Christmas with the kiddies

Christmas Eve- Devin in front of my parent's tree:
Devin & Georgie opening gifts Christmas morning:

Darth George:
Putting his Pokemon cards into his new binder:
Devin wearing the roving that I dyed for my friend. I thought I didn't have a picture ofit, but apparently I do! I can't wait to see what this looks like when it's spun up :-)

Christmas is DONE!!!!

Yeah!!! It's over!!!! The pressure has lifted and I can knit whatever the heck I feel like knitting.... Until it's someone's birthday, or I feel pressure to actually finish some of the things I've started for Juli in the past but never finished! LOL!

So, you may be wondering what I've been working on.... Well, even if you're not I'm gunna tell you :-P The un-photographed items are roving that I dyed for a friend, a neck warmer for my mother-in-law and a mouse stuffed animal for my nephew, Alex. Now for the things I haven't blogged about yet.

I dyed sock yarn for my sisters:

Juli said that her's will become a pair of Jaywalkers. From her swatch it looks like the color repeats will come close to a full round, if it doesn't actually make it all the way, so hopefully the pattern will look nice in this. Gloria wants to make a mini Clapotis out of hers. I can't wait to see how their projects look!!! I'm really enjoying dying lately, and the only drawback is that I don't have a workshop to so it in where I don't have to worry about staining the countertops of the floor if I get sloppy.

I finished a Brea Bag:

I loved this bag and was sad to see it go!! It was gifted to a friend at work. She had to get a canvas purse liner to put inside it b/cher keys kept poking through, so next time I'll either slightly felt the bag or will line it.

I made a scarf and Calorimetry set:

This went to the same friend that got the Brea Bag. I was her Secret Santa at work, and oddly enough she was mine too! It worked out perfect, I knit for her & she got me yarn & a Gift Certificate to a yarn shop!!

I also made jewlery for my Hubby's cousin's daughter and for Devin, none of which was photographed, but Devin's I can get pixc of anytime. I gave jars of granola out to just about everyone, and I wasn't sure how it would be received, but everyone seemed to love it and several people have requested more when I make another batch :-) I modified a recipe that I found in a Working Parent's cookbook, and it was quite yummy if I do say so myself. I had to make like a million batched b/c George kept eatingit before I got it packaged!!

As for the gifts I received, well, they rocked!! Gloria got me some Cherry Tree Hill sock Yarn in Cherry Blossom, a Yarn Harlot book, and the Jessica Seinfeld cook book.

Juli knit me the most awesomeist socks ever in a color that's PERFECT for most of my winter work clothes (browns) and gave me some local Ohio Alpaca, in a natural grey color (above w/ the sock yarn):

George and I haven't exchanged gifts yet due to lack of funds, but he'll be making me a carrying case for my wheel (yeah!!!), and I'll get him some movies and Xbox games. I really want to get him the Xbox 360, but who knows when I'll be able to afford that!

The kids seemed to really like everything they got, and had a great Christmas. I've got tons of pix of them, and a funny story about Georgie, but they will have to wait for the next post since there are already a billion pix in this post already.

Next year I've decided I'm doing things differently... Holiday knitting will be limited to small projects, and I'll be starting them early (yeah right!! LOL!).

As for life... Here's the latest: Devin had tubes in her ears. She lost the right one a few months ago, and since then she's had fluid behind the eardrum and frequently the eardrum perferates and the fluid drains out. I took her to the ENT today and he put her on Nasonex. He said if it doesn't work that she'll need a new tube and will possibly have her adnoids out at the same time. I'm concerned about the scar tissue building up on her eardrum & her having permanent hearing loss if the eardrum keeps perferating, which the ENT said is a possability. She has some hearing loss now, but it's due to the fluid. Georgie also went to the doc today, but he went to the Neurologist. He seems to be doing well on the Adderall, but his sleep is a concern. I'm back and forth on medicating him over the weekend (I typically don't) but she suggested that it may help keep him on an even keel if I do. But in my mind, that suck b/c then he'll have sleep issues EVERY day instead of just on weekdays. Sigh.... She also said that he has poor muscle tone in his hands and forearms, which is apparently not uncommon in ADHD kids. She gave me a few suggestions of execises to do w/ him at home to strengthen his muscles. I had discussed having an OT eval with his teacher last year, but it was never formally requested, but since he's having a speech eval in January I may ask that they do an OT eval at that point too.

