to make a hat or something, but I don't know how much yarn I'll get from the 3 bobbins. I was thinking I might double ply it from a center pull ball to maximize the yardage. I'm afraid if I do it any other way, I'll lose yardage.

This will be my first attempt at a "real" yarn. All my other spinning was intended as practice with no real plan for anything except getting used to the fiber and wheel. This fiber was a bit of a practice run too, to let me get used to spinning merino, but I did want to do something with the finished project. Therefore, I'd really like to get the biggest bang (yardage) for my buck which would allow me to comfortably complete a useable project with the yarn. I thought a hat would be easiest, but I really don't know. I probably just won't know until it is all finished. I'm very excited and eager to get it done.

The sweater continues to grow somewhere between a 1/2 in or a little more each day. I don't want to set myself up for disappointment by trying to project when I should hit the 21-1/2 inch mark, I'll use that as a carrot when I start feeling bogged down. Right now, I'm happily chugging along on it. Like a hamster in a wheel...

Thursday, May 10, 2007

Weeding, or is it pruning?

You know, I really need to get out in my yard and do some weeding. My flower beds are mostly weeds and my poor tulips are looking pretty sad. I suspect, however, that by the time I get them weeded, all of the tulips will be gone. Oh well. Better luck next year. It's just that we're having such lovley weather lately I feel compelled to do something other than just mow the lawn. (Besides, if I'm weeding, I'll know who is in my house & I won't likely need to shower so no chance of repeating that disaster. LOL)

I've been doing a bit of weeding at work too. Or maybe it is pruning, I can't decide. I've fired three students since last Monday. I feel like I'm on a roll. They all deserved to go. Two of them kept lying to me about why they needed to miss shifts, one was told flat out he could not miss a certain shift and did it anyway. The same two also did not do any work when they were here, and were warned that their jobs were on the line. They were easy fires. The other girl was new and was trying sooooooo hard, but she just didn't get it. The only thing she could do was shelve, and even then, if she had to shift books to make room, she couldn't manage it. (She would just move books around all out of order.) Four days in a row she retrieved books from the book return and shelved them without checking them in at all. Every day we found out after the fact, had long discussions about exactly (in detail) why this was a BAD THING, and the next day - she did it again. Four days in a row. There were many, MANY other things that she was not learning either and I suppose I honestly didn't fire her so much as we agreed that it just wasn't working out. Still, three people gone in a week. And we're still short-staffed.

I've already hired replacements for the critical shifts, we'll see if I need more. My remaining students were grousing about something yesterday and I said "You know, I could fire four people in a week if you're really unhappy here. I'm on a roll." (I said it with a smile.) They all smiled and said "No, we're good." and moved on. I am on a bit of a roll, so hopefully the ones I've kept, who are actually all good workers, will not start mis-behaving. I might actually go crazy. LOL Off with their heads!

I continue to work on lots of job applications for myself. Something will turn up! Eventually.

I did notice that I was knitting at a pretty high speed yesterday at lunch. Power Knitting, must be the high stress I was feeling yesterday. Then again, it might just be because I don't have to remember if I'm on a knit row or an increase row. Either way, I was happy with the number of rows I cranked out in an hour. If I can just maintain the pace, I'll be wearing the sweater before the summer is over. Well, Summer somewhere. They can be a bit short here in the Northwest. It feels like it isn't getting any more "done", but then I'm knitting in the round, so I keep reminding myself that it doesn't show progress the way it would if I were knitting the back and front seperately. Right? >sigh<

I really want to finish this and move to the next thing. I'm rather jealous of all the folks who are able to complete so many projects and move on. I wonder where they find all that time to knit? Or do they just knit faster than me? Or...? LOL I can really drive myself crazy over unimportant things. Again, stress. All the pressure at work makes me feel pressure (or create pressure) in places where it doesn't really exist. Bad habit, or maybe just human nature. That's okay. I am making progress on this sweater and I will not be side-tracked by all of the other projects calling my name. I won't. Really. Convinced? Yeah. Me neither. LOL

Wednesday, May 09, 2007

I'll play

I'm okay with this one. I may brew my own beer now and again, and I do love my beer festivals, but I'm also pretty keen on Vodka martinis.


