Measure a Life

Recently, and article from the Harvard Business Review titledHow Will you Measure Your Life stumbled into my inbox. Not only did the article provide great probing questions, but it also made me wonder how I want to measure my life. In addition to the article, Little Clover once again suggested I look into working at the zoo, his dream job office. I told him if I took a job at the zoo, then we as a family wouldn't be able to do some of the things we do. He then asked if he shouldn't grow up to be a zookeepper, if he should choose another job to take care of his family. With all my heart, I told him no. To do something he loved and the money would follow.

Blame my introspection on the recent round of lay-offs at my company, but his comments made me wonder if I'm on the right course for my career. The article did help reaffirm my focus, Little Clover. My job is not earth shattering, nor am I jetting up the career ladder. I used to struggle with my seemingly lack of ambition, but the article helped me articulate how I measure my life.

I measure life in the number of times I laugh each day, striving to laugh more than most adults do in a day. I measure life in memorable moments with my family, in the number of our inside jokes, in the trips we take, the fish we catch, the meals we share together, and in my knitted FOs. None of these are directly related to my career other than my job provides me with the means to be able to give my child a variety of experiences. No, Little Clover may not need to travel away from home to build fond memories, but it helps me unplug enough to have those moments with him. It is my goal for him to see the world so that when he's ready to fly off into it, it won't be a big scary place, but rather a familiar place, one he's experienced. Hopefully, he'll have a ton of warm knits to wrap around him to keep his body and soul warm.

As we wait for my job to settle down and for the summer to bring new adventures, I knit away on the tangible momentos. Yet another pair of socks to keep my feet warm and to burn up the sock yarn stash.

From 2011 Finished Objects

Monkey Socks by Cookie A
They are knit with Schaffer Nicole sock yarn in the colorway Peter. The yarn and pattern matched perfectly.

To help the Japanese earthquake victims, I knit Sakaki in Dream in Color Starry colorway Crying Dove. I hope Japan bounces back the resilience they've shown in the past.

From 2011 Finished Objects

Would you like fries with that

Italian and I just celebrated another wedding anniversary. Since we like to eat, we try to make the most of celebrations falling during the week with an extra little night out on the weekend. This year, we tried Iris and loved it. The New Orleans inspired menu looked delicious on paper and sounded even better when our server hit the highlights. Plus, Iris tries to source food locally where it can, so I ate food with bacon without any twinge of guilt. Halfway through my soft shell crab served with English peas and polenta, as I contemplated which dessert sounded best, I started to laugh. Sitting next to my was not only my partner of over a decade, but a boy I met when I was 17.

He asked me what I found funny, and I told him Iris was a far cry from either of our two first dates (we can't agree on which one was our actual first date). He smiled back. I asked if he remembered them, and like a great husband, he did. For a couple who enjoys food, our begining was quite humble. On the date where I invited him, we dined at McDonald's before the movie. On the date where he asked me, we dined at a local Waffle House style coffee shop. Thankfully, the company is just as wonderful now as it was in those early days. I'm blessed to have a partner like Italian, my love and mate.

From Disney 2011

Best kid ever

Work life has been stressful. My company has completed a round of lay-off and benefit changes that have been quite taxing on a professional and personal level. During these trying times, I'm more grateful for my boss, who is truly an excellent boss, and my family who is truly the best family ever. In honor of this past Mother's Day, I will proceed with gushingly sweet "mommy moments."

Mommy Moment - The best baseball player ever
Little Clover has been playing a form of baseball since he was three. He loves playing short stop, but he is also quite the little pitcher. We practice with him at home, acting as his catcher. He's always had a decent arm and a pretty decent fastball. Normally, I'll grab my baseball mitt and we'll throw a few in the front yard. This season, he got two pitches on me. The first one hit my glove with a loud thud followed by an instant throbbing. The ball fell out of my hand and I told Little Clover I was done, he throws too hard and I needed a catchers mitt. He coaxed me with his sweet little face, begging, "Just one more, Mama." I could I refuse? I put the glove back on and attempted to catch the second pitch. He has just started pitching too fast for me to catch without additional gear.

