Leaving on a Jet Plane

I'm in Minneapolis again this week for a few more hours, which means I've been up here for winter, spring, and summer, so far. The differences between the seasons have been rather amazing. For my winter trip, the thermometer dipped down into the negative digits, double digits. My spring visit brought temperatures in the 50s and 60s. This visit has included 90 degree weather and today, the high is 71. It is beautiful and my coworker and I have tried to take advantage of it as much as possible.

We decided to actually leave work at a decent time the other night and headed to a local spot for dinner. A local team member decided to come with us and act as a guide. The three of us drove out to Lake Calhoun, a beautiful part of town. The lake is surrounded with separate walking and biking pathways and the paths were heavily used. As we strolled around the lake to the Tin Fish restaurant, bikers zoomed across the biking path, bathers waded in the beach, and families strolled along the walking path. The lake was also filled with people sailing, kayaking, canoeing, and paddleboating. I was amazed with all the activity on a weeknight and loved that people were outside being active. We headed down to the Tin Fish and ate dinner sitting by the lake. If you are ever in Minneapolis, go to Lake Calhoun, walk down to the Tin Fish, and enjoy a glass of beer and the fantastic food.


While in Minneapolis, I found the knitters at my company. My company has a knitting charity group called Project Warm Hearts. They knit for three local charities and my company matches their donated items with a cash gift as well. Plus, there is a yarn closet at work, so if you are in need of yarn, you can just pop by the closet and pick up a few skeins. I picked up some Sugar and Cream cotton for dishcloths. I'm thinking a dishcloth would be a perfect way to try out some doubleknitting. I did finish a hat while knitting away with the Minneapolis knitters and left that in the capable hands of the Project Warm Hearts coordinator.


Pattern: none
Yarn: Mission Falls Superwash wool
Duration: Started the hat on Monday morning on the plane, finished it on Wednesday at lunch. It is a man sized hat. The yarn is worsted weight, so the hat knits up quickly.

LA Sunshine

We just returned from a mini vacation, and the stress of being back is already getting to me. Work became more and more hectic in my absence, and I quickly felt the relaxation from the vacation slip away. In an effort to keep the stress from getting to me, I uploaded pictures from the vacation and sneak a peek every now and then during the day. Posting on the blog also seemed like a great way of keeping the trip fresh on my mind.

We arrived in LA (Lower Alabama) late Wednesday night, ready to storm the beach, which we did:

The boys played a rousing game of beach football as I soaked in the rays and enjoyed my beach knitting.

This is a tank top I began three years ago during my first beach trip as a knitter. It took two years for the tank to reach a length of 10 inches. Then, it took me just a few minutes to knit another two inches. Working on the large needles and the ribbon yarn took some getting used to after a year of sock knitting, but my hands slowly warmed up. Hopefully, I can move this knit from UFO status to WIP in August for the orange phase of Project Spectrum 2.0. Although having designated beach knitting is a bit fun, I'd much rather have a finished tank I can wear on my next beach trip.

When we got tired of the beach, we enjoyed the pool:

We also experienced the wildlife native to LA:

Little Clover found a few hermit crab during the day. Then, in honor of Big Papa Clover, we went hunting for crab one night. We found a crab that resembled a beetle and liked to bury itself in the sand. We also went in search of dolphins,

and found some. The pod consisted of approximately 6 dolphins, including one pup who stayed right by the mama.

Now, I'm ready for another vacation.

WWKIP

World Wide Knit In Public day came and went, and I had a wonderful time. I knit with a diverse group of people at a local bookstore. We meet every other week and the bookstore is extremely wonderful to us. Not only do they let us take up space, but they also let us use a very comfy sofa. They hosted us for WWKIP and we had a decent crew show up. Not only did we have a group of regulars from our Thursday knit-ups, but we also had quite a few never before seen knitters. Hopefully, the knit-up group will expand.

