Interview with a Sheep

We had an amazing time at Oregon Flock and Fiber.

I will collect photos from the various cameras and share our wonderful weekend, but until then, enjoy my interview with a sheep, courtesy of Miss Sarah!

Relaxin' in Utah

Have you been wondering what Little Sir and I have been up to during our impromptu trip to Utah (other than making amazing adoption announcements?)

Well, let me share. . .

There has been quite a bit of spinning (and a little bit of knitting)





This beautiful yarn is a testament to the magical nature of spinning. My mom and I died the roving a few months ago. It was ugly, but we decided that one of us should still try spinning it to see what happened. She took it home, but I ended up spinning it in the last few days, we both agree that it is beautiful!

I have been commiserating with my newest little nephew. He and I are both second-borns- I get it ET, I really do, buddy. I've got your back.



We've been loving on the other adorable baby who lives here. Little Sir has taken on the role of baby entertainer, especially with this little girl- and really who can blame him?



The cousins have been spending a good deal of time sans clothing. . . (Hellooooooo summer time.)



And having a lot of fun with clothing too. (SLC has an incredible Children's Museum.)



Last but not least. . . We've been ooohing and aaaahing over fuzzy pictures of an 8 week old peanut called Baby-J. (Squeeeeeee)

February Lady and December Family

So my stealth knitting is revealed with possibly the worst FO pictures of all time.



The kiddos were just too darn cute and I forgot to get a photo of the Princess in her new sweater.



See, who can think about photographing sweaters when these two have the charm turned up?



Maybe she will get PBTB to take a picture of her in it and post it to her blog (hint hint!) It looks beautiful on her, and as she is hardly showing yet (at 24 weeks- sickening!) it is clear that it will look great on her after little ET is born.

Our trip to Utah for Christmas and New Years was on the higher end of the stress meter than we would have liked. It involved 8 hours in a plane (for a flight that should only take 2 hours,) two trips to the emergency room (none for our little family, W and Grandma are just accident prone,) as well as the usual stress of trying to make sure everyone feels like we are spending enough time with them (which we are never successful at, but not for lack of trying.)

We did enjoy seeing the Duke's oldest brother, his wife and their kids very much. It is the first time their two younger kids have ever been to Utah and it was a lot of fun to get to spend time with them.

And of course, getting to see my cousins and their kids and letting W and Little Sir "bond" was a highlight.

Readjusting to our daily routine has been proving difficult. Little Sir quickly grew accustom to haveing someone entertain him, play with him, hold him, and otherwise dote on him all the time. Now he thinks that I should fulfill this role. We have been having a lot more tantrums than normal. A few more days and we should be good, though.

Back to school for me was depressing. I thoroughly enjoyed my weeks off, but knowing I only have three classes to go gives me hope and keeps me going.

Lastly, we are currently experiencing a brief repeat of the 2007 nightmare. After weaning Little Sir it was time for me to find out what effect birth control pills would have on my now overly sensitive body. I was good through phase one, but upon starting phase two the muscle aches returned and tonight (day 13 or 14) the Chorea has returned. It isn't anything near the horribleness of the end of my pregnancy, but it is enough to keep me from sleeping. Needless to say, I will be visiting my doctor to discuss other options. Ah life. . .

Two Full Weeks

That would be how long it has been since I last posted. Here's why.

1. Needed to get ready for 1 week long vacation with 8.5 month old.
2. Throwing a baby shower for Lucy (good thing too, he's here and he's adorable)
3. My house has to be clean for baby shower.
4. I need to make a giant mess of my house in order to get ready for trip
4.5 Go Crazy
5. Clean house
6. Leave for vacation about 6 hours late (we were driving)
7. 2 hours from home realized that I brought my camera, I brought my lenses, I forgot my fully charged battery on the charger.
7.5 Purse lips in frustration at self
8. Spend 1.5 hours on the phone determining that there is not a camera shop within an hours drive of Seaside, OR.
8.5 Pout and declare that I will move there and open a camera shop.
9. Consider not taking Little Sir on his first outing to the beach because I can't document it.
10. Snap a few shots with a hijacked camera (thanks S.)


I like sand mama. . . I think.


We don't know the extra guy in the photo, he just jumped in. No, No, that's the Duke's Cousin, T. His fiance'e was the photographer that actually showed up ready to shoot. (Oh- and he gave her her ring while they were there- congrats you two!)

11. Enjoy the rest of the vacation (with short periodic sulky moments when I want my camera.)
12. Realize that baby is off his schedule, but not too bad.
13. Save all homework for the day after returning home- they day of class.
14. Send baby and husband away to watch cousin play basket ball.
15. Go to class.
16. Come home at 9:30pm and wonder where baby and husband are.
17. Give husband dirty looks for keeping baby out too late when his schedule is all ready off.
18. Get mastitis.
19. Suffer.
20. Think that you really should go to the doctor.
20.5. Don't
20.7. Entertain husband's family at home.
20.8. Don't care that they house is a wreck- feeling too crappy from mastitis to care about much.
21. Feel more or less better two days later.
22. Go with husband and baby to watch cousin play more basketball.


Cool photo, huh!


