And Here He Is!

Say hello to my beautiful new nephew, William. His parents haven't told me yet how they plan to shorten that - Willow doesn't quite get the pronunciation so she has been calling him "Willy Am.
"


He's quite the bruiser, isn't he? Well, his Daddy is 6'5" so he definitely has genetics in his favour.



I can't wait to hold him!

And Plus One is a...

BOY!

William David M- was born by C-section at 9:07am this morning - which was a good thing because he ended up being transverse breach. Don't know what that is? Think of a baby doing the splits... He is 21 inches long, 8lbs 4.5oz, has dark curly hair and is all legs. I want pictures, Jaime! Good luck and much love to you and Chris!

Yippee! I'm an auntie again!

I Would Like the Record to Show...

...that the Tangerine Dream was finished at least 12 hours before Plus One was born.



It is 10:45pm EST and Jaime's c-section is scheduled for 8:45am PST tomorrow morning...



Now, to finish Willow's halter top and start Satomi's baby present.

And sleep.

Juicy Red Goodness

Guess what we have in the garden right now?



Don't these look yummy?



I have posted many photos of my in-laws' garden over the last few weeks. In the years that I have lived on the east coast, I have come to divide my in-laws' garden in my mind: the flowers are my father-in-law's domain, and the fruit and vegetables my mother-in-law's domain. It's still early for produce, but we have been picking asparagus and rhubarb for the last few weeks and in this last week the strawberries have ripened in amazing numbers. Of course, getting to them before the slugs do is the trick - my mother-in-law places tin plates of cheap beer throughout the strawberry patches which you have to navigate around when you pick these juicy lovelies.

I have a new addiction. Battlestar Galactica ( http://www.scifi.com/battlestar/ ). Andrew is a fan, and I had watched the odd episode if he was watching it and I didn't want to give up my knitting perch. This past weekend he rented the entire first season from the local videostore and OMIGOD! I have been watching 3-4 episodes a night and getting away (rather sluggishly) on 5.5 - 6 hours of sleep a night. I only have one episode of the first season left to watch - and then the SCIFI channel is starting to replay the second season from the beginning next Friday. I really like this idea of being able to watch an entire series of television all at once - and I have been able to put a good 2 inches on Plus One's Tangerine Dream every night.

Mia Hamm Reincarnated?

Willow really wants to play soccer - the problem is, she's only 3 years old and the leagues around here insist a child must be 4 years old to even play in the baby league (oh, they don't call it that, but it might as well be - the nets are only about 20 feet apart!). She will be old enough for the fall league, but that doesn't start until September and Willow doesn't understand why she has to wait. Here is a photo of the aspiring Mia-Hamm-to-be:



I had plenty more photos of flowers to show you, but they apparently were not willing to be uploaded at the moment - so I will try to get them up later. Here is a pink rhododendron from the backyard:



And a purple one with a black smudge in the middle:



I'm frantically trying to get the Tangerine Dream finished - my sister will be having a C-section on the 29th and I would like to get the blanket sent off as soon as possible.

My Mother the Great!

I'm sorry for this belated Mother's Day post, but we have had some wicked thunder and lightning storms blowing through here each night, so I haven't been able to write a decent post. When I returned from Florida I found the dollowing pictures in my inbox, the first proving once again what an amazing knitter my Mom is:



This is the Pacific Northwest shawl from the pattern Mom bought from Elann. It called for lace weight yarn... but since most yarn in that category is wool and Mom is allergic to wool, she knit it from a light worsted weight acrylic - TLC brand, I believe. Isn't it gorgeous?!

And Mom, do you realize you inadvertantly supplied me with Project Spectrum photos? I've been strangely lacking in green photos this month, which is really odd because green is my favourite colour.

The second picture is of my Mom's fledgling clematis - she said it was merely a stick last year, so she is really proud of how it is growing:



Happy Mother's Day, Mom! I love you!

Guess Where I Have Been...

This was the view from my hotel room the last few days:



No, we were not on some fun-in-the-sun vacation - rather I was at a conference in my area of expertise at the Disney Resort... in Orlando, Florida. I kid you not - I was in Orlando the last four days, experiencing what felt like to me to be mid-August!

Here is a picture of the sunset Thursday night. My co-worker Marcie and I had just gone for a long walk along the Downtown Disney boardwalk, and were very happy to find a free ferry that took us back to the dock near our hotel!



There is a cool Lego World exhibit at Downtown Disney and the following pictures of statues are life-sized and look like real-life pixelated people:



Here is a close-up of the dogs:



And there was even a Lego dragon in the water:



Today was a whirlwind day - we woke up this morning to look at another house (very cute Cape Cod, but needing a new roof, air conditioning, and new windows... another $25K we aren't planning to spend), and then off to the annual Wilmington Flower Market. I'm a little murky on the beginnings of the festival, but here is a website that tells you a bit of what was planned: http://www.wstw.com/flower.php We made a beeline for the midway (and dropped a bundle on tickets - yikes! I don't understand why they don't offer a ride pass!) and let Willow go hog wild.

