Playing Catch-up, Again?

Kathleen-
My summer blogging laziness apparently took over, since I haven't posted in almost a month. There's been knitting and spinning, but mostly there's been being busy.

So, a few things I missed:

Happy Anniversary!

Happy Graduation to the Hubby!

Mike and I drove all over the Midwest, visiting our friend's babies, seeing my grandparents, and attending an amazing Hindu wedding. We also visited the sights in Chicago, and spent lots of casual time hanging out with people we don't get to see much of these days.

A quick photographic recap of things that have happened since my last post (no pictures of the babies cause I'm not sure how their families would feel about them being posted on the internet):
Visiting the new Grizzly Coast exhibit at the Minnesota Zoo, featuring a water fight between the 3 Grizzlies!

Finding out that Mike has the wingspan of a Bald Eagle:
Seeing Sue the T-Rex at the Field Museum:
Being distorted by the Bean in Millenium Park in Chicago:

Fireworks over Navy Pier (from a boat out on the lake):
And for a wedding that was a multi-day affair, there were a lot of different outfits:


(and I'm actually missing one that I managed to get no pictures of). As has become par for the course this summer, I have lots more pictures, knitting, spinning, and ABCalong to catch up on, etc. I'll get there eventually!

So Sorry

Kathleen-
I'm so sorry to hear about your Grandma, she was a truly wonderful woman. We're thinking about you here, and as Friends say, holding you and your family in the light.

To continue your tradition of randomness today, I've written the following post.

I've been spinning quite a bit: I joined Carole's 10 minutes a day of spinning, as well as the Tour de Fleece. This week I finished this:

About 200 yards of Shetland fingering weight yarn in blues, greens, and purples from my long ago Spinning/Roving Swap.

And I've been working diligently on turning this 8oz of Frabjous Fibers BFL Top in the Purple People Eater colorway:

I'm spinning very fine in the hopes of a light fingering weight yarn at the end. It's unbelievably soft and easy to spin. We also had a special visitor to knit night:
Yes, that would be a hedgehog!

399

Hey Flan,

Happy Anniversary to US! By the way, this is the 399th post! Sorry for being incommunicado. There was the stressful insanity of Finals followed by the delightful insanity of a family visit followed by exhaustion.

But first of all, here's the yarn acquistion- not counting the Jaeger for the future niece/ nephew

There's a completed Rowan Sampler blanket made with Pakucho Organic Cotton; the Princess Pram Cover in Debbie Bliss Organic Cotton, Eco Wool, Knitpicks Andean Silk, Knitpicks Cotlin in Key Lime, Cascade 220 in green, Berocco Ultra Alpaca and Rowan DK Something in green and red.

But back to the family visit...

Here's The Sister wearing my silk pjs and her NEW CPH!

We had a "little" dinner party (5 course dinner for 8 cooked by The Brother) and at one point The Hubby was celebratorily dunked in the pool.

Also, for what it's worth...

We had a great time and it was super fantastic to see everybody. It's getting warm here (90s) so the summer knitting is starting. I had been working on a wool vest but wool is hot and so I've mostly switched to cotton.

Bug Bitten Bottom of Foot (Day 1)

Hey Flan,

Firstly, Welcome to MN to Flan's MOM! I remember the first time I met your mom and I didn't know her name, which turns out to be the same as The Sister's name, so I just called her "Flan's Mom" for awhile. The first time I met your mom was at Parent's weekend. We were in the dorm and you were looking for something in your room which was messy, so we turned her around to look into my room which was clean and she could imagine that's what yours looked like.

This morning I managed to get a bug bite on the bottom of my foot. Whilst sleeping nonetheless. I had stuck a foot out of the covers and apparently it was good because I now have a big bug bite which was SO super fun to stand on all day at work. Today I really really wanted to tell the patrons that I could either be nice to them or deal with their icky-sticky return items, but not both. My boss said it wasn't an either/or situation. I still beg to differ.

It turns out that one of The Sister's bags was stolen. At first I thought the situation was much more dire than it is, but it still sucks. Her predicament spurned me into knitterly action and fully convinced me that I can knit 2.3 socks in 10 days. Who knows- it could happen.

I decided to give myself an extension on The Mommy's sweater. I might have been on schedule if I hadn't screwed up the back so royally. Turns out those knitting voices that say it will all be alright are much more powerful than I had thought.

My MOST favorite holiday of the entire year is coming up Thursday. I'm just as excited as usual. This year I'm making stuffing and an apple almond tart to contribute. I'll post the recipes in the next couple of days- or whenever I have a minute from all that sock knitting I'll be doing.

Hodge Podge

Kathleen-
Ack! I'm sorry to hear about your Dad's injury...I hope he's doing better and not lifting anything, and that he's being a good patient for your Mom's sake!