The spectators- very important to any game. Hey, at least we know how to support our team. We even brought our own mascot! (He's the cute little one.)

23. Stay out WAY too late again.
24. Go through lots of guilt about keeping baby out too late and making him grumpy.
25. Spend the entire next day diligently trying to correct previous days' parenting mistakes.
26. Think it's going pretty well.
27. Get knocked off the parenting pride step when baby won't go to sleep until 10:30.
28. In the midst of baby not sleeping take part in volunteer's conference call for FSA conference.

Yes, it has been a tough re-entry after vacation, but the vacation was great (minus the forgotten camera battery.) I love the Oregon Coast. It's beautiful, and peaceful and somehow it's easier to breath there.
Little Sir got to meet several of his family members for the first time and had lots of smiles, cuddles, and general adorableness for everyone.
I bought yarn. I made it to four yarn stores. I didn't really buy anything amazing, but I have some fun projects planned. A new family tradition is in the works (and it revolves around yarn, what could be better?) I will share more later.
To keep you in good spirits, though, I'll show a little of what I found in

Astoria (Custom Threads)

"Smart Wool" destined to become a vest for Little Sir.

and

Raymond (A Willapa Connection)

Brown Sheep's Nature Spun Sport thinking it wants to be some fingerless gloves.

Oh yes, and one more vacation tradition to share.
The Duke and I always buy more salt water taffy than two people should ever eat in a lifetime, let alone the couple of weeks before it goes stale.


Come on over and get yourself some. We have lots to share.

Let's Party!

We were happy to be in Utah for my oldest nephew's 7th birthday.

Kids, presents, food, candy, and. . . a new trampoline. Oh yeah, he's the new favorite kid on the block.

Princess P. loves parties more than anyone I know.

And it appears her son inherited the party gene.

It's a good thing I got the whole family blogging. Now I'm not the only crazy one running around with camera in front of my face the whole time.


There were other reasons to celebrate as well (or at least we were going to have a party anyway, so any excuse would do.) Little Sir figured out that he has stomach muscles and that he can use them to keep from falling over backwards. YEAH!


Here is Aunt R. (have we given her a blogging name? She should be the Countess or something, shouldn't she?) giving Little Sir a break from his ab workout.


And what do you do when the party animal gets a little out of control? Throw him in a basket of course!

And that concludes the trip to Utah.

Fond Memories

Little Sir and I stayed with my grandparents while we were in Utah. They live, conveniently, next door to my parents. It was wonderful for all of us. Each morning Little Sir and I would rise at our usual un-earthly hour of around 7:30. My parents, from whom I got my night owl tendencies, were still fast asleep. My grandparents, however, consider this a perfectly acceptable time of day to be awake. This worked out great. For the hour between waking and our first nap of day Little Sir would charm the three of us over breakfast and lovely conversation.




One of my fondest memories of growing up was the "bear skin" rug at my grandma and grandpa's house. (I'm not sure what kind of animal it was, but we always called it a bear skin.) I loved to lay on that rug. It was so much fun to see my own son react to an experience that I remember vividly from my own childhood. I know he won't be able to remember this exact experience, but I certainly will. It was so sweet. As you can see he was very comfortable, as well as curious as to what animal he had been surrendered too. He loved pulling on the soft fur.

"Blogging? Do we Still do That?" or "Misleading Images of my Summer Torture."

I have now been back for five days. I said I would return to the blogging world when I had recovered from the month away from home. It has become apparent that I will not recover any time soon, as sleep is a main requirement for recovery, and this baby has decided that I will not sleep any time soon. . . so as women are wont to do. . . I have decided that moving forward is the only option.

Now that you have had a few days to absorb the adorable pictures of my new nephew, it is time for pictures of yarn and what might pass for typical vacation photos.

Several of you said that I must not miss School Products, the oldest yarn store in Manhattan. It is difficult to find, but well worth the search. The owners are the creators and distributors of Karablla Yarns, and while I did not meet the wife, the husband was very very nice. I agree, if you can only visit one yarn store in NYC, make it this one. What, you might ask, makes a this yarn store, with no store front, on the third floor of a plain looking office building so special? The owner's relationship with the mills who produce Karabella Yarns for them. You can find there any Karabella Yarn in any color, along with many other lovely comerically available yarns, however, that alone is not enough to make it so special. The mills who create the yarns for them also produce yarns for high end clothing companies such as Armani. They sell their mill ends from these yarns to School Products at a highly discounted rate and they graciously pass these one of a kind and offerings onto their customers at great prices. You can get a sampling of them on their website.



These four are: first, the light brown is several thousand yards of merino lace weight; the multi color at the top is a cashmere, merino, silk blend that has been hand painted; the camel color in the middle is in fact baby camel; and the blue is a lovely cotton and silk that told me that it had to go home to live with Tzarina.



This was my main purchase, about 2.5 lbs of a 70/30 Merino/Cashmere blend. It is an aran weight and is destined to be a long cabled sweater. I can hardly wait!



I did also visit Purl Soho, but didn't buy anything. It is a cute little yarn store with a friendly staff, but didn't offer anything that I can't get here in Seattle, and after School Products, my yarn budget for the entire year is pretty much shot.