During WWKIP, I did knit, then frogged, then knit, then frogged, then knit on a Lotus Blossom tank from Interweave Knits. I finally got the cast on just right and knitted away for a bit. Later that day, I pulled out the Lotus Blossom tank and frogged it again because I missed a stitch somewhere. I then began casting on again. Since the tank called for casting on 200 stitches, I had set aside stitches to segment the cast on into 50 stitche sections. I wrongly assumed counting to 50 would be much easier. I discovered I can count to 50 without a problem, but I can't count to 4. Instead I keep on counting to 8. Yep, I was casting on over 400 stitches. I casted on over 400 stitches 6 times! After a week, I completed exactly 5 rows of the Lotus Blossom tank. I hope I love this sweater when it's done.

Mama, does this look funny

 

This is a husky, but it's not very husky looking. I admit I did a horrible job finishing it, but at least it is finished. All the pieces were knitted up in January, but they have been lingering in my knitting bag for the last few months. Oh, well. At least I can say the husky is complete.

Stars in the grass

Mama, what does dew look like?
Well, sweetie, it looks like that.
Yes, but what does it look like?
It looks like water droplets?
Yes, but what does it look like (hoping that by accenting a different word, I would get the point)?
I don't know. What does it look like?
It looks like stars in the grass.

I am know officially, the mother of a third grader, and I feel a bit old. Little Clover's report card came in the mail and he had an excellent year. I'm still amazed at times with the little gems he throws my way, like the one above. We had that conversation the other day as we were walking from the car to the door early one morning. The ground was heavy with dew and he told me what it looks like. I was taken aback by his little bit of poetry and I smiled. Maybe, just maybe, there is a little bit of an artist in him yet.

He then proceded to tell me about how he came to this conclusion one day at school while completing a review book, and how his answer was marked wrong. He also completed the sentence "The leaves in the tree look like" with the phrase "a million dollars," which was also marked wrong. I told him I thought those were brilliant answers and he agreed and didn't know what was wrong with his teacher for not thinking so as well. I was very relieved that he wasn't bothered by the wrong marks he received, and I was also indignant at the failure of his school to take the chance to promote his creativity. Often times, it seems, schools tend to focus too much on perfect test scores and the rote memorization of facts and they forget to teach children how to think. As a parent, I can do my bit, but it would be nice if free thinking was also encouraged at school. At least I now have a summer to mold him as I wish.

On the note about feeling old because I am now the mother of a third grader, Little Clover reinforced my feelings with a flippant comment. We were out and about and he took a look at the denim mini skirt, polo shirt, and Birkenstocks I was wearing and remarked, "You look like a college girl." I asked if that was a good thing or a bad thing, and he replied, "Kinda, in the middle." I'm not sure if a mom isn't expected to wear denim mini skirts or if a "woman of my age" isn't supposed to dress in such a manner. I'm really hoping it's the mom thing. His comment is especially funny to me because when I was pregnant with Little Clover, I remarked about how I didn't want to dress like a mom. Mrs. Soprano expressed her wisdom by telling me however I dress, I would be dressing like a mom to my child, and she was right. To Little Clover, a mom either wears business attire or pajamas, but not in a mini skirt. I'll make a note of that.

Fortunately, to Little Clover, a mother does spin and knit. Unfornutely, his mother has not been knitting or spinning well as of late. I've started and ripped out the Fancy Silk Sock about five times now. I think I've gotten over what ever bad mojo I had and have now knitted a whopping half inch. Hooray! Little things still make me happy.

Where are the pictures?
The pictures are missing for a couple of reasons. First, I really don't think the web wants to see pictures of me in a mini skirt. I may be wrong, but I doubt it. Secondly, a progress of half an inch on a sock is just not that exciting. Instead, I'll post some really wonderful pictures tomorrow. Hopefully, you'll be teased into visiting the blog again. I apologize for my miserable lack of involvement in eye candy Friday, but I think the story above is worth a thousand pictures.

I heart bamboo

(and not just because I'm Asian)

This is why I love my bamboo DPNs and why I hate my rosewoods:


My bamboos have lived through several pairs of socks, being shoved into a knitting bag, and being tossed about in my purse. Only one has ever left me to live in the great big yarn stash in the sky. I lost two rosewoods in the same day and I didn't even like them much to begin with!

