Squeeeeeee!

Last night was the Harlot in Madison!! Beeb and I went and enjoyed it immensely. The ever-lovely Dale-Harriet saved us a seat, so we were in the second row! Beeb snuggled in for a nap shortly after we arrived, and was rudely awoken by the Harlot amplified by the PA system and Mama laughing out loud. He gave me the stink-eye every time I started laughing for the first few minutes, but then settled in to enjoy the show. By the end, he was giggling and kicking his legs. Since one never knows how long a baby is going to be happy, I managed to pre-board for the signing and my little flirty-bug decided to play hard-to-get with the Harlot. Not smiling, no way, nuh-uh! (Thank you Chocolate Sheep Beth for snapping the photo!)

Of course, we went back to our chair to people-watch and chat with friends and within five minutes, the little stinker was working the crowd, flirting with everyone in sight. He even met a little five-month-old girl. I think it was love! She was practically jumping up and down on her mama's lap and Beeb was telling her the story of his life (ba-ba-ba, da-da-da, la-la-la). I swear he had Dale-Harriet wrapped around his chubby little finger by the end of the evening!

Yesterday afternoon, I read this blog post and it suddenly dawned on me that, dude, the Harlot would be arriving at the Madison airport (Yeah, I know, keen sense of the obvious, but I had spent the morning running errands with Bug, Bean, and Beeb, so like most days, my brain was pretty much oatmeal). I immediately thought that I could go to the airport and perhaps get a glimpse of her. My second thought was I'm normally not that stalkerish and creeped myself out a little. My third thought was imagine myself staking out the airport lobby with a bored 5-year-old, a bored 3-year-old, and a bored 7.5-month-old. Like that could ever happen without my head exploding. Yeah, apparently, me as a celebrity stalker...just not happening.

Not that I would picture myself stalking most celebs, but for the Yarn Harlot, I might make an exception. Not only is she wickedly funny in a way that resonates just perfectly with my particular funny bone, but she seems to be just a really neat person that I could see myself sitting down with over a coffee and some knitting and having a blast. Prior to the whole famous author/knitblog personality gig, she was a doula and a certified IBCLC. I could probably even 'fess up to how many nurslings I have (and how old they are) and not even phase her. She also has the sci-fi geek thing going and the crunchy, Birkenstock, no make-up things going. So maybe in a parallel universe we could even be friends, but I guess I will settle happily for groupie as long as I already have some lovely, clever, and wickedly funny knitting friends, both in real life and on line.

Odds and ends

Lessee...let's back up about 10 days ago (give or take). Friday before last was Knit Night at the Ear. Remember the Malabrigo incident from the previous knit night? Well, before I picked out the blue, I debated back and forth between the blue and luscious light yellow and even considered one of each before finally making up my mind. Well, then I go and Malabrigo is still 30% off and lying there on the shelf are two skeins of the yellow and one other of an orangey shade. Three skeins of worsted left in the entire store and two of them I had been debating. Clearly a sign.

After the winter that wouldn't end, we were finally rewarded last week with some glorious weather. In the 70's (20-25°C) and sunny. So on Tuesday, we took a picnic to the zoo and spent most of the day there (meerkats haven't arrived yet, red panda was still hiding from us). Then on Thursday, we took a hike at the Arboretum. We took a nice long hike (well, long relative to Bug and Bean legs) and enjoyed seeing all the buds and new leaves and listening to the birds sing.

However, the highlight of the trip was seeing Mr. and Mrs. Turkey out for a stroll:

We managed to be quiet (well, for us) and got a relatively close look and followed them down the main path for a bit until they took a right on smaller path and walked away side by side. It tickled me as much as (if not more than) the kids! We also enjoyed seeing the magnolia trees in bloom in the "tame plants" section of the arboretum (as opposed to the native ecotypes).


This weekend has been a blast! Saturday was last Saturday knitting and just great fun all around (BaxterKnits provided the quote of the day). Quite the lovely group of folk! And then, today we saw most of them at the alpaca festival. A small ball of chocolate brown alpaca roving came home with me. Beyond that, I have decided to live vicariously through MollyBees roving purchases, for she is a dinkwad* and has better access to pretties!

Tomorrow is Harlot Day. I am very excited! Beyond that, my parents hit the road this morning to come visit the grandkids. They are planning on doing some hiking in Yellowstone and visiting Dad's brother on the way here (and Mom's brother on the way home), so they won't be here until Thursday, but we are looking forward to seeing them!