My current knitting project is a pair of Jaywalkers. I'm up to the heel gusset of the first sock. I'm making it a short sock b/c my legs are too fat for me to pull it up any further than that! LOL! The yarn feels SOOOO nice to work with. The only problem is that the ball of yarn keeps puking it's guts out.

I'm really hoping that I actually get a PAIR of socks rahter than just one. George has requested a pair of knit socks, and I got yarn for them today, so hopefully I'll get through my socks and make a pair for George. I think that making socks for him is more attainable for me than an entire sweater. I also have to make a few Calorimetries that people requested and make a hat & pair of mittens for the guy that gave us the navagation charts.

OK, enough of my random rambles for one night :-)

STRESS!!!!!!!!!!!

I'm a bit stressed right now!!!!! I have NO Christmas gifts purchased, and only a very few made. I have one for my Mom & one for my nephew- that's it. Yikes!!! So, clearly I will NOT be knitting for everyone this year. I've been so stressed that I go home & pass out- just can't seem to stay awake at night :-( I'm hoping for some bonus money in my next paycheck so I can make Christmas happen.... If it's not in this paycheck I don't know what I'm gunna do. Stress, stress, stress..... At least it will all be over in two weeks, right???

Told ya I would return

I'm back with pix :-)

Socks my pal made me.... I think Juli was a bit miffed that she wasn't the one to give me my first pair of knitted socks! LOL! The entire package: Stuffie for one of my nephews. Not sure which one yet. After I made the 2nd one Devin will pick out which is for who. The features are actually more noticable than they are in this picture.
And Devin showing how sad she is that I wont let her keep this kitty. Every time I made something for someone I wind up having to make one for Devin & Georgie too... then it gets carried around for a day or two then lost under the bed or in the closet for te rest of eternity. So, I told the kids that they have to wait til after Christmas for me to have time to make them each one of these!
And that's that :-)

Got a package :-)

I got my package from my secret pal!! She did one package at the end of the exchange instead of one each month. I had no clue that this is what she was doing til the very end, so I was getting worried that I didn't receive anything throughout the exchange, but the other day I came home to find a big box waiting for me on the dining room table :-) Yeah! I haven't taken pix yet, but I have a few things to photograph, so I'm sure I'll get to it soon. This is what I got: Beaded stich markers, Reeces PB Cups (yum!), Monkey socks (!!!!), garnet colored fleece from Harrisville Designs (where my mom is going this weekend to try to get me more yarn to finish my Brea Bag), two pattern booklets for really cute christmas patterns, and the Vogue Stictionary- Cables Volume. My mom got me all three of the Vogue books for my B-day, so I'm thinking I'll arrange a trade with one of my sisters. Any takers? What do you have to offer? I do think the cables volume is the best of the three.... LOL! And I'm pretty sure that's it, but I'll know for sure if I forgot anything when I go take the pix.

I've been getting a bit of knitting done. Made a really cute stuffie for one of my nephews, which I'll photograph & put up later. I'm making another for my other nephew. I'm definitely glad I got my *knitting mojo* back- I have so much to do for the holidays!! G is out & about today, so I'm hoping to get some big time knitting done then clean the house a bit (yeah, right! LOL!). I'm making a Calorimetry for my Secret Santa at work, so I think I'm gunna go look through my stictionaries to find a stich pattern to use on a scarf to go with it. I'm thinking some kind of a rib, but I don't think I want to make just a 2x2 rib. I may also make her a pair of fetching, but I'm not quite sure she'll *get* the fingerless glove thing.... Hmmmm......

Finally did something

I made a set of stich markers:
And a set of wine charms:

Knit the pieces for the Brea Bag, but ran out of yarn so I'm not sure how to finish it: Knit a kitty, and several more have already been requested:

And started a sock:

Now I don't feel like such a slacker :-)

Still here!