The rosewood needles developed a slight split at the tip almost right away. Sure they are beautiful looking needles, but for the cost, I think they should make it through a few pairs of socks, let alone a single sock before they start to split. Then to add insult to injury, I broke a needle while trying on the sock just to make sure they fit. The situation only worsened when I reached into my purse to pull out the spare needle. Instead, I pulled out a shard of wood, then the longer splinter that was in actually, the other part of the broken spare. I would have cried a little if I wasn't at work.

I'd love to show you the sock, but unfortunately, they were a casualty of the Rosewood Break. A few yarnover stitches laddered down during the break and since I'd only made two inches of progress, I opted for frogging and reknitting. Hopefully, any negative rosewood karma was released with the frogging and the socks will be happier working with bamboo. They will be my first Nancy Bush socks, made from the pattern Fancy Silk Socks from the book Knitting Vintage Socks.

The second reason I love bamboo has to do with the lovely green yarn I pulled out of the stash. I was intending on making a purse in a basket stitch pattern, but Mrs. Soprano remarked that the yarn is too beautiful and should be a top of some sort. Now that I've casted on 250 stitches for a bag, I am wondering if she's right. Hmm, what tough choices a knitter must tackle. What do you think? A bag in the spirit of Bamboozle or a tank top of sort?


Finally, I love bamboo because I finally figured out how to spin it. The bamboo fiber has not been easy for me. It wants to grab and pull while I am trying to draft it. The yarn has quite a few slubs that I am hoping I cam tame when I ply it. Originally, I wanted to create a single ply yarn, but my spinning just isn't consistent enough yet.

Now, I need to wrap a wee little hat and ship it off to a brand new baby in Texas. Welcome to the world, Hannah! You put up a great fight this past month. Keep up the spirit.


The Pattern: My own. I think I will call it Elaine. It's a smaller version of the hat I sent to Italian's aunt in Illinois.
The Yarn: A cotton I had in my stash. I has long since lost it's ball band. I'll try to find the information on the yarn and update the post.
Duration: Three days. I casted on May 30 and weaved in the ends on June 1.
Pattern details to come.

Yarn and BBQ

I first met Xavier Guy when he was twelve. He was this very cute little kid brother of the guy I was completely in love with. It was evident he really thought his big brother was pretty cool, and since I thought the same, we have always had something in common. As Italian and I dated, Xavier Guy became more like a little brother to me. Not only did he graduate from college this month, but he also grew another year older today. Happy Birthday, Xavier Guy. You are a fantastic person, and I'm lucky to be able to call you a little brother.

Now, I know how great he is and do not need reminding, yet, he continues to be thoughtful in very many ways. For example, the Italian family and spouses gathered together this past weekend for a Memorial Day celebration. As part of the conversation, the upcoming visit by Ann Hood, author of The Knitting Circle came up. My obsession with knitting is no secret and my friends and family will sometimes pass along tidbits of knitting related information to me. When we began talking about Ann Hood's book signing at a local bookstore, I enthusiastically exclaimed I would be there and had been waiting in anticipation for about a month. Then the date of the event hit me. It would be on Xavier Guy's birthday and during the time we would be celebrating as a family. Yep, Ann Hood's book signing was tonight.

Xavier Guy looked at me and said, "You should go. I'll have another birthday next year, and besides, how often does a knitter come to town to sign her book?" See, I told you he is a fabulous guy. I told Xavier Guy there was no way I'd miss his birthday, and I didn't. We met for dinner and we had a rousing great time eating good food and drinking good beer.

I didn't miss out on meeting Ann Hood either. How did I pull that off? I have one of the best local bookstores and Ann Hood has a great publicist. Our local Davis Kidd humours us knitters every other week. They allow us to take up a small area of the store and knit and drink for our bi-weekly knit night. When they heard Ann Hood was coming to town, they let us know and passed along the publicist's information. Diane and the publicist worked some magic and scheduled a little lunch at a local BBQ place. To my utter amazement, my crazy work schedule actually slowed down this week and I had the lunch hour free and spent it with some great local knitters and Ann Hood.


