Back to Reality

I'm back from Franklin, TN. While I really enjoyed spending time with my parents, it is good to be home. Their house is just not designed for two rambunctious boys.

My mother and I agreed that knitting camp was something of a bust. Our plan was to take a bunch of knitting or fiber-related classes at the LYS. Unfortunately, few of the classes were offered at times convenient to us, and private lessons were more than we wanted to spend. I then borrowed EZ's DVD Knitting Workshop from the Atlanta Knitting Guild. While we enjoyed watching some of the DVD, my mother had no desire to actually knit the items EZ demonstrated in her workshop. We eventually abandoned the DVD as well.

The two weeks were not an entire waste, however. I finished knitting the gecko for my nephew:

I still need to felt and stuff the gecko, but I'm so pleased with how well it turned out.

Felting the gecko looks like a project. You have to pull it out of the washing machine every 5 minutes or so to check on its progress and shape the toes. I'm waiting until an evening to felt it. With temperatures in the 90s, I'm not anxious to run any unnecessary electrical equipment.

I’m starting to feel a little pressed for time with some of my projects. My SIL is due in two weeks, and I need to finish the details on the baby projects. I still need to fix the clasp on my duck bib, secure the ends to the baby surprise jacket with thread, and finish the clasp to a second bib. I cast on a third bib on Friday and realized that I need to review some knitting-with-color techniques. (I’m not sure, but I may have stumbled into intarsia.) I had hoped to knit at least two more bibs by the time the baby arrives, but that may be too ambitious.

I also need to start my first lace project. The Atlanta Knitting Guild is having a KAL sponsored by one of our recent speakers. I've been a little hesitant to mention the project since it is open to a limited group of people. However, we have our own KAL forum on Ravelry. If we have our own forum, I think we can mention the KAL in public. Anyway, we are knitting some sort of lace shawl or stole. The project does call for beading for those who are ambitious. With a baby learning to crawl and pull himself up and the older two boys (a/k/a "the terrorists"), I've decided against beading. I'm very excited about my first lace and KAL experience.

For this project, I purchased KnitPicks Gloss yarn (parsley color) for the KAL. It was on sale [go me!] and is a wonderful earthy color, which was recommended. The swatch was to be completed last week, and the first clue was published Friday. I'm a bit behind because I haven't started the swatch yet. I hope to start on it tonight while the gecko is drying.

Since the baby is still sleeping, I guess I should return to my other project in progress - cleaning out my office. Once either my husband or I are employed, we plan to put the house on the market. I'm trying to clean the house room by room. My husband did an amazing job cleaning the boys' rooms, the playroom, and the garage while we were gone. My office, once one of the the neatest rooms in the house, now looks like a paper and yarn tornado hit it. I'm trying to organize both the paper and the stash, but I'm not sure I'm winning the battle.

Happy knitting!

Knitting Camp Continues

Knitting Camp with Mom continues. Well, sort of.

I drafted my last post on Tuesday evening. By that night, I had a heck of a migraine, completely derailing plans to knit with Mom that night. Wednesday morning, the migraine continued. In addition, my older two did not have camp that day because of thunderstorms. So, we had to postpone Knitting Camp until Thursday.

I have been able to get a fair amount of knitting done the last few days. I started knitting a Gecko for my nephew. The pattern ("Gotta Get a Gecko" by Fiber Trends) looked very intimidating when I first purchased it. The pattern is also knitted on double points, which I have never used before except to make I-cords. My friend H assured me that the pattern is very do-able. It is just very detailed. H was absolutely right. In this pattern, almost every line is knit differently, but the pattern itself is not hard. It's been a quick knit. I started knitting on Thursday, and I'm ready to bind off the head and begin to knit the legs. With a little time (and a little luck), I should be ready to felt it by mid-week.

Oh, and the yarn I'm using for the gecko is Nature Wool by Araucania. It's thick and has variegated shades of green. It's going to make a very cool gecko.

