Thank You SP5!

Woo-hoo! Look what I got! My second package from my Knitty SP5 came in the mail today and there were all sorts of goodies inside. First of all - on the left you will see 3 different 12" Clover circular needles! Sizes 5, 6, and 8. Visions of sleeves, baby hats, and mittens are already racing through my head! In the middle there are 4 skeins of this very pretty pale blue-green wool to make fingerless gloves with... the pattern for which is included in the letter in the front. There is a very sparkly bag (which housed the needles in the package) that I am going to transfer all my DPNs to so I can separate the DPNs and crochet hooks (with hopes of being able to find the size/hook I need *when* I need it)... and last - but certainly not least... CHOCOLATE! That scrumptious square on the right is a hand-dipped smore from a gourmet chocolate factory...

And, behind all of these goodies you will see my new pillow - one of a pair that my mother-in-law just made for me!

Things You Don't Want to Hear From a 3 Year Old

"Mommy, how do we clean this up?"

Wait, wait - let me put this in context. Willow and I had finished eating dinner and I was here toodling away on the 'puter while Willow played with her toys. She does this thing where she takes out all her animals and toys and pretends to plant a garden (with the toys being the plants). Every once in a while I would turn around and she was still 'gardening.'

Willow: "Mommy, how do we clean this up?"

Me, barely glancing up: "Well, pick up the toys and put them back in the toybox."

Willow, more insistent: "No, Mommy - how do we clean *this* up?"

Curious, I get up out of my chair to find out what 'this' is. My darling daughter had found the basket of spices and sundries I take to my in-laws house when I make pizza there... and in that basket there is a small tupperware container of cornmeal. She had decided the cornmeal was fertilizer for her garden and she had sprinkled it all over her 'plants.'

Me, groaning: "Ohhhhhh... Willow..."

And, realizing it was ultimately vaccuumable, started laughing. Then Willow started crying. And the harder I laughed, the more stricken her tears became. I couldn't help it - what other kid creates a garden out of her toys and then decides it needs fertilizer?!?!?

So, we pulled out the vaccuum and cleaned it all up - no harm done.

Field Trip to Ramsey's Pumpkin Farm

Today Willow had her field trip to Ramsey Farm's Pumpkin Patch and it was a glorious day for the trip. Originally the trip was scheduled for last Wednesday, but it was pouring with rain that day so the trip was postponed.

Here is Willow with most of her classmates:



No - she isn't the smallest of the group - just kind of squished in the middle. The kids ran around in a hay bale maze (there was also a short cornstalk maze - maybe 4 feet tall, and a full-size cornstalk maze that was mown in the outlines of all the continents.)



Here is Willow helping her friend Riley put her pumpkin into her bag:



Willow on top of the world! (or rather, a hay bale on top of a tire!)



It was a great outing - and warm enough that I left my jacket on the bus. And we both got little pumpkins to bring home! I'd love to take Willow back to the farm on the weekend because they have a mini-café where they serve pumpkin ice cream, pies, soup - and whatever else you can make out of pumpkin and other squash. I don't know if it will be this weekend, though - by the sounds of it, we may be getting the remnants of Wilma by this weekend...I hope not - we have had quite a bit of rain lately.

Ahem...

For those of you who didn't believe me when I mentioned it before, this is what my husband does to my tupperware cupboard on a regular basis. I'm lucky right now - usually I can find a pot or pan in here as well...



And yes, about once a week I pull everything out and stack it up properly...

Strolling Around Rockwood Park

It was such a gorgeous day today that we decided to head out to Rockwood Park and go for a walk. Mom and Auntie Daryth - I believe I took both of you to this park while you were here... It is one of the few former estate / now public parks in the Brandywine Valley that did not once belong to the DuPont Family. It's a great walk because it isn't level and you have to go up and down, through the woods, across the field, over a creek - but it isn't a huge acreage. Plus there is this great old house on top of the hill that sells coffee, tea, pastries... And is open seven days a week.

Mom - I know what these are, but for the life of me can't remember the name! I want to say geranium, but somehow that doesn't seem right - my mind keep on saying it starts with a 'b.' In any case, this plant is huge - easily 3 feet across. I should have had Willow stand in front of this for a good comparison shot.


Willow and a willow tree. She knows what a willow tree looks like, and whenever we see one while driving around she has to make sure she points it out to me. I thought she was making it up the first time she did this... But we were at a four-way stop and she was pointing to a willow tree on the corner!


An underground pantry I guess - Willow wanted to know why the house was underground.


See what a beautiful autumn day it was here! The leaves really turn gorgeous colours here, and after about a week straight of torrential rain, we were happy to get outside. I was really beginning to feel like a slug from being inside all the time.


And after our walk was over, Andrew and Willow had to curl up in one of the Adirondack chairs on the front lawn overlooking the pond.


I hope we have many more days like today this season.

Copied from Runs With Needles' Friday Feast (but on Sunday)

One of the blogs I frequent (http://runswithneedles.blogspot.com/ ) had these questions up on her weblog and invited others to copy the questions, so I did.

Appetizer
Who is someone you would consider to be a calm person?
My Auntie Daryth - now, that doesn't mean that I haven't seen her upset or angry before - but emotionally, she is one of the most level people I know.

Soup
What was your last "gut feeling" about? Were you right?
That I wasn't going to get a promotion at work when they were announced two weeks ago. I was right.

Salad
List 3 words that you really don't like how they sound.
Obese
Axe (as opposed to 'ask')
Exclusion (only because I have been working on a presentation at work and have typed that bloody word about 4 million times and seemed to have a mental block about it because I think I misspelled it every which way you *could* misspell it.)