Ann is very personable. She is sweet and fun and a great conversationalist. She also enjoys BBQ which is an important quality if one wants to hang here. Lunch today was like having lunch and hanging out with a group of friends. She is a wonderful addition to our knitting group. If you have the chance to see her in your city, please do. She is worth it. Not only is she worth it, but her book, The Knitting Circle worth it.

I had some reservations about reading The Knitting Circle. I'm try to avoid the knitting books because they seem to rely on a gimmick. After hearing the reviews by other knitters and reading up on Ann Hood's other accomplishments as a writer, I decided to take a chance on the book. I am quite glad I did. The knitting in the book is true knitting and is deftly woven into the story, but it doesn't overpower the story, either. Instead, the story of Mary and the knitters provides the life-beat to make the book an engaging read. I found myself worried about Mary and hoping above all hope that she would find the solice she needed. Ann's own experiences make the story more poignant and tangible. The loss she share's with Mary is harsh, but their stories provide hope for others. Their story is a good one. Go read it.

As requested, here is a picture of the socks I finished for Xavier Guy:


Oh, and as if my day couldn't get any better, when I came home, a nice little package from Cafepress was waiting for me. My Sheepie Tee and WWMDfK Tee were finally here. Hooray!

Baa, Baa

 

I don't have the opportunity to attend fiber festivals, so I don't usually have a chance to see a real sheep. Naturally, when I heard my nephew was having his fourth birthday party on a farm, my thoughts did not turn to what would be a perfect birthday present for my nephew. Instead, I thought of the chance to see a touch a sheep. What can I say? I'm a knitter. The farm did not disappoint me. Not only did they have a sheep, but they had two, and I got to pet them! Oh, happy day! Little Clover, Papa, and Nana Clover were all happy for me as well. I have a very great and understanding family. The sheep were newly shorn and in my excitement, I forgot to ask about the breed. I think the natural wool fumes intoxicated me and made me too giddy to think clearly.

In addition to petting the sheep, I finished Xavier Guy's socks. The second sock really zoomed off the needles. I began the first sock in January, early January. I finished it last week. I started the second sock last Sunday, and handed off the pair to Xavier Guy in time for his birthday and the muggy delta summer. I think he likes them.

In the red

I started writing this post about how I wasn't knitting with Project Spectrum 2.0 for the months of June and July and I was just going to do a photo journal of red. I anticipated bowing out of PS 2.0 this go round because I'm taking Project Spectrum as an opportunity to reduce my stash and the red yarn I had in mind is for a lovely long sleeve wool sweater. Wool sweater and long sleeves should not be part of a Southerner's vocabulary in June and July unless it is to describe the oppressive heat and how it feels. Then the word wet is usually added. Then, I remembered the lovely red lace Schafer Andrea I just received. I could knit a shawl. Even better, I have some fabulous red Socks That Rock and I've been itching to knit and the Interweave Favorite Socks book just happens to have a pattern I've been eying. It looks like I'll be knitting in the red after all.

I also then realized it was still May and not June (can you tell I'm a bit frazzled still?). I have some time then to knit a little green baby hat for a little newborn in Texas. With any luck, I may finish the hat and the socks before PS 2.0 Red begins.

SSS

I'm not sure if my crazy work life is truly slowing down or if I just have let go of the stress and said "Screw it." I think it is more likely the latter. I also discovered this weekend that Italian's family commitments and software deployments have an uncanny knack for occurring at the same time. It's rather remarkable really. For the first launch, we had a lovely wedding at the same time. For the second launch, we had a lovely graduation:


Xavier Guy officially has a diploma! We requested to see the diploma as proof and were quite proud of him. We drove up to Cincinnati Friday after Little Clover's Field Day (where he won first place in the 50 yard dash).


The graduation ceremony was early Saturday morning and I was armed with coffee, water, a book and GameBoy for Little Clover, and knitting for myself. As a knitter, I love graduations because it means at least 2 hours of uninterrupted knitting time. I was happy. (The fact that I have a small child who is perfectly content sitting for two hours at a time is also a beautiful thing and the sheer luck of this is not lost upon me).