I haven't been posting much, or on line much at all lately, so I'm just popping in to say I'm still here! I haven't been knitting or doing anything fiber related all that much lately either. I think I'm going into a bit of a slump, which really sucks b/c I'm supposed to be in knitting over-drive to get Christmas gifts made.

I finished the knitting on the Brea Bag I was making, but I don't have enough yarn left for the finishing. I have to pull out my stash and find a yarn to do the finishing with that doesn't look like crap with the bag. I made a little something-something for my Secret Pal's daughter, so I think I now have everything for the final package and will mail it out next week. I hope she likes it. I have patterns and yarn for a billion other projects I was intending on making, but I really don't know if I'll get to them. I know I'll get the Stuffies made for my nephews and my kids, and I really ahve to make my MIL's Christmas gift, but beyond that I really don't know. I also don't know where I'm gunna come up with funds to purchase gifts that I'm now not knitting. It will all work out in the end, right? It always does.

OK, time to hop in the shower & see if I can get playdates set up for the kids. No way am I braving the stores today!

sick and tired

Everyone is sick, and because of that I'm tired! Devin has "Bronchitis with a touch on Pnemonia" according to her Doctor. George FINALLY went to the Doctor thismorning & his lungs are pretty clear, but the doctor heard a little something, so he's on Abx just to be safe. Devin is on Abx too & after one day they're already messing with her tummy.

On the fiber front, I made a little something for my Secret Pal, but since she's used her Super Sluth Skillz & figured out who I am I can't post about it here :-P (Hi Stormy!!) I'll put it up after she gets the package, but I think it's pretty cool :-) I'm also still working on the Brea Bag, but had to rip out the gusset b/c I ran out of yarn, so I'm re-making it narrower & hopefully I'll have enough yarn! Then I'll take a trip to my Mom's house to go through her fabric stash to pick out fabric to line the bag with.

A guy that George knows through his work came over last night to give him some charts for the boat (waterway stuff) and he asked me if I would knit him a hat & mittens in exchange for the charts, so I'm off to the yarn store today to get some Cascade 220 superwash :-)

And that's that :-)

First handspun on my Joy

My first skein of yarn spun on my Ashford Joy! 93 yards of soft fluffy goodness!Yeah! It's one ply soy silk in purple green and blue and one ply merino that I dyed in shades of purple (see the post below). It looks like brains in this picture: And here it's a little neater:
Devin has requested a cabledhat out of this. I think I can do that :-) I have some more fiber in the crock pot right now that I'll be spinning into yarn for my secret pal. One ply will be alpaca and the other merino. Hopefully I'll spin it a bit more evenly than this! For my first skein on the wheel I don't think it's too bad though. And the merino- which I spun second- was WAY mpore even than the soy silk, so I take that as a sign that I'm improving.

Sailing and fiber

I feel like it's been mostly Georgie pictures lately. Next time I'll have to post some more of Devin.

So, first, this is Georgie with a guitar he made out of rubber bands and plastic containers. He completely made this on his own, and even knew how to play it and make the rubber bands create different sounds. I don't care what he gets on his spelling and math tests, the kid's smart! Georgie and George steering to boat:
I don't know how clearly you can see it in this picture, but the water was ROUGH while we were out!
Some merino I dyed. I spun up a little sample on the drop spindle and it was quite lovely!!
It will be plied with this- a soysilk/wool blen in green blue & purple.

And that's it for now!

Juli is getting settled in Ohio. They found two houses they like & should have an offer put in on one soon, so I expect that we'll have Episode 4 of the podcast up soon. Gloria is even trying to get her computer set up so she can get in on it too

So much to say

So much since my last post... Georgie turned 6:
Demonstrating his new Shark Attack toy :-X Ya, that's a diver hanging out of the shark's mouth!Halloween, Georgie was a skelaton
The kids carving a pumpkin with George

Devin was a woodland fairy. Sometimes she said she was Mother Nature, othertimes she was just a fairy. Whatever you call it, she was adorable! Ready to go Trick or Treating
There was also a boat ride, spinning, dying and a little knitting. Will post more about thos at a future date. I know all anyone cares about is the pix anyway!

My Gma's the cutest!