Before I forget, in my last post I mentioned my yarn and pattern purchase from the Haus of Yarn. I am so excited about knitting this sweater. The pattern is Chunky Little Jacket by Ella Rae Designs. Haus had knitted a sample in Magallanes Hand Dyed by Araucania Yarns. The yarn is variegated in various shades of bright pinks. I looked at that jacket and knew that it would look great on me. Now, the pattern and yarn are mine. (Insert wicked laugh here.) I'll have to post pictures of the yarn and pattern once I get home and have access to my DH's camera.

I've made a very cool observation recently - I actually can read patterns and understand what I am supposed to do. I even know how to make the stitches in the patterns. When I looked at the Ella Rae pattern for the jacket, I wasn't at all intimidated. There is one line that is a little unclear, but I think I've figured it out. I really feel proud at how far I've come since October.

Anyway, everyone is out of the house right now except for the baby. I'm going to take a few minutes to enjoy the quiet and play with the baby. I hope everyone has a Happy Father's Day!

Knitting Camp days 1 & 2

The kids and I arrived in Franklin, TN on Sunday around lunch time. We immediately began to prepare for DS1 and DS2 to attend soccer/science camp the following day. After heading to Publix for lunch goods, it was time for dinner and bed.

Monday morning, I dropped off the boys at their camp (could you hear the screams of joy?) and returned home for our knitting camp. There was a bit of a delay with DS3 wanting to eat. My DH and I also realized over the weekend that DS3 had outgrown his clothes and that we needed to take him shopping. So instead of knitting, it was off to Kohl's, Walmart and Target for baby bathing suits and pajamas. Can I tell you that no one is carrying baby PJs in 12 month sizes? We managed to find 3 pairs of pajamas. I'm hoping I can find a couple additional pair when I return home.

That evening, after the kids went to bed, we were finally able to begin knitting camp. We turned on EZ's Knitting Workshop. What a character! We didn't knit much, but we did learn a lot of different techniques from the few programs we watched. I'm not sure EZ would approve of the way I purl. I was excited that I properly tought myself her method of "making" a stitch. I love the way EZ would show a technique saying, "Some people do x this way. I'm not going to do it like that. I'm going to do x like this. . . ."

For knitting camp today, we went to Nashville's Haus of Yarn. We went there several months ago, and I have been thinking about a sweater I saw ever since. Today I purchased the pattern book and the yarn, both of which were on sale. I also purchased a size 15 knitting needle, which was not. I thought I had a size 13 needle, but I only have size 11. Oh well. I guess I'll have to hit another yarn store, darn it.

I'll have to tell you more tomorrow. My boys performed experiements with electricity at camp today, and they have decided to repeat these experiments in their bedroom. I probably should intervene before they burn the house down.

Till tomorrow.

Crazy Camp week has begun!.

The elder members of the PeachyQueen gang seem to be enjoying camp. DS1 is at cub scout camp and is having a blast. Normally, I can't get a word out of him about his day. This entire week, he couldn't wait to tell me about camp. He even wanted to cook dinner with a recipe he learned in camp. I'm still not sure about this recipe. You crack and egg into a Ziploc bag, add milk and cheese, and mush up. Then you are supposed to put the mixture in to a pan of boiling water. I figured we were making some sort of poached omlette. I'm pretty sure he left out a step or two. At some point, you are also supposed to put the egg mixture into an oven. Eventually, we had scrambled eggs.

[I have to interrupt this thought with a mental picture. DS1 just walked in wearing shark pajamas, Star Wars sunglasses, and two large pearl necklaces hanging down to his waist. Where's my camera . . . .]

DS1 also has had a great time with archery and shooting BB guns. He even received a special award today for shooting the target with more than 5 shots. I'm not sure how I feel about DS1 holding any sort of gun. I guess I have a mixture of pride, concern and absolute fear. He's all boy with all of the little boy destructive tendencies. I guess I will feel proud of his accomplishments and happy that we don't have a BB gun at home.

