While you were out

I discovered this week while the baby was in Disney World that I am an incredible sap and extremely boring. I ended up crying one more time mid week because I missed Little Clover terribly. Italian and I did manage to keep ourselves entertained. We cooked late night dinners, ate out once, played a full tennis match, and had dinner at The Engineer's. Then, Saturday came along, and I discovered I'm really, really boring.

Italian had to work a bit and had also made plans for some man time in the early afternoon. I pretty much had the entire day to myself, and was excited at the prospect of doing laundry. Lucky, I stopped myself before it was too late. I then had to intervene again when the thought, "I could finally get the house cleaned up" popped into my head. I grabbed my yarn and iPod and sat down to knit. I spent the afternoon, knitting, spinning some yarn, and reading. I am boring and lazy. Here I was all alone on a Saturday afternoon and all I could think of doing was laundry, cleaning, or finally settling on reading and knitting while plopped down in a comfy chair. I liked being lazy and boring. After a few hours of boring bliss, a little spark went off. I could go get a pedicure and manicure and no one would miss me. So I did. I hoped on my bike and peddled to the nail salon to pretty up my toes. I then further redeemed myself by taking my knitting out to a baseball game that night where we watched the home team blow a 7 run lead in the ninth inning. At least the beer was cold.



Italian noted we should do just fine when Little Clover leaves for college, and I think he's right. Between baseball games, movies, long conversations during dinner, and boring knitting, we'll find a way to manage.

All grown up

with someplace to go.

That's my little guy this week. He decided last minute to pack up and accept his grandparents' offer to go to Disney World and left Sunday. I've only cried twice, which is a huge accomplishment for me. I think I'm getting better. He's having a grand time on vacation and is telling us all about the rides he's tried and the food and driving. From what I hear, Little Clover has been driving a go cart. He's growing up way to fast.

While he's been gone, I've been finishing up my last week of Lean Sigma training. This means a couple of late nights at work and a fierce competition. I'm really only getting this training for the trophy. Outside of work, I've finished one of my watermelon socks and made some significant progress on my second attempt at the Shaped Tee from Knitting Lingerie Style. My first attempt at the silk tee end woefully when I tried to stretch the front across my front. I casted on the required number of stitches for the 38 inch size. The front was supposed to measure 19 inches across, but only came out to be 14 inches across. I have no idea what happened, so I'm knitting two sizes up and will see what happens.


I've also been staying up late reading "First Among Sequels" which is fantastic, just like all the other books in the Thursday Next series. The book hit the I-can't-put-it-down phase this weekend and enjoyed each word. Fforde is a witty and brillant author who has done an excellent job bring the classics and a character to life.

Now I just have to figure out what to read next to keep my mind off missing my little guy.

Cow-a-bunga

I took a rare and much needed lunch break Thursday and actually left my office complex. It was liberating and exciting and I even got to spend it with Italian as a little mini date. I was happy for the chance to be out and about until I passed a bank with a nice screen displaying the temperature outside. 104 F (40 C). That's really hot, people. The humidity has been down though, hovering around 35%, which is good for the Delta. Rumors are flying around the office warning people to expect humidity in the upper 80%. That's hot and muggy, people. Oppressive temperature like this makes me wonder yet again why I live in the Delta. Fortunately, I got a bit of a morale boost this week in the form of cow.

I am lucky enough to live close to a hormone and antibiotic free, pasture raised, grass fed cattle farm who delivers. They dropped off our quarter of a cow this past Monday and we celebrated by having local steak for dinner accompanied by potatoes from Mr. Soprano's garden. Opting to try pure steak, Italian simply gave the steaks a sprinkle of salt and pepper with a little bit of olive oil. They were then grilled to medium well, a bit over cooked for our taste, but amazingly good. Most steaks I've had cooked to medium well doneness tend to be bland and lacking in flavor, but not these steaks. They smelled like cow and tasted like what one imagines steak to taste like. I know, this is the oddest and most non descript way of describing these steaks, but they tasted like steak, real steak! To celebrate our cow delivery day, we served Chimney Rock wine with the meal and savored every bite of our locally made meal.