He's pitching just as fast, and accurately on the diamond as well. His league plays for a set time limit instead of playing 9 innings. During his last game, the opposing team got two runs on him early in the first inning. After those two runs, Little Clover focus and proceed to hold them to those two runs for the rest of the game. They played a total of four innings, a total of 12 outs. He struck out 8 batters, caught two pop flies, and fielded a ground ball and threw the runner out at first. His team rallied as well, driving in 8 runs for their team. Needless to say, when Little Clover heard his stats, he was pretty thrilled.

Mommy Moment 2 - The most thoughtful child ever
With the lay-offs at work and the benefit changes, I've been pretty stressed and unbearable at home. Yesterday, Little Clover thought I could use a little pick me up. He grabbed my purse and told me I couldn't open it until I got to work. I told him I needed my keys to drive him to school. He handed them to me. I smiled with curiosity, but followed his instructions. Once at work, I found the little surprise, a key chain he bought for himself at Raglan Road in Disney World. The key chain has a four leaf clover in the center of a claddagh. Instantly warmed and touched by his present, I put my keys on the ring. I also ended up having the best day at work in a really long time, getting back some of the hope I had lost during the last few days. His little present was just what I needed.

In other news
We survived the great flood of 2011! Yes, the Mississippi River went from half a mile wide to three miles wide, but the river banks of Arkansas are pretty flat and uninhabited. There was a lot of damage to the north of the Memphis, and there will probably be more damage to the south of Memphis as the flood waters move towards the Gulf. Overall, the City was ok. We did have a couple of high schools in the city with low lying flooded athletic fields, but it could have been much much worse.

From Irish Clover

The river did flow across Riverside Dr onto Beale, and it covered Mud Island which has a scale replica of the Mississippi River from Minnesota to the Gulf. The replica normal mimics the water levels of the actual river, but for the time being, it is underwater.

From Irish Clover

Just for fun, because we love our ducks down here, here's a picture of some ducks at our zoo, posing for the camera.

From Irish Clover

Y'all stay dry!

Knitcation

It began with Maryland Sheep and Wool last year, this new need of mine to run off on an annual fiber themed trip. There is something about being surrounded by wool in raw and processed forms with other fiber enthusiasts who do not look at you oddly when you jump up and down with blissfully pure excited at finding the "right" yarn that really speaks to me for some reason. Having gone to a wool festival, this year, I looked for something slightly different and tossed my name into the Spring Fling lottery, not expecting to get a spot.

When the shock of procuring a place at the covetted Spring Fling table wore off, I put in my vacation noticed and waited. Now, a mere five days from coming home, I miss the other Flingers and I miss the little yarn world we lived in for four days. As with all other types of vacations, I'm going to excitedly show you all the wonderful knitcation photos and completely ignore your boredom.

Not knowing what to expect and honestly wanting a relaxing day, I arrived at Spring Fling the night before the scheduled start. Lo and behold, knitters were already in the lobby of the hotel right by the front door! I quickly checked in, dumped off my bags, and ran back downstairs to be with my people. As an introvert, I've made huges strides. This is my first trip alone, ever. I wasn't going to know a single person there, but with knitters, that doesn't really matter. Within a few minutes, I was comfortably settled in a chair knitting with a new group of other likeminded individuals until the wee hours of the morning.

The next morning, as I anxiously waited for Fling to begin, I fulfilled my promise to Little Clover and swung by the zoo. I love having a child who requests I conduct a photo safari at the local zoo and bring back pictures.

From Spring Fling 2011

Upon completing my mission, I returned to the hotel, found the Loopy Lounge, and retrieved my Fling cupcakes, a chocolate peanut butter and a coconut butter cream.

From Spring Fling 2011

The rest of the day was spent knitting and knitting and talking and knitting some more. In our registration bag was a skein of Wollmeise, and instead of putting the color on the label, Claudia (the talent behind the yarn) encouraged us to make a friend and trade. Watching all the knitters walk around and openly eyeing yarn was quite a sight! I swapped my lovely deep mauve for a beautiful grassy green. At some point there was dinner, then more knitting, and sleep, and then knitting again. I took an advanced lace knitting class with Anne Hanson, and tackled my fear of beads with Laura Nelkin. If you ever get a chance to take a class with Laura, do it! She not only crammed a lot of information in her class, but she really explained and demoed in a way to alleviate any fears. Plus, you can make something like this:

From 2011 Finished Objects

Still trying to wrap my head around seeing people everywhere just knitting, I talked to Italian about how my Type A nature was boggled by the downtime. He told me to think of it as a spa weekend and with that perspective, I kicked by and enjoyed the pace. The two classes I took were the perfect amount. I got to revel in the copious abundance of yarn and the civil nature of the multiple trading events, like the sock yarn swap.