DS2 is reluctantly having fun at camp. He would much rather stay home with Mommy. Mommy, however, has a few things to do. In addition to the normal doctor appointments and errands, I need to get the family ready to go to Tennessee next week. I also think he may be a little bored at this camp. It sounds like the camp moves at a slower pace, and nothing DS2 does is slow. He is supposed to return to this camp later in the summer, but I may find a different camp that week.

Having the boys at different camps in different parts of town has taken a toll on my car. I'm driving over 100 miles every day. The only good aspect of spending my life in the car is that I have found the most wonderful audiobook: The Help by Kathryn Stockett. It received great reviews as both a well-told story and a well-read book. It's fabulous. I don't want to put my IPod down. The biggest problem is that the story is set in Jackson, Mississippi. After listening to the Southern accents all afternoon, I tend to talk like a character in the novel!

I need to go help prepare the boys for their last day of camp this week. Have a great night!

A Sad Day to be a Tree

The word came down today - the Kwanzan cherry tree outside my office window must go.

It's actually a pretty tree, maybe 10 feet tall. We planted it when we first moved into the house 10 years ago. In the spring, it sports these beautiful cotton puff pink flowers. I have fond memories (and several great pictures) of the kids pulling the flowers off the tree and blowing the pedals into the wind.

This year, I noticed a large branch that died. Not a problem, I thought; we'll just cut it off. When I inspected the tree yesterday, I noticed that leaves on several nearby branches were dying. I asked our lawn care person about the tree, and he noted an area of rot in the trunk. I had hoped that I would find some sort of cure on the Web, but all the information that I can find states that Japanese cherry trees are sensitive and that they will not survive the rot. I may send out one more e-mail to the local celebrity gardning guru, Walter Reeves, to see if he has any last suggestions. I probably should call an arborist, but my husband is reluctant to spend the money since we both suspect the tree's days are numbered.

I guess next week, I'll call someone to take down the tree. I'll miss the pink flowers next spring.

I knitted a Baby Surprise Jacket

Yes, it's true. It's not finished, but it's knitted. I still need to sew in the ends, the top seam, and add buttons, but here is what it currently looks like:

It is knitted in Knit Picks Comfy Sport, a cotton-acrylic blend that will be perfect for a baby who is going to live in Arizona. I brought the almost-finished piece to the Atlanta Knitting Guild tonight, and I received many oohs and ahs from the membership both on the yarn selection and my workmanship. It is appropriate that I finished knitting the BSJ tonight since I began the BSJ at the last guild meeting. Okay, actually I spent the May meeting fighting a ball of yarn intended for the BSJ, but I think I cast on that evening or the morning after. I hope to weave in all the ends by my next weekly knitting meeting. Once the baby is born, I'll add the appropriate buttons.

On some level, I felt a little silly in that I had a lot of problems with what essentially is a garter stitch pattern. I do feel I learned a lot from the pattern, and I take a great deal of comfort in the fact that most people seem to find it a challenging pattern.

I also learned an important little fact from my knitting group last night. Apparently, I do not make my knit stitch correctly. I knit into the back of the needle and purl into the front. My understanding is that many self-taught knitters make the same mistake. While this is not a problem for many patterns, it may be a problem when I start to use patterns that require I knit into the back of the stitch. I decided to knit several washcloths and baby bibs to re-teach myself how to knit.

Anyway, I'm going to celebrate my accomplishment by curling up in bed and watching The Deadliest Catch (I'm addicted). I hope ya'll have a great evening!

How can it be June?

I haven't blogged in a couple of weeks because, well, I haven't had time. I usually try to put a lot of thought into a blog. I compose an essay with a definite theme and some sort of conclusion. Now that the summer has begun, I need to get over my legal self and just write.