Orginially, I had planned on starting the Bayerische Sock in Trekking Pro Natura wool/bamboo yarn as soon as I finished the Uptown Boot Socks, but the Watermelon yarn was just way too fun to pass up. Besides, I needed some relativelly mindless knitting for the Fourth of July weekend. Wine and Bayerische just didn't seem like they would mix well. Flipping through Favorite Socks, the Diagonal Cross-Rib Socks by Ann Budd seemed to be the perfect pattern for the Watermelon yarn. The rib would match the varigated colors and the diagonal cross would add enough interest to keep the socks from being boring. I grabbed the Watermelon yarn and some newly purchased blondewood Sox Stix in size 0 prepared to use my new favorite sock cast on, the Channel Island cast on.

First, though, I decided to actually read the pattern, (I know, novel thought) and the pattern called for a Norwegian cast on. Intrigued, I flipped to the notes section and gave it a go. The Norwegian is very similar to the Long Tail cast on, but with a couple of extra little maneuvers. It results in a chain across the cast on edge, which looks quite pretty, especially in the white of the watermelon rind.


Getting the color repeat just right took two tries and both ends of the yarn. To have the "watermelon" sitting correctly, I'm knitting from the outside of the ball instead of the preferred inside (are you and inside or outside the ball knitter?).

After finally getting the color repeat down, I knitted the cuff and then began the diagonal crosses, which are really just a one way slanting cable. Here again, the pattern recommends doing something different from my normal way of knitting cables, and here again, following the pattern gave way to better results. I think Ann Budd is a genius.

I generally knit cables without a cable needle by knitting into the second stitch on the left hand needle, then drop the first and second stitch of the left hand needle, then place the first stitch back on the needle to cross the stitches (either moving this first stitch in front or behind the second stitch depending on the cable cross. I can explain in another post with pictures if anyone is interested). This pattern though called for knitting into the back loop of the second stitch on the left hand needle, leaving the stitches on the left hand needle, knitting through the back loops of the first and second stitches on the left hand needle, then dropping both stitches of the left hand needle. I tried it once and was in fear of my new Sox Stix breaking, despite the amazing amount of flex the needles had. I thought it was a hassle and didn't see a need for it...until I did a full repeat of the diagonal cross pattern. I noticed that on the one cross where I followed the pattern instructions one time, the diagonal looked better and more like a diagonal. Hmm, I wondered what would happen if I used the new technique for a full repeat. This required changing needles to my much pointier heavier Knit Picks nickle needles, but the result is worth it.

The diagonal cross towards the top of the sock is using my classic cabling technique, while the diagonal closest to the bottom of the picture is using the new technique.

I have true diagonals without the sloppy "step" effect of the needless cable technique. I'm using this new method from now on for diagonal lines.

Entertainment

I had a quick trip up to Minneapolis last week and on the flight back Friday, I sat next to a very nice guy. After the flight reached cruising altitude, I popped in my iPod and began knitting and listening. At one point in the flight, I caught a glimpse of the guy next to me nodding and smiling. I looked over and he smiled at me and pointed to a lady across the aisle and one row up. I looked at her. She smiled and held up her knitting. I beamed back and held up my knitting. We both waved our works in progress in the air, hers a Five Hour Baby Sweater and mine a Shaped Tee. There is no telling what everyone in the rows behind us was thinking.

But this isn't why I'm blogging. Today's blog post is to show off how awesome my hubby is. For the last few months, he has been working diligently on an entertainment center:



This entertainment center is not just any entertainment center. It is a mission style, designed by Italian, built primarily in solid cherry. Little Clover helped.