From Spring Fling 2011

Look at that yarn! Even dumped their scrap sock yarn on a table and trade in rounds of 5 skeins at a time. When everyone had taken what they wanted, there was still yarn left for the taking. Finally, my turn to visit The Loopy Ewe came and it was yarntopia!

Another Flinger had to put some yarn back:

From Spring Fling 2011

And there were Little Loopies everywhere:

From Spring Fling 2011

With the weekend drawing to an end, a few of us changed into pajamas and shared a bottle of wine while we knit.

From Spring Fling 2011

I'd take a spa weekend like this again any day.

Meanwhile, back at the Bat Cave

In the midst of work, the after school activity de jour, household choirs, and household maintenance, we've managed to cram some fun into our hectic life. The fun didn't leave anytime for blogging (at least that's my excuse), nor has it left much time for transferring pictures from the camera. What have we been up to? We made our first trip to the zoo this spring where we encountered a keeper in the wild! Little Clover, thrilled beyond belief at his close encounter, began asking her about her typical work day, the animals she kept, the existence of a junior keeper program at the zoo, and where she went to school. I've never seen a kid as excited at the prospect of cleaning an animal cage as he was when the keeper told him, yes, our zoo has a junior keeper program. This is a dream come true for my future zoo keeper.

We've also found a couple of warm water fishing ponds. Now, we can slip away for a couple of hours when the fishing bug bites instead of holding out for a weekend trip. Little Clover is a natural fisherman. He can coax bass out of water and his joy overflows in the form of laughter and squeals. His enthusiasm is the main catalyst for my love of fishing. This week, we changed roles as he taught me how to handle the small pond, and he is an excellent teacher. He also caught a tadpole and a frog, proving once again he is all boy.

To completely juxtapose the all boy nature experience, the Engineer had a baby shower. She is generously giving me a niece and a chance to knit something utterly girly! Watch for a little more information in a later post, after I download the pictures.

The little pink dress isn't the only thing on my needles. I've made great strides cold sheeping, reducing my stash count this year by 3000 yards. I'm striving to knit two skeins of sock yarn a month and have managed to hit that target since I accepted my Yarn Investment Portofolio was growing too quickly. The latest sock project is yet another pair of socks, knitted in Wollmeise, a very hard to get yarn.

From WIPs

The color is beautiful and the yarn is nice. To be honest though, I don't get the Wollmeise craze. This yarn has gone for more than triple its face value on eBay. I'm happy with the skeins I have, but there are definitely other yarns I love more. They do make great socks and show off the stitch definition of the pattern nicely. For the sake of time, the picture is from my camera phone, which suffices in a pinch, but I must really transfer the pictures from my big camera.

Happy birthday to you

From Disney 2011

Today, one of the loves of my life is celebrating his birthday. I've known him for almost half his life and like a fine wine, he's gotten better and better with age. He's grown handsomer and lovelier with each moment. He's an amazing husband, a loving father, and my bestest friend ever. Happy birthday, love. May this new year be filled with tight lines, fun trips, loving memories, new friends, and old friends.

611

Like my father before me, I love photography. Unlike my father before me, I don't have rolls and rolls of film and albums upon albums strewn about the house. Instead, I have an external harddrive and a paid Picasa account, both of which came in extremely handy last night when I began downloading my more than 300 photos of my camera. Even though I expected more than 300 pictures, I was not prepared from how grossly I underestimated my snap happy state while on vacation.

My camera even tells me how many pictures it has room to hold, and ticks down the numbers as you shoot away. I tought my camera was lying to me. It would blink "748" and the number wouldn't register. The next time I look down, it would blink "542," and I'd think, "huh, how odd." When it was blinking "337" I thought it must be highly inaccurate, but no, I just didn't believe it. I didn't know what motive the camera had, but I was pretty sure it was lying.

Nope, I took a lot of pictures, 611 to be exact plus 4 movies. I won't bore you with all 611. Instead, here are a few highlights.