I did make a purchase of fabric at their fabric store a few doors down, two adorable bundle of fat quarters, one each for the Princess and the Queen.

Our day spent in Soho was hard on my feet, but relaxing and fun. I also acquired something for the Alien, of course.


Isn't it hysterically adorable. I love it!


We ate here in Soho, and of course we had to have a picture.

A few other New Yorkish pictures. . .


The Duke inside the Stature of Liberty


St. Patrick's Cathedral


View from our hotel room in Midtown near Central Park.




And an amazingly beautiful window display in, of all places, the front windows of a Chocolatier.

OK, that's all for now. Washington DC and Tooele to follow.

I'm here, I haven't roasted yet.

I'm still here, or rather, I have returned.

The Duke, the alien and I spent the last week in Seaside, OR with the Duke's family. It's a yearly trip that we always greatly enjoy. I did take my camera, but didn't even pull it out of my bag, so no pictures. Seaside has been well documented though, and you can enjoy a bit of the beauty here if you so desire.


This is what we see from the window of condos that we stay in. Lovely, no?

The best part about Seaside is the temperature. It was between 68 and 75 degrees F. (20-24 C.) the entire time we were there. PERFECT! It was not so nice to return to 96 F. (36 C.) Seattle yesterday. The dogs and I spent the day trying to keep cool which included a trip to Lake Washington where even Logan went swimming without me throwing him in, watering all the plants in the backyard while periodically watering ourselves, going to get a Slurpee (it was 7-11 day,) and hiding in the bedroom, the only air conditioned room in our house.

Even the alien is too hot. He doesn't move unless we are in an air conditioned room or car, poor alien. He's probably half boiled. It sure feels like it. No matter how much ice water I drink or how long I sit directly in front of the air conditioner, my belly still feels like it's overheating. BLECH!

Anyway, on to knitting news, there was a lot of vacation knitting accomplished, and I will show it off in the next day or two. I also purchased some vacation yarn and the Duke and I made a very very cool acquisition for the alien, I can't wait to show you.

In the mean time, Princess P. and PBTB went for a 3-D ultrasound. If you want previews of little W. check our her blog!

Just What the Doctor Ordered

The Duke and I decided to take off to Portland for the weekend. We were in dire need of a little down time.

Before we left I treated myself (with knitter's credit of course) to a couple of Grafton Fiber's Batts, one is Cooridale, the other Wensleydale. I can't wait to try them out.





I got more knitting done this weekend than I have in the last three weeks.

I was part way through the first one of these, and now there are two. I love them. They were originally intended to be socks, but about 2 inches down the first one, I realized I hadn't cast on enough stitches. (How does that happen?) Not to fear, I have itty bitty wrists and smallish hands. Fingerless mitts to the rescue! They are in my handdyed sock yarn. I think I originally called the colorway "St. George."



I started and finished this, which looks terrible before it's blocked, so you just get a pretty fabric shot until then. The yarn in Jitterbug by Colinette, doubled.



I also started my next pair of socks (seeing as the last pair turned out to be mitts instead.)



In addition to all this wonderful knitting time, I got a little fun shopping in.

I visited Knit-Purl, my favorite Portland LYS. If you are ever in Portland you must go, and if you never make it to Portland, good thing for you they have an awsome website. Check it out, and be sure to drool over their own line of yarns, Shibuiknits.
I love the silk puff. I had a hard time walking away from it. Hilltop is awaiting our own order of their sock yarns, which Kalani was kind enough to inform me we can expect in the next 2-3 weeks. YIPPEE

So what did I pick up?

This- sock yarn and matching roving from Fleece Artist. It is intended to be a kit for thrumbed socks, but I won't be using it that way. I'm not too interested in thrumbing.


I also got another cone of this. I got a cone of it last year and Logan got ahold of it and killed about half of it before I got to him (little bugger!) I couldn't figure out what I was going to do with such a small amount. I decided that I would just buy more in a contrasting color. I have an idea of what it might become.



We also paide a visit to Powell's Books, my very first visit. Heavens to Betsy this place is HUGE! We were there for an hour and a half (not nearly enought time.) I didn't even make it all the way through one room and there are 7 very large rooms. You must go, it is, just as they claim, a book lover's paradise. I got these.



I'll be sharing out of both of them. The Knit to Fit is a hysterically charming vintage (early 60's) knitting book with some very useful info in it as well. The other is just a cheap cook book that looks like it has some good fast dinners in it. It has over 700 recipes in it and all of them only have 4 ingredients. I hope it has an index. ***looking*** It does.
Last but not least, I spet a great deal of time grooming Maggie, a long overdue chore. Have you ever wondered how much fur comes off of a Wire-haired Fox Terrier from stripping HALF of her body, and all this after all ready spending severl hours pulling out matts? You can see why some spinners might get it in their heads to spin their dog's fur. No, I will not be spinning this. It smells like a dirty dog!



And now we are home, and tomorrow we return to real life. Sigh. At least the Duke gets paid to go to work this week, and then, he starts his second to last rotations. We are gearing up for a serious CELEBRATION!