Willow and I on the carousel - this was Willow's first time being on the horse all by herself. She didn't want my help at all with balancing her on the horse (sniff!), so I climbed on the nearby pony and rode along:



Willow on a school-bus carousel:



And Willow and Andrew on the bumblebee ride:



Lots of fun was had by all and we are all a little pink now due to the hesitant sun this afternoon. The weather was playing games with us all day - we almost didn't go to the fair because it was raining this morning.

Oh... and the answer to what the woman is doing to Willow in the last post's picture? Willow is a sheep and the re-enactor is demonstrating how they shear the sheep (since all the sheep to be sheared had already been sheared for the season). I did find out they sell handspun wool there - for $35 for a 120 yard 2-ply skein! Yikes! Too rich for my blood!

Green Project Spectrum Package!

Thank you, Erin - for my Green Project Spectrum package - everything in the box (non-food, that is) smells like the gorgeous verbena bar of soap. The Toblerone is um... gone. I did share it. The Rowan Tween has some lovely flecks in it and I think it will make a wonderful hat. Thank you so much!



Willow had a field trip yesterday to a Colonial farm and we saw these cute beasties:



Hmm... I will twist this around the right way later - but I'll leave you to guess what this woman is doing to my daughter... I'll give you the answer in my next post ;)

Rhododendrons and Azaleas Galore!

I wasn't kidding when I said that every week or so there is a different rhododendron or azalea blooming in the yard - here are some more examples.

A rhododendron along the driveway. This is another one with huge flowers - about the size of teacup saucers.



A pink azalea with yellow flame in the middle along the back of the house. This one is highly scented:



Another pretty scented azalea - this one a gorgeous dark coral with yellow in the middle:



I love this picture against the sky! I am getting better at the different fidgety controls on my digital camera. This is a pink and yellow rhodoendron in the backyard.



This is one of my current favourites - a dark crimson rhododendron along the side of the house. The flowers on this one are very waxy and unlike any of the other rhododendrons I have seen in the yard:



And its next plot neighbour, a vanilla-white rhododendron:



A pink and yellow azalea in the front with some columbines starting to poke their way up:



This is another one of my all-over favourite azaleas - rose/coral pink in the middle and white on the outsides:



I seem to have a lot of azaleas with yellow in the middle right now - and yes, they are all separate varieties:



A sunny orange rhododendron along the driveway - and this one is almost the exact colour of Plus One's Tangerine Dream:



I also received my Project Colorswap Green package today from Erin [ http://bookishknitster.blogspot.com/ ] but the picture I took of it got washed out (so, I haven't perfected my use of said fidgety controls yet), so I will take another tomorrow and post it. Hopefully the Tobelorone will make it to tomorrow's photo session...

Spring is for Pretty Toes

It's getting warm enough here to warrant wearing sandals every day, so I treated myself to a spa pedicure this afternoon. Usually Willow is happy bring a book or two and sitting in the chair next to me... but not today. Today she was the clingy, Mama-mama-mama, weepy toddler that I always seem to think she has outgrown and insisted on sitting on my lap while the nice lady exfoliated, trimmed, scrubbed, shaped, anointed, and painted my toes. It was not easy trying to balance her on my lap (she is nearly 40 inches tall now and all legs) and pay attention to where the aesthetician wanted my feet to be, but we managed. Toward the end, Willow whispered to me, "Mama, I want my toes painted too." I told her she had to ask the lady, and said lady said it was fine. So, while I was under the drying lamp, Willow was still in the massage chair getting the star treatment. About ten minutes later the aesthetician comes out holding Willow in her arms and Willow has the same polish as me... with little daisies painted on her big toes! The aesthetician didn't charge us for Willow's treatment, so I left her an extra big tip - and Willow is the happiest girl in the world.

I'm not so happy... I'm going to miss the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival [ http://www.sheepandwool.org/ ] due to my own stupidity! For some reason I thought it was next weekend (May 13 - 14th) and had made arrangements to not see houses, not work, not do anything so I could go to this festival. Imagine my shock when I was reading Lolly's blog [ http://www.lollygirl.com/blog/ ] this afternoon and see the dates of the festival are *this* weekend. So, my own fault - so I look into when the New Jersey Sheep and Wool Festival [ http://www.njsheepandfiber.org/ ] is to make plans to attend that one is... only to find out that it has been cancelled! Delaware doesn't have a sheep and wool festival - we're known for our chickens and chemicals - not wool. The closest ones now are either Rheinbeck or one down in southern Virginia. Bah!

Well, at least I have pretty toes.

Tangerine Dream Proof

See, Jaime - I'm really trying to get this finished before Plus One makes his/her appearance... even though the orange/yellow month for Project Spectrum is over and...