If you aren't wearing mouse ears, then you might as well wear the sorcerer's hat.

From Disney 2011

Children of all ages, love to be at Disney with their mamas.

From Disney 2011

From Disney 2011

From Disney 2011

If you see a giant statue, you must pick it's nose.

From Disney 2011

If you stay in a pirate themed room, you might as well dress like a pirate.

From Disney 2011

Finally:
The chocolate mousse in Canada, really is a moose.

From Disney 2011

A break from the break

There is something about Spring Break which can be exhausting. I think it is us. For some reason, we see Spring Break and Fall Break as opportunities to go out into the world and cram those days with as much activity as possible. These are the vacation breaks where we willingly wake up early and hit the day running only to stop late in the evening with a hard sudden crash. I think there must be something wrong with us.

I'll update you on the break which wasn't after I upload the over 300 pcitures from my camera. In the meantime, here is something which provides the solice and relaxation often missing from my vacations.

From WIPs

It's a sock (shocker, I know) captured in a moment of rest by a camera phone. No, it isn't a masterfully arranged photo, but it also isn't a raw file requiring downloading, tweaking, and converting. It is instead an accurate reflection of the time available and it is a little piece of peace.

My reason for feminism

Today is the 100th anniversary of International Women's Day, and I wasn't going to take note of it nor celebrate it. Then, I read the Yarn Harlot's post. Not only was she eloquent, but she's right. Feminism is and should be the practice of equality of the sexes, both sexes.

In college, I was the one with the "A woman without a man is like a fish without a bicycle" bumper sticker. Not because I thought men were unnecessary, but because I thought the image of a fish riding a bicycle was funny. I didn't believe a woman should need a man. She should be self-reliant and only be with a man because she wants him. As a mother, I tell my son he should never get married because he needs to, but only because he wants to be with someone more than anyone else, because that person brings light and wonder to his world, and he, in turn, is the light of his/her world.

As a feminist, I want my son to face a female competitor as an equal, and not as a girl he has to let win otherwise her self-esteem might be damaged. I shared his frustration when his boys' basketball team was told this weekend that they had to lose the scrimage against the girls' team, not because I felt like he was cheated, but because I felt the girls were cheated out of a fair game. In our house, there's no affirmative action for gender or age. We only let you win if you suck.

As as feminist, I want my son to grow up and do what makes him happy, and I want the world to accept him as he is. I don't want him to be the major breadwinner just because he is the man. I don't want him to shoulder the financial burdens of his household alone. I want him to pick whatever career he wants regardless of whether or not it is a traditionally "feminine" or "masculine" job. I want him to find a partner in life who complements him, the yin to his yang, one who is his equal and a true partner.

As a feminist, I celebrate the strengths and the weaknesses of both sexes and the expansion of opportunities based on who you are and not on your gender.

So, here's my reason for feminism, my son. May his world continue to be expanded as it harnesses what each person has to offer.

From Colorado 2010

(And yes, that is a pink scarf he's wearing. As Little Clover correctly stated, "Real men wear pink." Pink is after all, just a color.)

To be young

There hasn't been as much knitting going on at Clover Field as I would like. I blame the Twilight series. With some luck, the last book will move to my "read" bookshelf tonight and knitting can resume with it's normal voracity. The lack of knitting greatly impacts my Cold Sheeping goal of knitting through 8000 yards this year, which means I'm going to have to either knit faster or convince my family that my time helping out with household chores is really unnecessary and better spent on the sofa with yarn and needles in hand. Since the likelihood of being let of the hook with choirs is low, I better start speed training. Another option is to get on a project with requiring a lot of conference calls. Then, I can use my knitting to tame my need for multitasking while on a call.

Granted, Twilight wasn't the only thing competing for knitting time. The warming weather and chirping birds signals the return of fishing season. We stole way for the weekend and hit the river. Although fishing was a bit slow for me, Smallish Clover manage to have a very good weekend. Not only did he luck out with quantity, but he also hooked and landed a very good quality fish.

From 2011 Fly Fishing February

The children's only stream is a curse and a blessing. Although Italian and I are overjoyed with Smallish Clover's success on the river, we are slightly jealous we can't have the experience ourselves. Clover targeted this beast and we watched as the fly floated towards the whale. Then, with held breath, we watched as the fish opened to take the fly, and Clover set the hook perfectly. As always, we released the fish, exhilarated to see it swim away.