We celebrated the happy day with lunch and Italian, Xavier Guy, SweetPea, Little Clover, and Mrs. Soprano all went to the aquarium while I returned to the hotel to do some work. Little Clover returned to the hotel with a beaming shark painted face and told me all about the amazing things he saw.



He is convinced that Cincinnati is a fantastic town and that we just needed to stay there instead of going home. He agreed to let us take him home the next day when I promised him we would return.

The sock also enjoyed the time in Cinicinnati. He was the only project I packed and he loved the singular attention. He thanked me by letting me finish up the first sock (after ripping back an inch and a half) and I even finished the toebox of the second sock.


Now, I know a lot of knitters suffer from Second Sock Syndrome, but for some reason, I am immune to SSS. Instead, the second sock is usually a treat for me and I generally finish it quickly. I think the second sock is like running down hill towards the finish line after running a crazy long distance. It's the signal that the end is near and I can begin to pay attention to all the other sock yarn in my stash. I begin to get excited about the prospect of adding another FO to my list. My fingers get excited, and the stitches fly. Let's hope this second sock continues this streak and continues to prevent SSS.

BFF

I have been in a love affair for over a decade, now. Today, Italian and I celebrate the day we made the love affair official. We were much younger then, but I love him more today (if possible) than the day we were wed. Looking back at this picture, we almost look like kids playing dress up or getting ready for a silly dance instead of two people making a commitment to love each other forever. I still smile at our youth then. We had no idea of the pains and joys our life together would bring. The journey to this, our eight anniversary has been filled with unexpected excitements as we've grown up together. On our wedding day, Italian was my best friend. Today, our friendship, just like our love, has only grown stronger. I can't wait to see what the next eight years will bring. Happy Anniversary and I love you more than four.



As if I need any proof that Italian is a wonderful catch, today, when I awoke, he had laid beside me a skein of Schafer Andrea laceweight silk. Yippee!

Catching up

Me: How does my hair look like this?
Italian: Fine. It looks good.
Me: It doesn't look bad.
Italian: No, it looks good.
Little Clover: Uh, I wouldn't exactly say it looks bad.
Me: Oh, what would you say?
Little Clover: It looks a little weird. You aren't going to put on lipstick are you?
Me: I was planning on it. Why?
Little Clover: Well, when girls do things to their hair and then put on lots of make-up, their faces look a little crazy.


I dont' think Little Clover is accustomed to me getting dressed up to go out. The above is the conversation we had while getting ready for Engineer's wedding.

Little Clover looked spiffy in his suit jacket and Engineer was a beautiful bride.


The dress was elegant and the shawl did not clash with it! Yay! After the ceremony, we partied at the downtown train station which had a large amount of historical and local flair. Little Clover showed us that dispite his young age, he can really groove to funk and R&B! He ruled the dance floor with his little moves. I tried to dance with him, but I couldn't keep up. After a few hours, he was finally ready to go home.

After the wedding, I set my focus back on work. We are in the middle of a huge project and work is temporarily hogging all of my free time. I haven't even had time to knit. I know, the thought of it still makes me cry a little bit. My life is pretty stressful without yarn.

I knew things were bad when I left the office late one night and called home to see what my guys were doing. They weren't home yet either, so I immediately changed course and went to my LYS. I didn't need anything and I didn't have any knitting with me. I just needed to be around yarn and knitters. I walked in, said "Hello" to the owner and then proceeded to walk all around the store touching and sniffing everything I could. When asked if I was looking for anything in particular, I told the Spinning Guru I just needed a yarn break. Then I sat on the sofa and talked to everyone there as I leafed through pattern books. I left feeling rejuvinated.

I did pack knitting with me for my flight to Minneapolis and the knitting goddess was smiling on my. I just grabbed a bag with Xavier Guy's still unfinished socks and stuffed it in my carry-on bag. I got through security, both flying there and back, with a set of metal DPNs and darning needles. I was shocked, but very happy. Other than the flight, where portable electronic devices must be turned off, I didn't get to knit at all.

I did get to go here:


Where we saw:

An indoor amusement park
(It really is huge!)