He built drawers with a removable drawer divider to store DVDs, and we have almost already filled the drawers. Finally, it looks beautiful in the living room and is a lovely piece of grown-up furniture, worth the wait.

Nature Boy

I was once strongly in the "Nurture Camp" of the Nature vs. Nurture argument, then I had a kid and he is all boy. Granted, I love being outside and I love hunting for wildlife. I've even held a frog once, but my little guy seeks out all things wild in the great outdoors, with great success. While I'm happily snapping photos of the life I see, Little Clover is in the mix of it and loving every moment.

At our annual Fourth of July Cabin outing, he hunted out a little green frog after hearing Xavier Boy had to coax one out of the shower.



Then, he played with the tadpoles swimming in the fountain outside the cabin door before he found a little red toad in the clay.



His weekend was filled with little wee beasties, bird spotting swimming, and massive amounts of yummy food. I sneaked in a slice of watermelon while everyone swam in the lake.




When, not in the lake, we enjoyed the company of our friends and neighbors in the cabin next to ours. We spent our evenings dining and drinking and making memories. Teh weather was cool enough to allow us to dine al fresco, and relaxed in the cozy comfort of the familiar. New faces and friends have always graced the cabin and I hope they always do. This lake house has watched children grow up and in my case, the chidren bringing children. Xavier Guy and his guest seemed to enjoy their first trip and I hope it is the first of many. All in all, I think we had a wonderful time at the little cabin by the lake. As I savor this last visit, I'm looking forward to the next one.

What are you eating

I've been reading the Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan and last week, I hit the last chapter. I savored it like a good meal, pouring myself a glass of wine at noon on a Sunday and found a comfy seat on our sofa to enjoy the final crumbs of the book. The words swished about in my mind as my eyes enjoyed each letter. I didn't want this book to end.

The book, which covers the stories around 4 different meals, accompanied me through many evenings and lunches the last few weeks. I love to eat, I love to cook, and I love talking about food. Pollan's conversational style lends well to engaging readers in its conversations on food and often sparks discussions outside of the book. This book in particular lead to many intriguing talks with Italian, with knitters on Ravelry, with co-workers here, with co-workers in California, and with knitters in my local knitting group. I had a community of people who shared an interest in food and in knowing from where it comes, who had either heard of the book or were reading it themselves. It was an instant conversation starter and a community builder, and I didn't want it to end.

While finishing the final chapter, I thought of how this one little book impacted my life and in turn, the life of my family. I've replaced the BPA plastic bottles in my house with either BPA free plastic or with metal bottles. Another like minded friend forwarded a link to a local farm, and I've ordered a quarter of a pasture raised grass fed cow. I've found a source of Kosher chicken while I hunt out organic or local chicken, and Italian and I have started talking about having a little garden of our own next season.

Pollan does an excellent job of balancing out the 4 different types of meals. He doesn't leave you wanting to be a vegetarian or swearing off processed foods forever. Instead, he thinks people should know what they are eating and what the total cost of the food is, not just the price on the barcode label.

I'm with the band

We're busy packing to head to the cabin for the weekend and were in need of a little relaxation before we started our trip of relaxation. Who knew preparing to relax could be incredibly taxing? Packing required some shopping, so we decided to stop off for dinner at one of our local favorite restaurants, The Half Shell. Evidently, Wednesdays are devoted to live music and crawfish (a Southern Girls favorite). Little Clover really wanted to sit on the patio, and since the weather was cool, Italian and I agreed. Since they had already run out of crawfish, we settled on oysters on the half shell and made a mental note to come earlier in the evening another week.

The band was already fully into their set and Little Clover was enthralled. He told us later that the reason he wanted to sit on the patio was because he had never seen a live band before. Well, he had an awesome first band experience. The band, Afterglow, played steady favorites from the late 70s and 80s in addition to their own material. The covers were great and a few tables on the patio were singing along. Then, the guitarist played the opening riffs of the Clash's "Should I stay or should I go" and Little Clover lit up. This was the first song he knew the words too. He sang and bopped along, much to the amusement of the lead guitarist who chuckled. At the end of the song, he looked at Little Clover and said, "Man, whatever your parents are letting you listen to, they need to keep doing it." He smiled back.