From 2011 Fly Fishing February

It was worth giving up the knitting time to have this moment.

Timing is everything

Some people have a knack for timing. They purchase the right stock before it skyrockets. They show up in time to get the best deals or the best seats. They finish their knitwear in time to wear it during the same season. I do not seem to have the gift of timing which is why my Bohus sweater leapt off my needles as the mercury outside climbed to 68 degrees (F). After a year of on and off knitting, the sweater is finally ready to wear, yet the weather outside just isn't cooperating. I haven't the heart to shove it into the deep recesses of the sweater closet, so it's been gracing the ironing board.

From 2011 Finished Objects

I love this sweater. It was a challenge to knit, taxing my braincells. The pattern is called Wild Apple. Originally released in 1958, Wild Apple is considered one of the most popular of the Bohus sweaters. Theses sweaters could be seen draping the lovely forms of Grace Kelly and Ingrid Bergman, and helped Sweden during a time of economic hardship. Now, I have one of my own and enough yarn left in the kit to knit a matching hat.

From 2011 Finished Objects

Now the sweater is an official finished object, I can begin knitting down my stash. I've decided to go "cold sheep," meaning I won't buy any more yarn for the rest of the year, with one possible exception. I might allow myself to come home with yarn from a special knitterly trip I'm taking later in the year. Outside of that one exception, I'm striving to knit from my stash, all 29 miles of it. Putting my best foot forward, I think these are a step in the right direction:

From WIPs

Yes, it's a sock, a man sock. Compared to the other socks I've knitted, this one seems very large. I know it's not. I married a man with reasonably sized feet, thankfully, but it still seems to be taking longer than usual.

There's also a secret bit of knitting going on for a new little person I'll be meeting later this year. Since I can't show you the knitting, I'll instead show you a former little person practicing his Abraham Lincoln impersonation.

From Irish Clover

He helped his table tie ours at a charity trivia night. Although we didn't win, we managed to hold our own and place in the top 10 tying for fifth with a few other teams. The trivia night topped off our busy week which included a guinea pig meet and greet, as well as a book signing with Baltimore Raven'sMichael Oher. In addition to being very tall, he was also very nice and generous with his time. I hope he is a positive role model for many years to come.

From Irish Clover

Snowmagedon

Well, we all survived Clover's first dance. After dropping him off at the dance, I parked in the parking lot just in case he needed to run out for a last minute request or a last minute decision he wasn't ready for dances and wanted to come home. That didn't happen, so, I cried. Just a little bit, but I definitely shed a few tears. We passed yet another milestone in his journey.

At least he let me snap a couple of pictures before we left.

From Irish Clover

He looked dashing as he struck a pose. He had a great time at the dance, telling us excitedly about it, with the slightest hint of a blush as he mentioned slow dancing.

The dance was originally schedule for January, but Snowmagedon forced a rescheduling. The weather almost didn't hold out as yet another cold front was moving towards the Midwest, dumping almost two feet of snow on Chicago and wreaking havoc on Dallas for the Super Bowl. The weather was cold for us with a slight break Saturday. Snow threatened Monday as a few flurries fell over most of the City and an inch of accumulation on our lawn. Then, today, Snowmagedon struck!

From Irish Clover

I've lost count of how many days of snow we've had. Rumors of a few inches flew with the flakes. As the snow continued and the flakes got bigger, we decided to take a short walk.

From Irish Clover

From Irish Clover

From Irish Clover

From Irish Clover

At times like this, I'm glad to be a knitter with lots of wool socks.

From 2011 Finished Objects

I finished the Rhodie Gus Socks in Zauberball Crazy. The afterthought heel worked out well, leaving the color repeat intact. The yarn isn't the softest, but the colors are lovely and easy on the eyes. The pattern is slightly looser than I like for my socks, but they still fit snuggly and are comfortable. I think the yarn will soft with a few washes and will be one of my go-to pairs.

Emergency blog post

I just picked up Little Clover from his first dance! One of the girls in his class brought a camera. After being informed by another classmate, I asked if I could see the pictures. OMG, my little guy was slow dancing with his crush! Will post more later.