The past two weeks have been crazy busy. The week of May 16 was our children's last week of school. Sunday, my oldest child "graduated" the religious school first grade program in the morning, and in the afternoon he graduated to a "wolf" in the Cub Scouts. Monday and Tuesday were filled with doctor appointments and non-stop errands. I also spent the week finalizing camp plans. On Thursday, my oldest had a school awards ceremony and camp orientation. Friday was my middle child's preschool graduation and my oldest's end of year presentation and school party. Friday afternoon, my parents and sister arrived for a quick overnight visit. Not much knitting happened that week.

To add to the crazy week, we had an unexpected houseguest. Our friend, S, suffered a broken ankle from a nasty car accident. S is single and has no family in the area, so she stayed with us after she was discharged. So while we were running around from school event to school event, we were also taking care of S, who was far more disabled than we had realized.

Taking care of S had an additional unexpected challenge - her duplex. Eventually, S would need access to her own bedroom and bathroom, both of which were impassible. I spent over an hour cleaning her bedroom floor, and I was not even close to being done. I hauled her laundry over to our house for cleaning and gave her keys to a friend who was bringing a cleaning person to the home. My friend and the cleaning person spent an additional 4 hours cleaning just the bedroom and master bath, and then they returned another day to clean the rest of the duplex. S has been informed that her bedroom is to stay in pristine condition; there are now several people who have a vested interest in seeing it clean.

Immediately after my family left town on Saturday, I turned my attention to getting our family ready to go to Florida on Wednesday morning. I spent Sunday doing nothing but laundry and creating packing list for the kids. S's mother arrived on Memorial Day, which worked out very well for us. We were able to take S back to her house home that evening and begin to pack for our trip to Florida on Wednesday, May 27. As you can imagine, packing for a family of 5 for a six-day trip took all of our time on Tuesday, and we left town early on Wednesday morning.

From a knitting perspective, the trip to Florida was wonderful. I was left in charge of the baby much of the time, which meant that spent a lot of time sitting and waiting for him to wake up from a nap or watching him roll around on the floor. That was great knitting time. I made considerable progress on the Baby Surprise Jacket, and I should have a picture of it in the next couple of days.

Unfortunately, because I was watching the baby, I really was not able to take advantage of the beach or my in-laws' pool. I took the baby to the beach once, but he spent his time trying to get off of the beach towel and eat the sand. Normally babies eat a handful of sand and spend an hour trying to get the grains out of their mouths. My baby, of course, loved the sand and spent his time trying to eat more of it. In our six day Florida trip, I spent a total of 2 hours on the beach. Sigh. Maybe next summer. . . .

I wish I could say that the rest of the summer would be more relaxing, but I suspect it will be just as busy. In fact, I know it will. I just updated my calendar for June, and it's not pretty. The next two weeks are packed with appointments, medical procedures, and playdates. I did hire a babysitter today to come by two days a week to watch the kids, which will be extremely helpful. Also, the older two have camp next week, which also should free up some time.

Then in mid-June, the children and I head to Franklin, TN to visit my my parents for two weeks. This should be a lot of fun. For the first week, the kids are going to an awesome camp. They will play soccer with Nashville's semi-pro soccer team in the morning, and in the afternoon they will perform science experiments and learn to build Lego robots. They should have a blast. The second week is Mommy and Nana Camp where we take them to cool places around the city and on day trips. Again, we all should have fun.

While the boys are in Soccer/Science camp, Mom and I will hold "Knitting Camp." We plan to check out all the LYS we can find and take as many classes as we can cram into two weeks. Knitting heaven.

My husband is staying behind on this trip to focus on his work, on finding a new job (know anyone who needs a CIO?), and on his "Honey do" list. I am very proud to say that today alone, he staked six tomato plants and fixed the pantry door. More importantly, for the first time ever, the water closet door in the master bathroom actually closes and locks. You have no idea how important a locked WC door is until you have little boys pulling it open demanding to know whether you have a penis and what exactly you are doing at that moment. I can't wait to see how my house improves during his two weeks as a bachelor.

I had hoped to have pictures to show you from our trip, but my husband apparently has not downloaded his photos from his camera yet. Look for them over the next few days. In the meantime, wish me luck. I may need it.