At the band's break, the guitarist offered to show Little Clover all the equipment and gear. He beamed with excitement and came back saying, "Wow, I got to go backstage." How could a first live band experience get any better?


Little Clover "backstage" with the band.

Wipeout

The gas companies and I almost had Italian convince! With gas inching towards the $4 a gallon mark in my town, the thought of getting a Vespa was becoming more and more appealing to Italian. I've been slowly working on him for the last five years or so and I was quite close to getting the green light. Then, I had a wipeout while riding my bike to the yarn store. I came home and asked Italian to help me realign my wheel. He took a look at me, then at my leg and said, "You are off of Vespa consideration." Seriously, I wish I wasn't so clumsy and didn't live in a city with a horrid traffic record! Oh well. At least my town has decent bike lanes, so I'll keep pedaling along.

I do love being able to ride my bike to my LYS, especially when she's got great yarn waiting for me. The shopowner has started contracting with a local dyer who is producing very fun and pretty yarn. One colorway in particular is in high demand and has been on back order for several months, but it was worth the wait. After all, what could be better for the upcoming Fourth of July weekend than a slice of watermelon?

Happy Birthday

Today, I send best birthday wishes to my Daddy, a man who will always have my love and gratitude. You have taught me much about life and living in particular. One of the best gifts you ever gave me was the gift of giving. I have watched you give of yourself throughout my entire life and you leave things and people better than when you found them. You are an example of stewardship, kindness, and love. I love you, Dad, and happy birthday. (I hope you enjoy your Wii!)

Simple

How odd is it to find joy in something as simple as yarn? This yarn in particular makes me really happy. The yellow and blue and green just makes my heart smile. I love the blue heels and the blue toes. I love the texture, and I love the squishiness of it. It may be just yarn. Some people may say it's just a sock. But to me, it is a tiny piece of happiness that starts at my toes and works it's way up to a smile.



Pattern: Retro Ribbed Socks from Favorite Socks
Yarn: That Swell Yarn Shop Sock Duets in Spring Glen (love it!)
Needles: KnitPicks metal DPNs in a size 0 (not so loving it, they are heavy)
Notes: I love the yarn in all it's squooshiness and the pattern was super easy to remember. I think the rib works well with the varigated yarn, too. The only changes I made were to knit the legs shorter than the pattern recommends and to change the toe box so it isn't so pointy. I'm looking forward to wearing these socks.

Wandering aimlessly

Do you ever feel as if you've lost your compass and are just wandering about in a forest or bobbing around in an open sea? I've had this feeling for the last couple of weeks, waiting for the water to overcome me or for the forest to grow more and more overgrown and impenetrable. No matter how busy things are, I seldom ever feel this lost. Then I realized yesterday why I had this feeling, this lack of center in my life. I didn't have a solid long term knitting project on the needles.

Instead, I have been trying things out with my bamboo (some people my call this "swatching" except I was doing it on a large scale, think sweaters and shawls). I'd knit something, then rip it out, then knit something else, then rip it out, and this process was beginning to take a toll. I needed a project. I had to have something stable on the needles, something that would take a month or so to finish, something that would be relatively constant amidst the craziness of work and home, and evidently, something red.

I've made amends with the red lace weight silk. I'm ready to turn this formerly tangled and knotted mess into a controlled knotted lace shawl. In addition, I've casted on for the Shaped Lace Tee from Knitting Lingerie Style. I've found my compass and am know enjoying the forest scenery.

My mom is a green belt

but she doesn't know karate.
Quote by Little Clover to our friends.