LegoLand Store:


And fish, lots of fish.


The Mall of America has an aquarium and my traveling companion and I took some time of for a mental break one night to bum around the mall. If you are ever in the Twin Cities, go to the mall. You will not be disappointed. Besides, there are plenty of stores to exercise the "No Sales Tax on Clothing and Shoes" rule.

I may not have knitted much the last two months, but I made up for the lost time this weekend. After finishing the wedding shawl, I needed something mindless and easy. I picked up the Picovoli again and wove in the ends yesterday. I'm still not sure how much I like wearing it, but it was a quick and easy project to knit, the perfect antedote to lace.

FYI

The wedding was fabulous!
Engineer was a beautiful bride.
The shawl was delivered on time.
Minneapolis has no sales tax on clothing.
I found the Ann Taylor Loft by the hotel :)

More to come with pictures.

Veni, Vidi, Vici

Between work and personal deadlines, my week has been extremely crazy again. I've been working long hours and have had a few late evenings at home. I've outsourced meal preparation to local restaurants, all house cleaning to either Italian or a service, and taxes to Italian. I have even sent those super short emails. I'm sure you have seen them. They are fragmented messages missing nouns, articles, and verb: messages that are limited to:
Busy. Send more later. Lunch?

Little Clover has responded to my busy schedule and stress by stepping up and becoming a little gentleman in a pint sized body. After a long and stressful day at work, I came home late the other night and hit my limit within 15 minutes of walking in the door. The dinner Italian had called in for me to pick up on my way home was not ready. In fact, they had not even put the order back to the kitchen. The washing machine had forgotten its purpose in life was to clean clothes, and my favorite hair clip broke. I was stressed and tired. Little Clover took one look at me and said, "Mama, I'll fix dinner tonight? How about a grilled cheese sandwich?"

I smiled and said, "That would be lovely."

Since he is still little and not allowed to use the stove, I asked if he would like for me to cook it. He said, "Yes, please," and we had a wonderful dinner.

In an effort to meet my pending deadlines, I've eliminated sleep from my schedule. Other than the bags under my eyes, my new twitches, and a propensity to be a bit edgy, it's coming along swimmingly. You can get a lot done, like a Wedding Shawl.


Yes,sirree bob! The shawl is blocking! The knitting was finished late Tuesday night and the ends were woven in yesterday. I made three mistakes while knitting but only one is really visible. I hope The Engineer loves it. I also hope the off white of the shawl doesn't clash with the off white of her dress.

Don't Drink the Lemonade

Water for Elephants

First, a confession:
It took me well over two months to finish listening to this book. The story is very good and the narration was wonderful, for some reason though, I wasn't engaged enough to continue listening to it. Other things seemed to be more important. I think one thing that made the book difficult to finish was the subplot of Jacob as an old man.

The book is really two stories in one. The primary story is that of Jacob Jankowski as a young man who ran away from his life and found himself in the Circus. The backdrop of the Circus is as large of a character as any of the living breathing characters and Sara Gruen is a talented writer for being able to pull this off. I love stories where the setting has such prominence. Jacob must resolve what his life is and who he is as he travels from town to town. His journey with the Circus train chronicle's his journey from a sheltered one life to one that is more worldly. He finds himself on that train.

The sub plot of the story is about Jacob on the verge of losing himself. He is old, 90 or 93, he's not sure which. His not knowing is a very strong theme of the subplot. The subplot of the book was the true point of the book. It made me think of what I want in old age, how I view those who are old, and how I have behaved around those who are old. I felt regret for my behavior and I felt great sadness for what Jacob's life is like in the nursing home. If nothing else, this book grants readers amazing insight into the mind and emotion of the aging. I don't know what Gruen's experience is, but she is gifted. Not only does she have a depth of understanding for the human experience, but she can communicate it in a way that builds bonds and empathy.

Oh, the ending was superb!

Eenie, Meenie, Mighty, Mo

A new phase of Project Spectrum has begun and I am way behind. I knew the shawl would take me into April, but I was hoping to have a Picovoli done by now. Sadly, my plan didn't work out exactly like I had hoped. The Picovoli is moving at a quick pace though, and I have a feeling it will be done before the warm weather arrives.

