It's almost October!

Life is moving along as normal here. I've been spinning and knitting, and enjoying it more lately. Somewhere along the way, my mojo has found me, and I'm very happy creating again. I didn't ever stop, really, but I was having a hard time being excited about my projects. But the Argosy scarf is almost done, and I can't remember a project I have enjoyed so much from beginning to end. I think I'm going to have to make a matching one for myself. I'm also contemplating some adult felted clogs, since Arleta has been trying so hard to show me how easy they are. I think they'd make a fantastic gift. I don't know if I could knit a pair in four days like she can, but they have a cool gift-giving factor that I can't ignore any longer. Ah, the siren call of a new project...

Each year, my husband and I help to host a pumpkin carving extravaganza at our church, and we'd better get on it. It's nearly October! I think we'll toast pumpkin seeds this year while we're there, and show everyone how to do it. We have a local expert come in and give the kids tips, hand them safety knives, and watch them go. Some parents get involved and are really creative with their pumpkins. I think there's an artist hidden away in all of us, and who can resist a big orange gourd for a canvas?

My daughter is having consecutively harder days in preschool. It's quite an adjustment, having to get along with other kids! She's a good-natured child, except for naptime, but her Id is present and accounted for at preschool. When I picked her up Friday, she was tucked in a corner, angry and crying. Her teacher had accidentally broken her marshmallow and toothpick construction, and there was no forgiveness in sight! It's a rare thing for one of my children to grump at a teacher, but it looks like this kid is the one. So I finally gave up having her grant forgiveness, and I took her to the store, where we bought more toothpicks and marshmallows. Then we spent the afternoon building a marshmallow building to be proud of.

And after that, my child solemnly informed me that her teacher said she could eat the marshmallows. I'm double-checking that on Monday, just to see how gullible I am.

Your morning laugh

Every good laugh deserves to be shared. Honestly, this got funnier every time I watched it. The third time, I sprayed biscuit all over the table, and I knew it had to go on the blog. It's just supposed to be facetious, so no hate mail, please!

(Deleted so everyone can keep uploading the blog who have landlines. If you want to see the video, it's at this page)

Thank you, all, for the birthday wishes. I appreciated all of the fuss and bother that was made over my birthday this year. The family even threw me a surprise party! How fun was that? Oh, and a note to self: Clean house more often. You never know...

And I'm so excited! The new Yarn Harlot book should be out soon, and as I was preordering it, I found the 2009 Calendar she's published. Woot! So I shall be very occupied when these items come in the mail, and the family will have to live off of the frozen dinners I am preparing in... well, preparation. I'm also starting a scarf for my oldest daughter, who is very difficult to knit for. Everything has to fit just so. When I brought home some red/pink roving from the last fiber festival, she right away grabbed it and asked for a lace scarf. I was so happy she wanted something from my needles, I just nodded and grabbed a spindle. The fiber was 2.8 ounces of Merino/Bamboo from Yarn Hollow, which is just great to spin, really. I've spun with bamboo several times now, and I think I'm an addict. (I'll let you know if my supply ever dwindles. That will be a sure tell.) It spun into 246 yards of a fine fingering weight. In parts, of course, because I'm not the most consistent spinner, it's nearly a laceweight. No matter, because the scarf is for show, not warmth, and it can be as lacy as it wants. The pattern is from Knitty, Argosy, and it's great fun to knit. I'm twitching to get back to it right now.



Things will be revving up soon for drama club and after school sign language classes, as well as teaching spinning to the third graders, which Arleta and I did last year. I am trying not to feel like I have to knit so much for the holidays. Everyone loves handmade gifts in my family, but I want to stay sane. Therefore, I think I shall sew this year, table runners and wallhangings, napkin sets, etc. They go faster than knitting, and will throw everyone a curve ball if they were expecting socks. If you all go crazy with knitting for the holidays, I will enjoy reading your blogs and allowing myself an extra cup of hot cocoa =)

Thirty-what?

So today I am 39 years old. My last year of the 30's, and don't think that doesn't mean anything. But I had a great day, with parties and pizza and prezzies, which were knitting books and socks and roving and - well, basically a knitter's birthday! And my cool brother got me Spore, just released, which my husband and I were finagling a way to buy. Heh. As if I didn't have enough things working against me finding blog time.

One of the things that I like about bloggers' birthdays is when they put pics up of when they were little. All those 70's pictures (or 60's or 80's) are fun to look back on. So here's some pics of the younger me and my three brothers, back in around 1973 =)

Week 5 is the charm!

Is anyone still with me on the Pushups Challenge? I've been in Week 5 for two weeks, did a do-over of Week 4, and I think I'll call this challenge done. After all, even if I can't do 100 pushups straight through, I'm still doing 137 pushups in under 15 minutes, and that makes me a winner in my own mind. I could do 13 pushups when I started this challenge with my husband's co-workers. I have better core strength from doing the pushups, and it's actually fun to drop down on the floor and do 40. So the contest went thusly: If you took a "before" picture, and are willing to send me that and an "after" picture, at whatever point in the contest that you're at right now, I'll take the entries and do a random drawing for some Noro sock yarn, a gift certificate to Etsy, and some stitch markers, once I get my friend to make me some =) And congrats to everyone who participated. It was harder than I expected, but what a great thing to do for yourself.

Here are some pictures of a new technique I've been doing. Well, it's not new, but it's new to me. It's called Cathedral Windows, and it's a way of turning fabric so you have a 3D effect. It is entirely hand-done, which I like, and it's harder than it looks, which I also like. I'm odd that way. These would work as potholders, but I'm thinking of them more as tabletoppers, trivets or little wallhangings. You could do a whole quilt this way, and I hear some people do. I just can't imagine turning all of those edges and tacking them down, in an entire quilt.



Send your pictures and comments on the pushup challenge to my email address. Careful, though. I'm likely to post the before and after picture of the winner. Don't worry, I'll post my own picture first =)