... I really want to get started on my green project for May - a halter top for Willow:



Isn't that a cute bag? I got it free with my subscription to Self Magazine - it is the best small project bag!

Not Quite What I Intended

I took some picture of my knitting to prove that I have been working on the Tangerine Dream... but the pictures are unwilling to unload right now, so they will have to wait until later.

In the meantime, here are some more flowers from my father-in-law's garden. A coral-red rhododendron from the side of the driveway:



A pale pink rhododenron from the backyard:



A voluminous azalea near the back door. This plant gets crazy big because the dryer vent is behind it so it gets a lot of warmth:



Yeah. Excuse the confused look - I don't know what is up with how she was standing, either.

Another coral azalea from the backyard:



And Mom - this one is for you since it is purple - a rhododendron from the front:

Two Hundred and Counting

Posts, that is. What did you think I was talking about? Wait, wait - just don't even go there.

My father-in-law's garden is proving a fertile ground (pun intended) for Project Spectrum photos. As I mentioned in an earlier post, the blooming rhododendrons and azaleas change every week, and it was just my luck that the majority of the current blooms are yellow and orange. Hmm... maybe Lolly and my father-in-law are in cahoots... My father-in-law informed me after the last batch of photos that I mis-identified some... the general rule is that small leaves = azalea, large leaves = rhododendron, despite the flower size.

An corally-peach azalea from the front yard:



A yellow azalea from the side of the house:



A gorgeous bright flame orange azalea from the back yard. This one is one of my favourites, but unfortunately it gets banged around quite a bit because it is on the corner of the back of the house near the walkway.



A delicate lemon-yellow azalea from the side of the house:



No, I'm not cheating you here - this is a different orange azalea from the picture above. It is on the opposite side of the house:



A very sunny yellow azalea with coral buds from the front yard:



Here are some non-Project Spectrum flowers (I couldn't just ignore them because they weren't yellow or orange!). This rhododendron's flowers are massive. I didn't think to put something up for scale, but this flower is about the size of a dinner plate! This flower reminds me of Hawaii - though I have never been there - the light colour in the middle and the darker pink on the outside.



This flower was in dark shade when I took the picture; I adjusted the settings for cloudiness, but the colours of the flower did not come out exactly right. They were a darker rose pink in real life. Closer to mid-May this rhododendron's neighbours will be a glorious riot of purple!



I know there has been scant knitting content here lately - and this is mostly due to the fact that the only thing I have been knitting is my sister's baby blanket for her upcoming Plus One. I'm sorry, Jaime - I love you and I will cherish Plus One... but knitting baby blankets must be the most tedious knitting project ever. I can't wait until Plus One makes his/her appearance and I can work on quickly finished baby outfits in the appropriate colours and styles! At least Satomi has told me she is having a girl and I can get started on stuff for her once I have finished the Tangerine Dream...

SP6 Goodies, Library Update, and Gratuitous Willow (not necessarily in that order!)

I forgot to include this picture of Willow when I posted photos of my father-in-law's flower garden:



There are a couple of rocks like this in my in-laws' garden and there is an interesting story behind them. When my in-laws built their house 30+ years ago, they had a hard time digging the basement because this area is notorious for the rocks close to the surface. BIG ROCKS. These rocks had to get blasted out of the ground to dig for the basement. In any case, they kept a few of these large rocks to put in strategic places in the garden, and if you walk through their neighbourhood, you will find other such rocks... the neighbours liked my in-laws' rock garden so much they wanted some of their own! This is Willow's favourite climbing rock.

Today I received a package at work... my third and last package from my Knitty SP6 Secret Pal... who I now know is Helen from http://purlpower.blogspot.com/ ! Helen, thank you so much for my package! This package, as well as the previous one, had been opened by Customs... we knitters are a suspicious-looking bunch, aren't we?



Let's see... leftish to rightish: beautiful sock yarn in 'Ocean' - so calm and pretty, HP Sauce, Marmite (!), 3 skeins of burgundy Rowan Ribbon Twist, a Lush bath bomb (!!!), Milk Chocolate Hobnobs (little did Helen know I have a package of these in my desk at work for my morning coffee break!), and a bar of lovely smelling soap. There was also a hilarious card of a small child in an unfortunate knitted outfit ;)

Here's a close up of the sock yarn - I love how quiet the colour changes are:



And... there was something for Willow in the package as well:



Helen, I'm sorry. Sometimes it is impossible to take a picture of a three year old. They just don't sit still. Helen sent Willow a darling little felted purse which had a small tube of lotion inside. She now thinks she is a proper lady and I am doing my best to have her *not* slather all the lotion on at once!

Library Update:

The Library Manager telephoned me yesterday and said that he had no problem at all with my knitting group having permanent digs at the library. There was no mention of the snarky librarian, but he did say he wanted to talk to me further about this when he gets back from vacation. In the meantime, we have a room and are now considered to be a library-sponsored group, which means out SnB will be on the library's website schedule! Yay!