You scored as vodka. you are vodka. very strong but a def fave amongst the young and old, (and the hardcore alcoholics) you are versitile and can be taken straight up or mixed.

vodka


83%

midori


75%

rum


71%

absinthe


67%

daiquaries


67%

bourbon


67%

champagne


67%

beer


67%

wine


58%

whiskey


46%

what alcoholic drink are you (pictures)
created with QuizFarm.com

Tuesday, May 08, 2007

Sleeves

The Bunny Formerly Known As Evil (I think now she is known as Sparkle, but I could be behind on the naming thing) is modeling the progress on my sweater. It isn't a particularly good shot, but it was too hard to manage one-handed and I was trying to show the sleeves. Well, actually, the spot where sleeves will go. This sweater is top down, and I have just put the sleeve bits on waste yarn and joined the under-arm area (3 rows done on that). Now it is just plain stockinette for another 14-1/2 inches or so to total 21. I'm not sure how many inches already have been done from the shoulder, but I don't see any real need to hurry up and get that measured. I'm not currently in any danger of exceeding the length of the sweater. LOL It is nice to know I'm past the thinking part for now. At least I think it is nice now, a week or so down the road I may feel the need for thought. I had a heck of a time getting the sleeves off & so forth while I was watching TV. I actually had to pause my show it to read the directions through twice so as not to mess it all up. Anyway, I'm pleased, but it seems a bit small. I'm sure it is being all squished onto the circs, when I put it on over my head, it seems fine (up to the part where the needles pull it in, that is).

I also thought I'd share the other part of the Wild Pack of Kids in the House that happened on Saturday. After being trapped in the loo with no clothes and a house full of strange kids, including the Fiber-Hating ones, we did manage to get them all out fairly quickly. Essentially the Fiber-Hating kids had to leave to go to the store with their mom & the others cleared out with them. There was a great sigh of relief from me, I can tell you. DH and I have been discussing some sane House Rules for having the neighborhood kids in the house, among them - not trapping a naked, wet spouse in the hall bathroom, and also including no computer games for anyone while they are all in our house. I discovered another rule to be added a bit later.
I was able to spend part of Friday night spinning up bobbin two of my Northern Lights roving and got started on bobbin three. So, my wheel was out in the floor in the living room with a bit of fiber on it when the Pack arrived in my house (with me in the shower). DH went downstairs once the kids were all inside, so he was not paying the least bit of attention to what was happening upstairs, but perhaps that whole trapped naked thing covers that part well enough. Any-hoo, when I sat down to spin some more Saturday night, I found that someone had been playing with my wheel and had really messed up the remaining bit of fiber hanging off the end and had spun a bit off of the bobbin (going counter-clockwise) and then put it back on, etc. In short, there was about three feet of messed up single/fiber stuff.

My girls, bless them once again, were horrified that someone touched my fiber and my wheel without asking. They were really upset that someone messed up my yarn and my fiber. It was crazy, I hardly even said anything out loud (too upset to articulate I think - you know still reeling from the naked thing) and both of the girls were apologizing for not stopping their friends from messing with my stuff. So very sweet. I thanked them for being concerned and assured them that it wasn't their fault and they were not responsible for what their friends had done when they weren't in the room. DH, however, got a bit of a look and the girls told him he was in the doghouse for letting it happen. So, another rule and another learning lesson for me: Even if it is more convenient, I can't leave the wheel out on weekends in the event the Ravening Hoard shows up at the house unannounced or in my absence.

I was able to fix it all, after about half an hour of what would have been spinning time. Then I went on to spin, and let the girls treadle the wheel for a while. It all worked out, but man! It is such a big change to have the kids be so social.

I'll leave you with a couple of images from work. The ALA has celebrity posters promoting reading that they sell. Several years ago, our library bought some of these and one of them was Fabio. Since I've been moved into the front office, I decided to hang him up so that he can be seen looking into my door (or looking out of my door, as the case may be). Some of my students thought it would be fun to dress him up for the holidays. So far, he has had a Santa hat

and then the bunny ears and tail

and now For Mom...
Sorry, the last one hasn't been cropped, but he has a big bouquet of flowers and a sign that says Happy Mother's Day. I'll try to get a better shot of that one. My only restriction on dress is that it not be too suggestive, so I don't get hammered for inappropriate displays in my office. The disco ball is from a colleague who now lives in Israel.

Yep. My office = PARTY.

The men I work with HATE him with a passion. It seems to be primal. Seriously. There are a few who don't and see the fun (and yes, most of them are straight). All the women seem to find it fun, except the ones who are over-sensitive to what them men might think. What's the big deal? He is fully clothed, he is promoting reading. There's nothing going on here, move along.