We went into the city (New York that is) and saw Mama Mia on Broadway. Gma hasn't been in the city or on a train in years. She even got a fancy corsage:
We went in to celebrate Gma's 80th birthday. It was Gma, my Mom, my Aunt, my two female cousins, my two sisters and myself. Girl's night out :-) Aunt San has pictures of us at dinner, so I'm trying to get a copy of them.

More on Rhinebeck; and Gma

A little more on Rhinebeck...

So, we went on Saturday only. Mom, Juli & Gloria picked me up at like 8ish, maybe a bit after, so we knew we would be getting up there later than we wanted, but so be it. We got there at around 11 and hit a few barns before going to the Blogger Bingo/Ravelry meet-up at 12. We were actually a bit late for that, but lots of people were still there. I found a few squares on my card & a few people we ran into had Juli or me on their cards. It was fun to talk to everyone, even if we didn't get Bingo out of it! After the meet-up it was serious shopping time! They had told me the night before that I was getting a wheel for my B-day, so I was off to test drive a few! I wanted an Ashford, so I tried a few & decided I liked the Joy for several reasons. One of which being that it's totally portable, so if I ever make it to the LI Spinner Guild I can take my wheel!! Yeah!!! So, while I'm at this booth testing out the Joy who walks up behind me to chat with the shop owner but the Yarn Harlot herself!!! It was pretty funny b/c my sisters and I had just been talking about her & how my daughter really likes the book I have (Meditations for Women who Knit too Much) and how she asked me if I can pass it on to her, then she can pass it on to her daughter when she has one. She wants this silly little paperback book to be a family heirloom! LOL! We didn't say anything to her (It was just Gloria & I) but we did go find Juli to let her know we saw someone famous! So, Mom comes back to the booth with us & she buys me the wheel and a pound of BFL to spin on it!!!!! Yeah!!!!!! We leave it at the booth to pick up later. Other purchases made were a pattern for a really cute hat for Devin, I'll post a link when I find one, a Spin-Off magazine, a pound of supersoft Merino to spin, two ginormous hanks of undyed superwash sock yarn and several colors of Jacquard dyes. It was a GOOD day :-)

Later in the day when we were all together we were waiting on line to get a drink & I'm snapping pix of Juli, Gloria & my Mom. I turn around to put my camera away & Stephanie the Yarn Harlot is standing there behind me! I swear at this point it was clear she was stalking me! LOL! We said hi. She asked how our Blogger Bingo was going. We told her how Devin wants her book to be a family heirloom. We asked her how her shopping was going. And that was it. I didn't want to shove my camera in her face & snap a pic b/c she was shopping & not doing a book signing today. I thought it would be a bit rude to make her pose for pix while she was trying to shop!

Here are a few more pix:

Juli, Gloria and Mom. Have I mentioned yet that i dyed Juli's shirt? Well, I did :-)

My new wheel :-))))) Yeah!!!!! Those bags have the fiber that I will eventually spin on it.
Gloria, all shopped out:
Juli at the end of the day:
Crochet Mama driving home:
Mom saw someone making a crochet bag that she liked, so was on the hunt for the book the pattern was it, but wasn't able to find it. Juli got some great stuff, check out her blog for details. Gloria only got a kit from Morehouse.

Rhinebeck Pix

Here are a few pictures. Actual text will follow eventually :-)

Self portrait: Gloria, Mom, Valerie & Juli (aka: Knit Sibs and Crochet Mama! LOL!)

Gloria waiting for a drink. Three seconds later we saw Stephanie the Yarn Harlot. No pic of her b/c she was shopping, not signing, so I didn't want to invade her private time. We did chat with her for a few seconds. More on that next time. Juli, Gloria & Mom at the end of the day. We were tired & ready to go home!
Juli, me & Gloria
Mom & Juli checking out Border Collie Rescue stuff
And finally... me spinning on my new wheel at Mom's house!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!!!! I tested out a few wheels, and wound up with the Ashford Joy. I wanted an Ashford, they're small, I like the look of them, they're the most reasonable priced wheels I've seen.... I tested out the Joy, Kiwi, Traveler and Traditional. I decided the Joy would be best b/c it's fold-up and portable & I liked the way it felt when I was spinning on it. When I have a craft room I can get a bigger wheel, but this is PERFECT for now!!!!! Squee!!!!!!