My Lean Sigma Green Belt training continued this week, so it's nothing but statistics for me at work. I think I would have enjoyed life as an economist. With some luck, I'll be a certified Green Belt by the end of this calendar year. Speaking of belts, we saw Kung Fu Panda this weekend. The movie is fantastic. The film is complete and leaves you with a feeling of fullness. Yet, when we walked out of the theatre, I turned to Italian and said, "I want to see this movie, again." He agreed. It had everything a good movie should, and it had everything a good kids movie should. While the previews were showing, you could feel the buzz of excitement from all the kids in the theatre. There were children twitching in their seats and some were downright jittery. It was the cutest thing to see. At the end of the movie, the theatre clapped and cheered and all the little kids were practicing their kung fu moves as they jumped and kicked their way out. Again, cutest thing ever! Seriously, go see the movie. It's worth it.

In addition to the movie, a member of my local knitting group and her charity group at work sponsored World Wide Knit in Public Day on Saturday.

I brought my wheel, as did a couple of other spinners, and Diane even spun her first yarn! We had a great turn out and I met a few Ravelers face to face.

Of course, this weekend also included Father's Day. I have to admit, I think dads are gypped. Mother's Day seems to be surrounded by a hull-a-ba-loo, but not Father's Day. For instance, on Mother's Day, Little Clover makes me a gift, then is very insistent on giving me lots of snuggles and love. On Father's Day, he woke up, gave Italian a wave and a nod and a quick, "Happy Father's Day, Dad," before he leapt into my lap for snuggles. Italian, just laughed. I'm glad he has a good humor about the whole thing. Father's, though, deserve more. I for one, really am grateful for the dads I know. Italian is not only a wonderful partner, but a loving father. Any man who researches how to throw a curveball so he can pass on the knowledge is definitely worth his weight in sandcastles and mudpies.

I would be remiss if I also didn't mention my own daddy (Hello, Daddy!). Thanks, Dad for taking the time on one beautiful day in Colorado to take my training wheel-less bike out for a spin, and letting go. I understand now just how hard that was. I love you.

And to my father-in-law, thank you for welcoming into your family and for making an honorary Italian and fixing shells every year for my birthday. I love you, too.

I'm very glad we took the chance to have a family weekend. With training and baseball and housework, we seldom have the down time to do something fun. I've barely had the time to knit, finding myself pretty tired at the end of a long day. That hasn't stopped me from making some progress on the socks. The yarn and the pattern are quite lovely, so lovely in fact, that I found myself pulling them out of my bag at stoplights and hugging them. Imagine the looks I get.

One last thought for the post. If you ever get the chance to have a kid lead you in crafts take it. It's an interesting perspective and you'll end up with something cool. We ended up with monkeys.

Presenting monkeys as explained and demonstrated by Little Clover who showed us what he learned today at summer camp.

Skeins gone wild

(and the men who love their knitters)

There are some days when I love everything about the process of knitting. Then there are days when yarn goes naughty and misbehaves and drives me to the brink of frustration. I had a few of those days last week when my umbrella swift decided to have shaft failure.

You see, I placed a beautiful skein of Schaefer Andrea silk lace weight in the color Clara Barton on my swift to wind into a ball for knitting. I have loved my swift and ball winder and sometimes leave them set up on my kitchen table for weeks because they just look beautiful. My swift evidently doesn't love me back because after winding the first 20 to 50 yards of the 1093 yards, the swift collapsed and as it did, half of the yarn stayed on the swift while the middle fell to the table. I stood in horror and thought, well, I can just scoop up the middle, place it back on the swift and give it another go. Which I did. And the swift collapsed again after another 10 yards or so.

Looking at the mass of tangled yarn now on the kitchen table, I took a deep breath and thought, "No worries, I'll wind it by hand." 1093 yards is a lot to wind by hand, especially when the yarn is tangled. Just so you know, it takes approximately 6 hours of winding time to wind 1093 yards of lace weight. Yep, 6 hours of staring at teeny tiny thread, watching a ball of yarn form at a snails pace. I drank much wine.