Since I'm a stickler for finishing a project before moving on to the next, I will finish the Picovoli before I start my Pink Project for Project Sprectrum. My green project may just fall to the wayside and will have to wait for another day. For my pink project, I need some help. Which one do you guys like?

A.

B.

I will make the short sleeve version for either one of these.

Last night I knitted

I spoiled myself last night and shut myself away when Little Clover went to bed. I didn't do any of the laundry that was lingering, waiting to be folded. I didn't even work on the documents due this week for work. I certainly didn't check my email. Instead, I sat in bed with a small bedside lamp shining softly next to me. My iPod was speaking the words of a book in my ear and my hands knitted. I stayed this way for over two hours, knitting in bed. All the tension in my shoulders that had built up with the stress of the last few weeks began to melt and I felt revived. After two hours of knitting, I had a renewed sense of self and the second panel to the wedding shawl, which I stitched up today.


I owe belated birthday wishes to a few people. Every year, the beginning of April is a time for celebration as I am fortunate enough to be a part of four very wonderful lives.

Firstly, my brother in law had a milestone of a birthday this year. He is now officially old :) Happy Birthday, Brian! Remember, I have a whole year to give you little gifts to help you with your new old age.

Next, I have to give a huge gigantic cyber hug (for now) to my best friend. Happy Birthday, Tlee! I miss you much. Please come down in May for some fantabulous Canadian music and food wrapped in bacon.

I also owe a belated birthday wish to the Godfather. Thank you for welcoming me into the Family. May you have many more happy years, and I can't wait to see the garden.

Finally, Italian deserves a gigantic birthday wish. I love you and love celebrating the day that you came into this world. Happy Birthday.

Although I didn't plan any huge party for Italian's birthday, we did celebrate in our own special way. We had a very nice dinner with his family. Xavier Guy was even in town for the Easter break. Friday, we bundled up with hats, sweaters, winter coats, scarves, and gloves. We were ready for the 30 F weather and head out to the baseball game. Yes, we watched a baseball game wearing clothing that was remnicent of a football game. At least the beer stayed cold.


And you can't have beer at a baseball game without a nice helping of
BBQ Nachos, which also stayed cold. Trust me, they are wonderful hot.


The game was quite fun. The home team won. The crowd was extremely entertaining. Little Clover left with a bat. Yep. He got a bat from one of the players. We were sitting in the stands by the dugout when one of the players walked up to the wall, reached over, and handed Little Clover his bat, complete with ball marks. Little Clover, being the baseball fan that he is, was in heaven. Oddly enough, the one picture I took of the game was actually of this particular player battting. The heavens must have been aligned that night.


Now we have yet one more reason to like the Cardinals. As a Cubs fan, I'm still holding out hope that David Eckstein will be wearing Cubbie blue one day.

Oh, how could I forget? What says Easter better than a Darth Vader decorated Easter egg?

On your mark, get set, go!

My crazy life is starting to slow. This past week, I finished up two of my neighborhood events. Every year, my neighborhood hosts a landscaper who will give general landscaping tips. If you bring a picture of your house, he will look at it and give you specific suggestions on what to plant and where. He was very good. Next year, I may be brave enough to bring a picture of my house.

Then, on Sunday, our neighborhood had an Easter Egg hunt. This is the only event without a chairperson, which meant that I had the lovely job of running the Easter Egg Hunt. I spent the last two weeks stuffing over 600 eggs with goodies and candy, finding a person to make an appearance as the Easter Bunny, and making treat baggies. We had torrential downpour on Saturday, which left me worried that Sunday would be too muddy. Fortunately, the park was dry and perfect for hiding all the eggs. The kids arrived, ran around frantically,

and left with baskets full of candy and smiles on their faces.


Now with my big event over, I can focus on a few other things, like watching the mama and baby birds at our house,


or my roses bloom.

The first rose of the season.