I was told there would be no math

Remember those days in high school when you sat in various math classes thinking, "Will I actually use this stuff?" There are really only a few times in life outside of a classroom when remembering Pythagorean’s theorem becomes vital. Other than the occasional need for geometry and algebra, my life has been rather void of mathematical equations; that is until last week.

Last week, I received a fax (yes, some people still send a fax) of my accident report. My lovely little blue Element had been sandwiched between a Chevy Tahoe and a Ford Escape. Unfortunately, that is not what the accident report stated. The report stated that my lovely little blue Element crashed into the stationary Chevy Tahoe and moved it forward into the back bumper of a Ford truck. I’ll give you a moment to let that sink in.

From Irish Clover

My lovely little Element was supposedly able to push a stationary Chevy Tahoe forward into another vehicle. At this point, the logical part of my brain began to compare the size of my lovely little Element to that of a Chevy Tahoe. Just on the superficial level, the Tahoe appeared longer than my car. The Tahoe seats over seven grown adults in it and I can only seat four. Hmmm, my airbag didn’t deploy, so I know I was at a near stop when struck from behind. Then I began to wonder if it was possible for my lovely little Element to actual do what the report said it did.

Dusting off my calculator and finding the physics formulas to calculate the force needed to move an object one meter in half a second, I did some math and discovered that yes, it is possible for my lovely 1599.8 kg Element to move a stationary 3084.4 kg Chevy Tahoe. In order for my car to produce the necessary 42,595.6 Newtons, it needed to be traveling at a speed of 29.75 mph, way faster than I was going and fast enough to force my airbag to deploy (did I mention that it didn’t?). I passed along the information to the wonderful lady with my insurance. I’m pretty sure she thinks I’m a bit obsessive now. Then I did some math on my sock.

From WIPs

I wasn’t thrilled with how a standard gusset and heel impacted the color flow of the yarn, so I ripped it back, put in some waste yarn for an afterthought heel. I need to then calculate how long to make my foot. I guesstimated, which turned out to much easier than calculating force required to move mass, moved the toe stitches to some waste yarn and then added the heel. The universe is slowly getting back into alignment, much like the alignment on the Element.

My address hasn't changed

With Google Maps on my laptop, I confirmed I still lived in the Midsouth, in the Delta. Yep, my address was the same and Google Maps was still showing it in the south west corner of the state, so why oh why are we getting more of this?

From Irish Clover

My City shuts down when this white stuff falls from the sky. We laugh in the face of heavy fog, speed with reckless abandon in rain, and enjoy the skidding on ice because it's the only ice skating we have, but snow, we shut up in our homes after clearing out the grocery store of its milk, bread, beer, and ice cream. The snow brought us another snow day (and a half) in what was already a short week with the MLK holiday. The car accident that stole my lovely blue Element away didn't help either (everyone involved was fine, Clover was already at school and not in the car, and yippee, I'll get my car back - Elements shockingly keep their value).

The snow was too powdery to make for good snowballs, so I did the next best thing. I took pictures.

From Irish Clover

This isn't the best snow picture, but at least it has some interest. The snowfall measured in at 3 inches, which is a lot for our neck of the woods, not even considering it was our second substantial snow of the year.

From Irish Clover

Clover and his best pal relaxed while I worked away. Yes, he's on the phone, but to his grandma, Mrs. Soprano. So far, that's the girl he talks to the most on the phone. We'll see how long that lasts.

From WIPs

The reflection of the snow gave me perfect lighting for some knitting photos. These a pair of socks I'm knitting in preparation for the Loopy Ewe Spring Fling. I didn't like the color striping with the heel flap, so after the photo shoot, I ripped back the heel and put in waste yarn for an afterthought heel. Now, I must go measure my foot.

P.S. We got even more snow yesterday! Another 2 inches fell at my house, but it was gone by afternoon, like a normal Delta snow.

Marathon

Marathons have almost always been a part of my life. Papa Clover was an avid marathon runner, so my mom and I accompanied him to many a marathon. My company sponsors a marathon every year. My city also is the host to a major annual marathon. My brother-in-law ran it one year. I have friends who have run half marathons to raise money for charity. Therefore, the idea that one day, I might be involved in a marathon isn't such a strange idea. I just didn't expect it to happen this way.

I took an inventory of my stash.