Italian, being the very sweet and smart man that he is, left me to wallow in my fury the first night and then searched for swift types in the morning to present me with some options. He found the Farris Wheel style that is a swift/skein winder, and discovered that the umbrella swift's shaft is too soft. This proclamation made me giggle. He also helped wind the yarn as well and even spent some time untangling the knot.

While hunting for new table top swifts, I stumbled upon another man who loves his knitter a lot. He built her a Lego swift and ball winder. Ingenious!

A cabin in the woods

This weekend, we left for a cabin in the woods and had a much, much needed respite. Plus, I had to prove to our local fly fishing group that I really did exist and I really do fly fish. We decided to take an extra day on the river, so we packed up Thursday and hit the road for Mountain Home, Arkansas.

We woke up shockingly early Friday morning and decided to walk around the town in search of a coffeeshop. We didn't find the coffeeshop while on foot, but we did find a yarn shop. Of course, we stopped by. The Yarn Shop and More storefront wasn't slated to open for another 30 minutes, so Little Clover and I pressed our noses to the window to take a peak. Lo and behold, we saw the shop owner who graciously let us. I guess she could tell I was a knitter in need of a fix. She had a fair selection of sock yarns and was extremely friendly. I left with four balls of Jojoland Melody sock yarn. If you are ever in the Mountain Home area, stop by and see the shop. Bring cash though, she doesn't accept plastic.

After the little yarn detour, we headed towards the Blue Ribbon Fly Shop and Angler's Cafe to gear up and caffinate.

The Angler's Cafe makes a wonderful cappuccino. The owners are again extremely nice and the cafe is tailored to fly fishers. A fly tying table is on the ready in a corner, just in case you need to tie up a couple of flies before heading to the water. The drive through is also boat friendly, providing plenty of room for you and your boat. We loved the coffee enough to stop by the cafe twice. It was good.

After having our fill of coffee, we hit the water. Italian and Little Clover caught a fish almost right away.

I silently applauded and cheered! I was silent because I was on a conference call, while standing in the middle of a river, fly pole in one hand.

I guess, technology is a joy and a bane. Fortunately, the call only lasted 30 minutes, and I didn't have any other work obligations afterwards.

When the water finally came up, we trudged up to our cars and spent some time on Dry Run Creek, a fishing area restricted to fishers 16 and under. We did our best to help Little Clover catch a fish, but they were sneaky and elusive the first day. Finally, we headed to the cabin to check in and see our view.

Which was breathtaking. I spent plenty of time on this trip sitting out on the porch with a coffee or a beer, knitting and watching the river roll by. In fact, I spent enough time to finish the first sock and start on the second (pictures to come later).

The camp as a whole was a great place. The owners and their children live on site, so Little Clover spent some time playing with the kids. He also spent time following the chickens at the camp. He desperately wanted to hold one, but I don't think they ever let him get too close (smart chickens).


The next day was spent back out on the river with our fly fishing club. I had the pleasure of meeting two extraordinary fly fishing guides, and they introduced themselves as if they were regular people! I wonder if they know just how famous they are. At the end of the long day of fishing, I attended my first pig roast.

There is a pig behind the silver pot.

This was Italian's third pig roast which makes my Chicago born hubby more Southern than I am. The pig was from a local farmer and locally process, and yummy. Very yummy. We may not have caught a lot of fish on this trip, but as one of the guides stated, "It's called fishing, not catching." I definitely did catch up on relaxation and that was worth every fish that got away.