Catching Up

For those who haven't heard, Interweave Knits will have a new Editor in a couple of issues. Eunny Jang will be taking over at the helm of the magazine. As a follower of her blog and an admirer of her designs, this is an exciting announcement. She has a great attention to detail and puts an extraordinary amount of thought into her patterns. Congratulations to Eunny!

The lace shawl I'm currently knitting for my sister's-in-law wedding, is a Eunny Jang design. The shawl is the Print o' the Wave pattern off her website. So far, it has been a very easy knit. I originally used stitch markers to segment each repeat section. I quickly abandoned the stitch markers for a couple of reasons. First, the pattern repeats become easy to read as the knitting grows. Secondly, the repeat sections are flanked by K2tog or SSK and occasionally, they would consume a stitch on each side of the stitch marker making me do this crazy balancing act of slipping off the stitch marker with a couple of fingers and then precariously holding the stitch marker between some free fingers while I try to knit, then placing the stitch marker back on my knitting. After doing this for a couple of rows, I decided to be darning and flung my stitch markers to the side. I felt liberated.

The pattern tells you to start with an invisible cast on. There is actually a cast on called the invisible cast on. This was news to me and I'm glad I took the time to look it up before I started knitting. You will need a piece of waste yarn and you will end up with live stitches. Could you imagine my surprise if I had used the long tail cast on and then gotten to the "pick up stitches part" for the edging? The Victorian Lace Today has wonderful instructions for an invisible cast on. The tutorial in Victorian Lace Today is also better than the instructions in The Knitter's Companion by Vicki Square. Although The Knitter's Companion has pictures, the instructions in Victorian Lace Today were a bit easier for me to understand. I didn't look at anything else in The Knitter's Companion, so the rest of the reference book may be quite handy.

The shawl is definitely growing. I was casually working on it last Thursday at my bi-weekly knit night, and was talking about the pattern with blogless Lynsey. I was happily relaxed thinking I was over halfway done with the center panel and could easily knock it out by the end of the month, when a small comment made me realize that I was only halfway done with one of the two center panels. I started to panic. Since Thursday, I've been knitting furiously on the shawl and the sweat and swearing and tears have paid off. I finished one of the two panels Sunday and have casted on for the second panel. With luck, I can have the shawl finished in a couple of weeks. I am completely loving the pattern. It's an easy lace knit. I think there will be much more lace in my future.


The Picovilo is also growing and is almost a half top.


My spinning is also progressing at a decent rate. My LYS has a very large supply of Ashland Bay fibres. I was lucky enough to score some bamboo:

Enough

I realized the other day while driving Little Clover to a game that loving your child is enough. After my mom died, one of the biggest regrets I had was that I didn't show my love for her enough. There was more I could have done. I could have been nicer to her while I was a teen. I could have said "I love you," to her more. I could have called more. I could have talked to her more. I could have hugged her more. I could have done all those things and it still wouldn't be enough, because after you lose someone, all you think about is what you don't have anymore and there is this gap that stays behind for a while.

Being a mom, though, has brought me the realization that my mom had enough. She loved me with all her heart and that is all she needed. That's why I remember the special smile she had just for me. Italian calls it the "Mommy glow." I know that the love she felt for me is pretty darn similar to the love I feel for Little Clover. I love him enough for the both of us. My love for him is enough especially for me. Do I want him to love me back? Of course I do, but I don't need it. Feeling how much I love him makes me immensely happy. Being able to show him my love makes me happier still. The rest, his hugs and kisses, are an added bonus. I have enough.

I actually wrote the above paragraphs several months ago and was waiting for the right time to post it. Today, my mom's birthday, seemed to be the right time.

When March hits, her birthday enters my mind and I usually begin to miss her and become quite sad. This year, though, whenever I thought about her birthday, I found myself getting excited and looking forward to it. I miss her still, but it has been different. Her birthday is seeming more like a celebration. It is a special time for me to remember her and be thankful for the time we had together. I can still feel her love for me and as I look around, I see small things that remind me of her. I've seen four leaf clovers everywhere, birthday cards in people's cubicles today, and even a bright seven color rainbow. It's as if with every little sign, she's saying hello in her special way and reminding me that she loved me enough. I love her back and I think she knew.