Main Course
What kind of shampoo and conditioner do you use?
Matrix stuff for curly hair. I got a deal on it the last time I went to get my hair cut. It smells like cucumbers.

Dessert
If you found out that you definitely do have a guardian angel, what would you name it?
How about Lillian? I don't know - I mean, other than angels in the bible, I have to say that I hadn't thought about angels having names. Or how about Powerball? It's up to $340 million dollars. Yeah... Powerball can be my guardian angel :)

Sweetness Finished

Yes, here I am in all my 6:30am no make-up'd glory. The weather was finally cool enough (high of 62'F today) to warrant wearing Sweetness ( http://www.knitty.com/ISSUEspring03/PATTsweetness.html ) to work. Yeah... that would be the same day that the airconditioning failed to come on in the morning and everyone was sweating through their newly-pulled-out Autumn clothes... but I digress. How did I change the pattern? Well, as you can see - it has 3/4 length sleeves for my short arms - I just knit the sleeves as directed and stopped when I thought they were long enough. I also cast on 24 more stitches on the bottom when I started the sweater, and decreased 4 stitches (where the sideseams would be if there were any) every 10 rows 6 times - all this to make a more A-line sweater to accomodate my, uh, womanly hips. I also closed up the neckline about 2" on each side because I have narrow shoulders and I didn't want it to slip off my shoulders. But the most sacreligious thing of all? I knit it out of Lionbrand Homespun! It's easy to wash, soft to wear - and I am very pleased with it - plus I got unintended stripes out of it!

The Baby is having a baby!

See that baby on the left? That is my baby sister Jaime (see my previous post about my disbelief that she just turned 30...). Well, said sibling called me up this afternoon and informed me that I will become an Auntie again next June! Andrew points out that this will be the first time I will be an Auntie on my side of the family. I have 4 nieces and 1 nephew on Andrew's side. I am so happy about this - as much as I would love to be pregnant right along side her, I'm kind of glad that the pressure would be off me for awhile. You may ask where the middle sister - Teri - is in this picture. Well, Teri had a big time phobia of men with facial hair and there are a couple on-Santa's-lap pictures where Teri is absent...

Anyway, here are the parents-to-be:



Like Willow, Jaime and Chris' future child will have a good chance of being taller than Jaime by the time he/she is 10 years old... Chris is about 6'5" to Jaime's (maybe) 5'1".

Interestingly enough, Willow was very upset when I told her that her Auntie Jaime was going to have a baby and that she would have a new cousin. It blew me away - once she stopped crying and I calmed her down, I asked her why she was upset - she said Jaime couldn't have a baby because she wasn't a Mommy - that Auntie Jaime was an Auntie and babies had to be born to Mommies. She didn't quite get the fact that one doesn't become a Mommy until the baby comes along...

Oh, the anticipation of it all!

I sent my Knitty Secret Pal 5 a package earlier this week, and thanks to the wonders of Fedex tracking, I know she has received it... AND SHE HASN'T SAID ANYTHING YET!!!

I'm dying here! I want to know how much she liked the stuff in the box - I keep on not-so-furtively checking out her knitting blog to see if she has updated it and she hasn't.

Happy Birthday Jaime and Assorted Knitting-in-Progress

Happy Birthday Jaime!

It was Jaime's (gasp!) 30th birthday on Monday, and being the bad, out-of-touch sister I am, didn't call her or even email her. I think I am still in denial that my baby sister has turned 30. Jaime, I hope you had a wonderful birthday - and I am interested to see what this new tattoo looks like! This was picture was taken in August when we were all at my parents' house on Vancouver Island.

Knitting Miscellany

I'm sort of in that in-between project stage again. Here are some grainy snaps of what I have in progress. I say grainy because I still have not been able to master my new camera... it doesn't want me to use flash for close up pictures.

Project #1














This is a top-down raglan sweater that I am knitting for Willow. I have never tried a top-down pattern before, so this is a learning experience. I am almost at the point where I will be dividing for the sleeves. This is a monster Red Heart skein (red-orange-yellow-magenta colourway) I bought in Canada during my holidays.

Project #2 (Tara - don't look!)












This is a crocheted baby blanket intended for my friend Tara, who will be having her third girl sometime in mid-November. She is actually due on my birthday, so we will see if that happens :)

Project #3 (Asami - don't look!)














This is a knitted baby blanket for my friend Asami, who is pregnant with her first child and is due the first week of December. I thought I had lots of time to finish this, but as it turns out, her baby shower is going to be the day before my birthday... so I need to get cracking!

To make matters horrifically worse, I have just not been in the mood to knit or crochet lately... maybe it has to do with the change in seasons, but all I want to do is read... And lately, just trashy romance novels!

Lazy Saturdays (are my favourite kind)

Now, if only a certain munchkin had let us sleep, oh - let's say, past 5:30am (!), this day would have had a perfect start... Andrew and I are off the the blood bank this morning to do a plateletpheresis donation - this really comes as close to a date as we get these days. You get to sit in comfy chairs for two hours, watch a movie (albeit different movies), and get fed Tums on demand... ah, the lap of luxury :)

Actually, the fun part of the day is that we will be able to go out for lunch and then to the outlet shops - the Wilmington Riverfront is quite nice - and they have a long walking path that you can have a leisurely stroll upon. Wilmington is striving for an urban renewal - they changed all these warehouses and decrepit shopfronts into huge loft apartments with trendy shops on the ground floor - and there are condos coming up on the far side of the Christina River. I think it would be a cool place to live - but Andrew is a little freaked about potentially living in the city.