I still have FO posts to catch up on...I'll get there eventually! *sigh*

*Of course I mean that in the nicest possible way: Double Income No Kids, With A Dog (and another dog and a cat and a rabbit, but I digress and the acronym starts to break down) ;o)

Earth Day

Yesterday was Earth Day. While not a big to-do here, we have been working our way to greener in some ways and yesterday was a good day to reflect on that. Here is some of what we have been doing:

• Recycling - we had been kind of hit or miss with recycling in the chaos of multiple moves, but we have finally gotten a bin in the kitchen and one of Bug's chores is to take the recycling to the dumpster when Daddy does garbage.
• Eating Local - we have been gradually cutting back on pre-prepared, processed foods and are starting to get more local foods into the equation. When you think about it, the amount of energy and fossil fuels used to get foods harvested commercially, processed, packaged, transported, and so on is really quite impressive in a depressing sort of way. We are looking forward to Farmer's Market starting up again in May and this year we have joined a CSA, so we are looking forward to a lot of yummy, local produce this summer!
• Getting into Nature - we are trying to do more outside as the kids get bigger. We can branch out from going to the playground all the time and go on hikes in the Arboretum and parks and see plants and animals up close.
• Mindful Resource Use - this isn't really anything new, but we continue to have a cooler house in the winter, a warmer house in the summer, try and turn off lights and appliances that aren't in use, conserve water in the shower/bath, walking to "close park" instead of driving somewhere else, using reusable grocery bags, etc.
  

Hmmm...

There haven't been any gratuitous baby pictures in a while. Must rectify the situation.



Okay, that will be all.

The Man Cold

Ah yes, as the weather finally starts to turn (emphasis on starts...we had snow again over the weekend), our home has been invaded by the dreaded Man Cold. KittyDaddy caught the bug last week, took a day and a half off of work and slept the whole time. Now the kids and I have said cold. Boy, do I wish I could take some sick leave and sleep instead of tending to sniffling, cranky kids. We did manage a mass nap piled on the sofa yesterday when I could. not. keep. my. eyes. open. anymore. Yeah, all four of us. Does that tell you how wiped out I was? Fortunately, I am feeling better today!

I have been MIA lately and for that I blame Ravelry. If you're not a Raveler, feel free to skip ahead. In Rav, I made the mistake of looking at the MCY thread and have been hopelessly addicted (lurker only). I think I'm finally cleaning up my act, but boy, I still want to see what comes of it (if anything). Also, I have been stealth knitting. So knit happens, but it does not feed the blog much. Pics on Ravelry if you're interested (I'm pretty sure the intended recipient is NOT a Raveler).

I did start the Laminaria shawl with my Malabrigo. I am about two and half repeats into the star part (of six repeats) and just LOVE the pattern and the yarn. This is going to be one cozy and soft shawl. I can't wait to get to the more open "blossom" part of the pattern. My only gripe with the pattern (and it's a small one) is that chart winds up asymmetrical. The chart is repeated twice with the middle line between and one one side there is a very visible horizontal line and on the other a very visible vertical line. I'm pretty sure I could rip back and substituted sssk for the k3tog parts and it would come out symmetrical, but I have decided to be happy with it. I think it will smooth out some with blocking and I will probably be caressing it and calling it "precious" instead of looking at symmetry once it is done.

My only beef with Malabrigo is that it is a little hard to knit with compared to other lace weights I have used (most notably Jaggerspun wool/silk and KnitPicks merino laceweight). The thickness varies slightly and it is not tightly spun (and is single ply), so it can occasionally be difficult to figure out where one stitch ends and the other begins if they are bunched together or to split the ply. I can't complain much though, because the end result will be worth it, but if this were a first lace project, Malabrigo might make lace knitting seem somewhat harder than it really is. (And yes, Deb, I am looking at you right now!)

If a tree falls in the forest...

and no one is there, does it make a sound? Or more to the point in this household: If a five-year-old goes to the bathroom without announcing it to the entire household and neighborhood, has he really gone?

Beeb is fully mobile. He is still mostly army crawling, but no longer just pulling with his arms. He gets the little toes curled under and uses them too. My new favorite hobby is getting him nakie and watching him do his thing. I love watching the little body parts doing their thing and working together. Of course, I try to be sensitive and do this in moderate doses as I imagine the army crawl isn't particularly gentle to the sweet widdle boy bits. ;o)

I have been knitting away, but have a couple of stealth projects in the works, so I can't blog about them. If you are a Raveler, you can see 'em, but the rest of the blogsphere will just have to wait. Other than that, I am just keeping on keeping on with various socks. I am taking full responsibility for the gorgeous weather we had last weekend. I am about halfway through the cuff on my Enough Stinkin' Winter socks, so only a couple more inches to go and they will be done and winter will be banished once and for all! I do have a couple of FO post to make. I'll get to them eventually.

Last Friday was Late Night Knitting at the Ear. And a winter clearance sale. Let's just say that "30% off Malabrigo" is not for the faint of heart. I got two skeins of the gorgeous blue worsted weight. It is going to be some sort of mittens/hat/scarf combo for next winter. I also picked up one more skein of the lace weight I got for Christmas. It was from the same dyelot, but not a perfect match, but maybe it can be a spare hank to keep for a pet. I am pretty sure that the other hanks will become this.