Monday, May 07, 2007

One down...

one to go! I spent part of Friday teaching one of my students to knit. We snuck out for "coffee", which was really yarn, and I got her all set up with some basic yarn (Cascade 220) and some needles and got her going. She took to it right away, including the cast on part, and was having a blast. I left her with only the knit stitch to start, I didn't have any books or anything to loan her (I know, what kind of librarian am I anyway?!) and told her I'd get her going with the purl stitch today if she wanted. The bulk of the lesson was during my lunch hour, so I didn't completely blow off work, though my new director acted as if I did. (Let's just say he's discovering that he really can't do everything and he's making a lot of mistakes with the things he is doing. Sadly, those things can't be done by anyone else as no one else knows how. To top it all off, he's got this temper thing going, we're all just waiting for him to blow.)

We'll see how she did over the weekend, but she was really enjoying it. Her DH is in the navy and is about to ship out for a few months (or something, but not Iraq), so she was looking for something to keep her busy at home and something that could work on the ferry, between classes, etc. She's pretty jazzed at the thought that she could crank out gifts for the holidays while she's at it. The ferry ride is an hour each way, so 2 hours of knitting a day - unless that pesky studying rears its ugly head! I'm sort of jealous. This girl is not afraid of knitting in public either - Woo-Hoo! She said her husband was making fun of her for knitting (it is fine for his grandmother, but not her) and I reminded her that she has two very pointy sticks now, and if she really loves knitting she will soon have more. He will learn to temper his remarks or he might gain a few new piercings, and she is the sort of girl to give it a go! I'm thinking there will be a steep but fast learning curve for him.

Just one more student to add to the knitting world, I think she'll get pretty motivated once she sees the other one didn't wait on her. I'm not so sure she'll absorb it as quickly, but we'll see. One thing I've learned about my students is that they can always surprise me. Usually that is a good thing.

I was pretty encouraged by the whole experience. She picked it up very quickly and didn't seem too put out by her early struggles (death grip on the needles and yarn, dropped stitches - she instinctively knew how to pick them up and get going again, etc.). I warned her that for many people, casting on is the hardest part and operating the needles is just awkward for a bit. She picked up the casting on part quickly and just kept going. Of course, if she had to do it again on her own, it might not go as easily, but if she's comfortable with the process, and perhaps already in love with the knitting part, she'll get it.

It was a good end to an insane work week, which was very much needed. Reading back over this, is has an over-caffeinated feel to it to me. Sorry. I haven't had any today. I am feeling very rushed and pressured in general, however, so that might be overflowing into my writing. Sorry. How about a funny story?

Saturday I got out and mowed the lawn. It took an hour and a half to do the whole thing, load of fun, but it was lovely outside. A bit cool, but that was even better as the breeze kept me cooled off. The kids were down the street playing with all of the others on a trampoline. I came back in the house, gave my DH all of my clothes for laundry (he did the laundry, I did the yard) and went to take a shower. My DH was working downstairs on a recording project for our church. We have a 20th anniversary celebration coming up and he is trying to help get some projects completed. Anyway, while I was in the shower (upstairs) a whole pack of kids came in to play. I turned off the water and found that I had one towel and nothing else. Nothing except a house full of kids that weren't mine, with a number of 8-10 year old boys among them. Yep. I had to make it through the kid-pack to get to my room full of clothes. My husband, being hard at work downstairs, was out of ear-shot and oblivious to my difficulties. Yep. Fun-ny! After the mad dash to the bedroom. Then the soon-to-be-five year old got all helpful. She kept opening the bedroom door to tell me what everyone was doing. I finally locked myself in the smaller bathroom to finish changing clothes.

Fortunately, no one seemed to notice my distress or lack of dress. So, I don't think I permanently scarred anyone but myself on this one. My husband has been receiving a lot of crap from me on it, but I do realize it is funny. Really. I do.

Thursday, May 03, 2007

They're heeeeeere!

Yippee! The Knit Picks Options arrived yesterday along with Romantic Style. I spent some time putting my needle kit together before flipping through the book. That dressing gown just makes me swoon. It would probably take 10 years to do, unless you use a knitting machine, which I don't have. I might compromise and do the bed jacket after I get through my stash knitting. I priced them out using Knit Picks and they wouldn't cost that much to do using their yarn. It is a dream book, an inspirational book, probably not a big "seriously going to do that project" book. That's fine, we all need our fantasies. I see now that there are a few needles sizes that don't come in the set, so I'll probably add those on my next order. I could have looked a little closer before ordering in the first place, but where's the fun in that?

Work continues to be really rough this week. It is mid-terms, so folks are a bit touchy (to say the least). It is Friday, though, so I just have to get through today and I'll be done. That's what I'm hoping, anyway. It looks like a fairly quiet weekend, so maybe some time for knitting and spinning. Unless my daughter sucks me into ZooTycoon again. Man, that game is so addictive... just one more tree/food stand/fence...