Being the start of a year, I felt compelled to inventory my yarn and update Ravelry. As I added more and more yarns to my stash listing, I began to panic. Upon completing my inventory, my panic rose. I exported my stash information to a spreadsheet and totaled up my yardage. Because the number was much larger than the requisit 1760 yards needed to make up a mile, I divided. Yep, marathon. Marathon plus some to be exact. I have over 29 miles of yarn in my house. Considering I knitted 6643 yards last year, I have enough yarn to last me seven years. To you non-knitters out there, this may seem like a lot, but in light of today's current economic situation, I am now concerned that my Yarn Investment Porfolio (YIP) is quite small. Thank goodness I have a new spinning wheel which will allow me to increase my YIP at marginal costs.

From Irish Clover

I wonder if I can put an odometer on a spinning wheel. Who knows, I might have already spun the equivalent of a marathon.

Snowballs at the ready!

Monday brought our third snowfall for the 2010-2011 winter season, but the first major snow event. The snow began late Sunday afternoon and continued until early Monday morning, completely closing down the city and leaving four inches of snow. One of the things I love about living in the Delta is the lack of snowplows. Each year when we get our one snow, the snow day feels like a holiday, even when I have my laptop and am working from home.

Before the day really got underway, I took the annual "House in the Snow" photo.

From Irish Clover

Then, the fun began!
We don't waste time choosing sides or setting rules, it's every Clover for his/herself. The snowballs were flying, people were falling, and much fun was had. Even when I stepped out of the fray to assume the role of war photography, I was not out of danger and was the target of a snowball.

From Irish Clover

(Can you see the snowball about to hit me? Not the small one, look left.)

After a quick rest by Clover, he stepped back out while Italian and I worked. He busily and quickly made the obligatory snowman, and then I noticed the basketball was missing. Not wanting to waste snow on the interior of the snowman, he used the basketball. That way, we'd have a snowman and we'd have plenty of snow for the second round of snowball fights.

From Irish Clover

Inspired by the snow and the continued dip in temperatures, I pulled out an old friend. I think the time is right to finish her, before the weather warms back up to the Delta norms.

From WIPs

Happy New Year

Happy New Year! Another year has passed at Clover Field and a new one is greeting us ready to be filled to capacity. Honestly, I wouldn't mind a slower passed year, but as Clover gets older (yes, it's time), the year seems to get busier and busier, try as we do to simplify it.

To close out 2010, here is a quick run through of the last few weeks of the year.

Italian got a new hat. Mrs. Soprano loved it she almost stole it. She relenquished the hat when I promised she will get one of her own. The pattern is Claudia, on Ravelry. It is a bit long, so the next one will be knit slightly shorter and with a quicker set of decreases, to keep the hat from getting pointy.

From 2010 Finished Objects

I got a new pair of mittens.

From 2010 Finished Objects

They are the Ribbon Mittens by SpillyJane. Because I'm a bit high maintenance, I changed up the pattern and made them convertible mittens. This way, I still learn a new technique and have my fingers free for my PDA and retrieving items from my purse.

From 2010 Finished Objects

Little Clover got a new scarf. The pattern is Palindrome, knit in Malabrigo because he has expense tastes like his mommy. It's cute to see him grab this scarf when I tell him he needs to bundle up. Seeing him choice this scarf warms my heart.

From 2010 Finished Objects

During Christmas, I spent the break on the sofa, knocked out by a nasty little cold and then terrible side effects from the antibiotic. It made me appreciate chicken soup and hot toddies as natural remedies even more. The wacky cold weather is probably the culprit, but it also brought two snows, so I'd welcome this type of weather at Christmas again. We woke up to snow on Saturday, Dec 18 and snow flurries on Christmas day. For our little part of the world, this is a lot of snow! With some luck, we'll have even more this weekend.

When I was finally feeling better, we cooked a goose. Yes, a goose, and not only was it pretty when it came out of the oven, but it was delicious. To help with the delicousness, I made giblet gravy for the first time. Midway through dinner, Italian looked over and proclaimed that the gravy could not be thrown out for any reason. I think he liked it.

As for what's coming in the year, I hope for the best for everyone. Our family has been blessed with much. We have our health. We have wonderful families. We have many friends and our family and friends are welcoming or have recently welcomed littles ones. I hope our blessings and yours continue to flow into 2011. Happy New Year!