Wow

What an incredible weekend. The performance of Jesus Christ Superstar with Corey Glover was this weekend and Corey still has it. Not only does he still have it, but I think he is a performer one should see live to truly get an idea of just how good he is. I have a new found respect for him and the band Living Color, and he is the best Judas I have ever seen or heard. Little Clover attended the show with us as well and I think he loved the show. When Corey Glover started singing, Italian leaned over to Little Clover and whispered, "That's the guy from Living Color." Little Clover nodded. When Judas's opening number ended, he turned to me and said with a bit of surprise, "Wow! That was really good!" I smiled at Little Clover and said, "Yes, it was. He sings Cult of Personality." The amazement on Little Clover's face grew and he replied, "He did?" I just smiled and Little Clover clapped harder. Too cute!

After the show, Papa and Nana Clover took Little Clover for the evening while Italian and I went to Morton's for the best steak ever.

It was amazingly tender and juice. I was thrilled to be able to take Italian here since so much of our relationship has involved food.

I think he liked it!
Morton's even gave us personalized menus wishing us a happy anniversary and a photo to keep as a keepsake of our night. Now, I have a couple picture.

This weekend also saw the office launch of my Lotus Blossom Tank and I did get a couple of wows. I love wearing this. The fit is definitely bigger than expected, so knit a smaller size than you think you will need. Knitted in bamboo, it is the perfect sweater for southern summers. I see this sweater becoming a staple part of my wardrobe.

Pattern: Lotus Blossom Tank from Interweave Knits Summer 2006
Yarn: Alchemy Bamboo, 4 skeins
Size: Small (my bust is 37 inches), with inches of positive ease for a great drape
Notes: I extended the bodice of the sweater to make it an inch and a half longer than the pattern recommended and am very happy with the change. The yarn provides a great drape and knits at a relatively loose gauge. I also did one fewer decrease repeat on the the front to end up with the recommended number of stitches. I would use the number of stitches as the reference and not necessarily the pattern repeats.

Enthusiasm

The Lotus Blossom Tank has just zoomed along to the point where it is almost finished. I just have to knit the edging and weave in the ends and it will official be a finished object. For a tank top I didn't want to knit, I can't wait to work on it so I can finish it and wear it. This is an extremely wearable item and it has already received the praise of non-knitters; quite an accomplishment.

The appreciation of non knitters speaks volumes regarding this pattern. A knitter will look at it, understand the effort time and skill needed to make it and give a genuine nod of satisfaction at the finished item. The knitter is usually familiar with the pattern and has seen plenty of LBTs, maybe even a few in the wild. A non knitter, though, will probably have little to no awareness of the LBT pattern, and will often times think of the act of knitting as something odd and novel. So when a non knitter sees this particular sweater and gives me a "wow," I get a little giddy inside. The "wow" factor generally increases when I mention the yarn is bamboo. I'm hoping to get a few more wows when this sucker is finally done.

Not only am I enthusiastic about this sweater, but I am enthusiastic about Little Clover's baseball season. I love seeing the kids out there playing giving it their all. I love watching them improve throughout the course of the season, and I love seeing their excitement when they play well. Little Clover especially gets excited and will occasionally check the stands to make sure we saw his super awesome play or hit. I try not to disappoint and cheer loudly and exuberantly. I never knew being such a huge fan could be painful.

Somehow, I manage to injure myself at Little Clover's game, by clapping. Those of you who know me, are not surprised. Italian thinks I might of broken my hand because it is badly bruised. He asked if it hurt. I said only for a little while, but I knitted through it. I have a tank top to finish.

Growing

Today, I stole. I stole a little bit of time for just myself and had a date with Maggie, my spinning wheel. Maggie and I settled in the living room with this lavender roving and we made yarn. I feel slightly bad about stealing some time for myself instead of picking up Little Clover right away, but honestly, I wasn't ready to see him just yet.