On the sweater side of thing, I counted all of my sections this morning and I'm pleased to say that all of my numbers seem to be correct. I'm very pleased that I haven't messed that up again. I was doing pretty well with the counting, but all of the ripping back (increasing when I shouldn't have) killed my counting habit. I really need to stay on that. Really. I'd like to post more pictures, but it looks pretty much the same except a little longer. How many photos of the blue blob do we need to look at. Still, it has been a while and I should get something up here. I wiped all of my photos off of my thumb drive, so I don't have any spare shots of anything. Bad blogger! I'll work on it.

Two of my students claim that they want to learn to knit. Mwhaaaahaaaahaaahaaa! I've promised to take the shopping for yarn and needles sooooooon. For now, I just keep bringing in pretty pattterns for them to look at, you know, for INSPIRATION. I'll let you know how that works out.

Tuesday, May 01, 2007

Happy Bealtaine! or May Day, if you prefer

Stoke up the bonfires and drive the cattle through them! As might be expected, after three days of lovely sun, we've gone back to clouds. Oh well. They both serve a purpose. After growing up in the desert, I enjoy the rain whenever I get it.

After a day of a more normal routine, I'm feeling a bit more myself. Yippee! I can't believe I was so unnerved by a pack of kids in my house. It must have been the fiber abuse that just pushed me over the edge. Last night was a family skate night for my oldest DD's school, so I packed up both girls and headed out to the skate deck. The youngest never wants to skate, but she was demanding to go. I was resigned to an evening of sitting around trying to entertain her. Surprise! Once we were there, she wanted to skate! The kids were all from school, but there was a couple of kids there from daycare as well, and one of them is my youngest's best buddy. This little girl was skating, so we had someone for the youngest to skate with (someone the same speed). It was so cute and I was so proud of her for trying! I felt kind of like I did when she started walking. So proud of her for trying, proud of her succeeding and a little wistful that she's hit another sort of milestone. Next fall she starts kindergarden and it is going to do me in, I have no doubts about it. Still, it was fun and she had a blast.

The oldest was learning some new tricks, circles and skating backwards. (The fiber-hating kids were there with their mom, and she was helping my oldest try new things.) She was doing a great job, the mom is a patient and good teacher, but she did fall a few times and managed to sprain her wrist. It hurt bad enough that we had to leave early, so it must have really hurt. We got her home, iced, Motrin-ed and found the Ace bandage for this morning. I wrapped her up before I left daycare, but told her she didn't have to wear it if she didn't want to. Poor bunny, she was really offended that she could get so hurt when having fun. She can wiggle her fingers and move her hand okay, it is only if she puts weight on her wrist that it hurts. I'm sure she'll be healed in no time. Kids have a magical way of getting well faster than a grown-up would.

Finally got some knitting done on the sweater again. I'm really pleased with my progress, for the most part. It'd be nice if I could remember that the increases occur every other row instead of every row. Or, more specifically, if I would remember to check which row I'm on before I start the next one. It does slow down the progress if I knit a row, rip a row and then re-knit it without the increases. Oh well, I'm just happy to be knitting really. And making progress. I've got about two more increase rows before I get to the next change in the pattern. Sorry, I'm not sure what comes next and I'm too lazy to go rummage for the pattern right now. I'll tell you when I get there. The suspence will be good for us. LOL I should make it today at lunch, barring the whole knit, rip, knit thing I've been up to. Right now? I'm on it, so maybe I'll get it right.

Did I mention that I flipped out and ordered the Knit Picks Options set? Hmm. I wasn't hiding it from you, really. Nope. I'm all about the honesty. I decided that I'm tired of running out for just one needle, because the pattern(whatever pattern that might be) always calls for the one I don't have, whether it is the needle size or the cable length. Mind you, I don't need anything for my current project (at least, I don't think so), but I'd like to be prepared for future projects. Sounds convincing, doesn't it? Also, I was thinking about swatching more responsibly if I'm going to do that great honking cardigan for DH. The gauge had better be right and so I'd better have a good selection of needles to choose from when I get ready to swatch it. That sounds even more convincing, right? Anyway, I'm waiting a bit anxiously for them to arrive. It could be any day now. I also picked up a book. I think it is Romantic Knits, a bunch of Rowan patterns. I love the look of them. I think they'll be a bit inspirational even if I don't knit them up, so well worth it to me. I don't subscribe to Rowan, so I don't have issues with duplicate patterns in my stash. I do like Rowan, at least some of it, but when they go wacky, boy, they go waaaaay out there. A bit pricey for random wacky right now, but maybe I'll knit all of my stash and get adventurous. Heeeeeeeeeheeeeeheeeee.

Oy. I feel better now.