More info, and maybe even a few more pix, to follow later in the day. We should be doing a Rhinebeck podcast in the next few days too.

Episode 2 & Rhinebeck

I'm off to Rhinebeck this morning!!! WooHoo :-)))))))

Episode 2 of the Knit Sibs podcast is up. Gloria joins us for this one, and they tell me what I'm getting for my birthday. We're up on iTunes now, so go subscribe!!

She-Knits Rocks!

I got a package from Sharon of She-Knits:

It's a copy of Crazy Aunt Purl's book: Drunk Divorced and Covered in Cat Hair, two skeins of beautiful sock yarn, a set of stich markers, and a knitters ring. WooHoo!!!! I love getting mail :-)

Now go check out her Etsy shop & buy something from her!!

In other news, Juli is coming into town tonight, so that means RHINEBECK on Saturday!!! Yeah!!!! We'll be recording on Friday, so look out for a new podcast this weekend. Also, but something from her Etsy shop too!!

If you have me on your Blogger Bingo card, there are plenty of pics of me on here if you scroll back. I'll be with my sisters all day, so it should be easy to spot us. There's a pic of the three of us together on the podcast site ;-) Also, there's a rumor about a meet-up at noon by the food building, so I plan on being there.

Purple Yarn & Rhinebeck

As promised the results of the Purple Yarn Experiment are in, and I'm happy to say that they are much better than the Fall Colors Yarn :-)

This was a lot of fun to make! I don't think the range of colors come through very well in the pictures. It ranges from very light lavander to dark blue/purple. It did speckle a bit, as I thought it would, but I really don't mind those spots. Yeah for successful dying!! Even if I am the only one who sees this as success I'm still happy!! LOL! I want to get some Jacquard dyes now & some Bare Knit Picks yarn & play around with those :-) The two yarns I've dyed are both sock yarns, and being that I don't knit socks I may have to gift them to Juli :-P I really wanted to make a lacy scarf (thinking Branching Out??) with the Fall Colors yarn, but I'm still undecided about the colors.

Next weekend is Rhinebeck! WooHoo!!!! Juli & I are playing Blogger Bingo :-) We're both squares (Catch us ifyou can!!) and I decided like yesterday that I want to be a player too. I got my card like 6 minutes ago & I have to find some printer paper so I can print it out.... Time to start stalking blogs to see what my targets look like!

Also, I've been pimping our podcast and I'm pretty excited to say that several people have atually downloaded it!! Hopefully they found us interesting enough to come back for Episode two, which we plan on recording on Friday. Juli will be in town for Rhinebeck on Saturday then Mama Mia on Sunday (I *heart* ABBA!!!) to celebrate my Gma's 80th Birthday, so we'll all get together at my house to record. Our first recording was pretty craptacular since we just pressed *record* and blathered on, but next time we'll organize an outline & try to stay on topic for more than 3 seconds at a time!

One final picture: my Lil Man playing Football this weekend. He's #95 (second from the left in the red).... notice his size compared to the other team :-X

They don't have to submit birth certificates in the 5 & 6 year old division, so I'm 99.9% sure the kids on the other team were NOT 5 & 6!!!! They were freaking HUGE!!!! I know my kid is small (he's 42 pounds & will be 6 in 2 weeks) but REALLY!!!!! The kids you see in the picture were the smallest from the other team. Their *A* team was twice the size. We had about 10 kids on our team & they had about 26. We have more kids in this age group, but they got split into two teams so the kids get to play more. Apparently the other team was more concerned with winning than anything else. Lil G sat on the sideline most of the game, which was fine by me.... not only were these guys huge but they were playing dirty too!! The coach said he was afraid to put G in against these kids. I can't wait for wrestling to start back up, at least then I know he's matched up with someone his own size! This game was a few miles from my Grandparents, which I didn't realize until I got off the Expressway at their exit, so I called them & they came to the game then took us out for pizza. We then went back to their place & hung out for a bit. It was nice to spend some time with them.