Today, he became a fourth grader, and sure, he probably didn't grow a centimeter in the time between being dropped off for his last day of third grade and being picked up, but the fact remains, he's older now and, well, bigger. He's hitting the upper limits of elementary school. This school year, his friends will enter the double digit age range. Plus, I've already noticed the shift in his perspective. Now, when I participate in school events, I'm only present to him on the periphery. He's fully engaged in a world of boys and friends and sports, and I'm becoming more of a chauffeur and less a part of the activities. Trust me, I view these shifts as wonderful. Maybe I'm doing an ok job and he'll be a fantastically independent adult when the time is right, but I sure do miss his little hands in mine when I see him at school.

His hands have filled more of mine lately. My time to myself today was a way for me to pour all these thoughts and feelings into a yarn. One day, I'll pull out the yarn in whatever form it will have become and remember the day of transition, when my little person grew a little bit bigger. Then, maybe I'll have an easier time of looking at my big person and remember when he was little.

Lotus

I'm not sure if bad vibes lingered around my Lotus Blossum Tank or if it was purely a mental hump I needed to get over, but I was not really enjoying the LBT. The lace repeat seemed complex and difficult and I didn't pull it out of my knitting bag with excitement. Instead, a sense of obligation hung around the yarn and pattern. Each time I worked on the piece, a little voice in my head nagged me about not "feeling" like I wanted to knit it. This voice practiced tough love and shouted that she didn't care whether I felt like knitting the LBT or not, but to suck it up and knit! I don't like this voice. I think she is rude and a meanie, but she is also right.

After the first lace repeat was complete, the second repeat was easier and more rational. The third repeat was a walk in the park, and the fourth repeat was reading my knitting. Then, I realized, I was done. The LBT would be straight knit stitches from then on. Whoo hoo! I shouted with joy. Then I heard the little voice again. This time though, she told me I did a good job. I think I'm going to love this knitted sweater.

Encore

Remeber the opera? Well, Wednesday night, Little Clover got to do it again. His school did such an amazing job with our local Opera company that they were invited back, along with two other schools, to perform highlights from "Mystery on the Docks" as part of the Opera Company's season preview performance. The season preview was also broadcasted live over our public radio station. Needless to say, this was a very big night for Little Clover, so we let him pick a special dinner treat.

He picked McDonald's. I hate McDonald's.

I tried to steer him away from McDonald's by offering up other possible restaurants he likes, but we never visit. Burger King tempted him the most, but he wasn't sure what toy they offered at the moment, where as he knew McDonald's carried the Speed Racer toys. Italian and I told him we could go to McDonald's to ge the toy and go somewhere else to get food. Little Clover loved this idea, because he just isn't that fond of the food either. I pull up to the drive through, and when asked what I would like, I responded, "I'd like a Happy Meal toy, please."

This confused the drive through attendee, who asked, "What kind of Happy Meal do you want?"

"No, no," I said. "I just want the Happy Meal toy."

"You want a Happy Meal"

"No, just the toy."

"Just the toy?"

"Yes, just the toy." Finally, I think he got it.

"What kind of toy do you want?" This was an odd question to me because I thought we were clear that I wanted the Happy Meal toy. Granted, I didn't go to McDonald's often, but now, I'm beginning to wonder if I am confused.

"I want a boy toy." I respond with a hint of a question in my voice. At this time, Italian looks at me, pauses, and says, "Oh, really? You want a boy toy? Nice."

By the way, all the little kids did a great job at the Opera.

In addition to the opera this week, Italian and I celebrated an anniversary (and I can't wait to show you the gift!) I feel very fortunate to have such a wonderful husband who is not only the love of my life, but my very best friend. He is someone I am blessed to share my life with.

The day after our anniversary, he was telling me about an article he read online that questioned whether it was better to marry your best friend or your prince. I asked, shouldn't the person you marry be both? I think this brought a smile to Italian. He is my best friend, but he is also my Prince Charming. He is my McDreamy and I love him. Happy Anniversary honey :) I love you more than four.

Ok, so I tried to find a "couple" picture of the two of us, but all the picture I have are family pictures, which I think fit us better. We've been a couple for a very long time, but being a family really suites us a bit better.