Yesterday involved a lot of digging and gardening. After I posted I went and bought a big bunch of pretty bulbs, and planted them out front, and pulled a ton of weeds (how do the weeds get out of control so fast?!)

After all that, I didn't knit much...a bit on Henry, and a bit more on the socks for Grandpa. I'm succumbing to the group opinion and keeping the toe/hell brown. Actually, the further I get with the green, the more I like it. I'll be measuring tonight...I think I'm almost to the gusset increases for the first sock!

There was, however, no progress on Rogue. I just couldn't face the thinking required.....

There was a bit of progress on a super secret knitting project, but being super-secret, I'm not going to spill the beans!

Slothful Sunday

Hi Flan,

I'm loving the toe color. The colors together are vaguely Mac-ish and the idea of orangey toes and heels makes me smile, though I do love a brown/blue combo...

I FINISHED THE ROTTING PUMPKIN SWEATER! It's washed and is drying in the sun. The fact that it's sunny and warm enough to dry a sweater outside in November is very freaky, but I do live at the bottom of the country, so there you go.

Henry is turning out very well. I'm sort of tempted to make one myself.

I discovered a new favorite book. The new one is "The Yarn Girl's Guide to Knits for all Seasons". There are more sweaters in here that I want to make than in any other book EVER. I completely love it. PLUS a lot of the ones I want to do are for ME. How fortuitous is that?? I just love it and think everyone should run out and get one- even if you get it from your library like I did.

I'm off to work on The Mommy's Sweater, the designated sweater for November. So far I'm working on the back and have managed to apply beads with the crochet hook method and executed a very nice provisional cast on hem if I do say so myself. I'm trying to decide if it's too big or alright and how much to shorten it.

Oh, one more thing. The Father hurt himself badly on his last fishing trip. He decided to singlehandedly launch his boat instead of using the trailer to back it into the water. Apparently, he does not think that he is over 60 and was acting accordingly. He strained his back and passed out on top of the boat. Thankfully, he did not pass out in the water or it could have been much much worse. Naturally, he and the doofuses he was with proceeded with their fishing trip and he navigated class 4 rapids with an injured back. He's now home and on strict instructions to lift nothing more than a coffee cup for the next 6 weeks and is on bedrest, pain killer and physical therapy. If you have any extra good karma/ thoughts I'm sure he'd appreciate them and I hope he's learned his lesson. Oy.

Happy Graduation!

To The Sister!!

She's now an official graduate from WWU with a Bachelor's Degree from the College of Business and Economics with a degree in Business and Operations Management -AND a brand new inductee of the College of Business and Economics' Honors Society! We're so proud.

The whole family showed up...

... and promptly froze our butts. Notice the plethora of sweaters. It was MID JUNE and we're ALL freezing. The highs were alleged to be somewhere in the 60s. Mighty chilly if you ask me. (Notice the lovely sweater worn by The Brother?? Yup, it's the one he was gifted with last Christmas. He would like me to make some "slight" modifications, which mean I "get" to re-knit both sleeves- again.)

Before Graduation there was a backyard picnic and I thought my siblings just looked adorable. This also gives a good shot of The Sister's startlingly short hair. Damn it all that she can't chop it all off and still be a cutie.

We also got to meet The Girlfriend. They're so cute together.

She's done with college and ready to head overseas for the summer. I'm so excited for her.

There were also yarn stores and some fabulous yarn I found, but more on that later.

Long Overdue Updates

Kathleen-
Happy Valentine's Day! For our romantic Valentines Day, we're going to finish cleaning Mike's old apartment. Can't you feel the romance? We've never been much of a Valentine's couple, so this is sort of par for the course.

I'm home from Montana. For our (4 or 5) blog readers, who might now know what happened, here's the scoop: I was woken up by a family emergency at 4:30 last Tuesday morning, and ended up in Montana for much of the week helping my Dad recover from brain surgery. It was quite a week.

Dad's recovering well, and I think we all have a whole new appreciation for how fragile the body can be.

On Monday morning I was booked on a 6am flight. I got up at 4:30, checked out of my hotel, turned to walk out the door, and discovered blizzard conditions. For those not familiar with Billings Montana, let me tell you that downtown (and my hotel) are located in a valley, and the airport is located on a butte. High above (although very close to) town. This necessitated climbing a very large very slick hill with zero visibility in my poor little rental car. Having survived that experience due mostly to luck, we sat through multiple de-icings of the plane before we could take off, and my experience was capped by sprinting through the Denver airport to catch my connecting flight.

However, the one good thing about the hospital time is that there was plenty of time for knitting! Arwen is trucking along. The back is almost finished (currently on stitch holders awaiting Jody’s Raglan advice), the left front is done to the armholes as well, and the right front is just up to the turning row. I’m loving the cabled goodness, which is gorgeous without overwhelming the sweater.

No pictures cause the camera needs batteries though. Hopefully more tomorrow.


P.S. We made it to post 201 with this one!