Spring has…

Well, not exactly sprung, but here in Wisconsin, we have pretty low standards.  Most of the week has been sunny and warm.  Shut up.  45°F is TOO warm.  We made our first trip of the season to our favorite state park on Tuesday.  The lake was still iced over.  It looked kind of slushy to me, but we saw a guy out ice fishing, so it must have been at least a little solid yet.  And there were still snow on the ground, but the playground was clear, so we had a nice time running around and playing.  We also looked at the tiny buds on trees and basked in the springy-ness of it all.

On Wednesday, we met friends at our regular homeschool Wednesday park.  Again there was snow on the ground, but Miss Bean decided that it would be good idea to go wading in the puddles.  We had a bit of a discussion about good decisions versus poor decisions after I had her put her damp socks and boots back on.  I was pretty sure little Mr. Beeb would think his big sister’s idea was great when he followed me over to lay down the law.  Fortunately, Bug did a good job distracting him away from the temptations.  My admonition that we were going home RIGHT NOW if anyone else went wading in the puddles, accompanied by the steam issuing from my ears may have had something to do with it.  Smart kid, that Bug.

The week ended with a phenomenal BANG last night with Late Night Knitting.  There was all of the standard good stuff about Late Night at the Ear:  good friends (like her, her and sadly blogless lovely daughter, her, and her), good food (including the vanilla cupcakes that actually restore my will to live every couple of weeks), lots of luscious yummy yarn, and beautiful and inspiring projects.  But, as an added bonus, the amazing, inimitable Franklin Habit was there to sign books and read a selection from “It Itches.”  And, as an added, added bonus, the wonderful Mr. Habit came and hung out in the naughty girls’ room* before and after the reading.  Life is good when someone you stalk admire is even more delightful and swoon-worthy in person!

___

*Don’t ask.  What happens at Knit Night, stays at Knit Night.  Like gravity, it’s not just a good idea, it’s the law.

Wisconsin Sheep and Wool was...

well, sheepy and wooly. The whole famn damily went up to Jefferson around noonish and we saw sheep dogs and sheep and shearing and lambs and vendors and lunch and shaved ice and all the wooly wonders. Since we had taken two cars, Kitty Daddy and the kids left around 3:00 and I got serious at the vendors. I found buttons for my February Lady Sweater and was viciously attacked by a couple of spinning projects. It turned out that Gale's Art booth was nearly fatal for me. First, this lovely jumped off the shelf, roughed me up, beat me into submission:

It's a merino/bamboo blend and it is as soft and cushy as it looks. While trying to get up and dust myself off, this subtle little lovely on a bottom shelf started flirting with me:

This one is an alpaca/silk blend and quite possibly even cushier than the ruffian above. Her booth also had trindles which captured my eye and my fancy, but they were out of budget after feeding my flock lunch and snacks. Next year, they can starve so I can have more fun at the vendors. Well, probably not, but the trindles did make my fiber encased engineer-type heart go flippety-flop. The etsy pictures hardly do them justice. I haven't tried them, so for now I am trying to convince myself that they couldn't possibly be as wonderful as they look.

Anyway, after the family left and I spent my money, I had some quiet spinning time by myself and did some people watching until it was time for the after-party and Ravelry meetup, organized by our very own Chocolate Sheep. The dinner was yummy and the cheesecake was practically illegal!

(An Almost) Perfect Day

Yesterday was a glorious day! The only thing that makes me add the "almost" disclaimer is that we are just coming off a bumpy patch of shaken up routines and cranky kids and cranky mommy as we blunder around trying to find a comfortable groove. So there was enough crankiness to require the "almost," but with more days like yesterday, things should be smoothing out!

We started the day at the park with Bug's good buddy B. Both B's mom and I apparently have completely lost the entire month of May, but after not quite getting around to emailing each other due to chaos and endless to-do lists, we finally collectively said "To heck with it" and planned a park day and made it happen. I got to hang out and talk to a grown up, Bug got to run around the playground and be a Lego Agent with B, and, after the playground got overrun with a school outing, we walked around the pond and Beeb got covered in goose poop. All in all, a good morning. And a great reminder that we all NEED outings like this. After spending time with friends, the chaos gets better and the to-do list goes more smoothly.

After our play date, we drove to another park by Lake Wingra to meet our adopted grandma and grandpa (K and P) and his parents (who were visiting) for a picnic. They brought their canoe, a croquet set, a WONDERFUL picnic lunch, and some borrowed fishing poles. Bug and Bean went out with K and P in the canoe twice and Beeb and Bean and I went out with K once. Bug fished off the dock (actually just drowned worms, no fish were caught) with P's dad and Bean had a short go at fishing. We played croquet in various groupings with Bug and Bean making up rules and completely arbitrary scoring systems. A fabulous afternoon!

Then the icing on the cake was spending the evening with the divine Hog and Blog ladies at Late Night Knitting. I think that the best lines of the night were (probably paraphrased): "Poppy killed the wombat!" and "You just don't want to see that cut off and lying on the floor." The medicinal chocolate flowed freely in the form of birthday cake, smoothies, and creme brulee chocolate bars.

So after several weeks of general anti-social-ness, I wound up with three social engagements on the same day! A long, tiring day, but all three had just what I needed most right now!

Interesting Times

We (individually and collectively) have been getting into all sorts of trouble lately. Let's see, we'll back up a little over a week ago. Last week started out with gorgeous weather: sunny and clear, low humidity, hot in a summery way rather than in an oppressive way. By midweek, the humidity and the heat were both on the climb, so we arranged to meet our local adopted grandma at the beach. The Madison area is just filthy with lakes, but I am somewhat embarrassed to admit that I hadn't been swimming in a lake in at least two decades. The ocean, yes. Pool, indoor and out, yes and as often as possible, but lakes or rivers? Nope.

So on Wednesday, we set out for a swim in Lake Wingra. Since it is a shallow lake, it was as warm as bathwater. The kids had a blast! We brought sand toys and splashed and played and dug and poured all afternoon. Beeb hung out at the shoreline and had a great time digging and splashing. I managed to suppress my squeamishness at swimming in a lake and had a better time than I thought I would. Needless to say, there was sand everywhere by the time we were ready to head home. We hosed off with a shower before we left, but even so, I had a major case of the screaming heebie-jeebies the whole way home with the sand and the vegetation and everything on me.

Once we got home, we had all took proper showers and got out of swimsuits. At this point, I would like to apologize to the City of Madison for taking home Vilas Beach in its entirety. We really should have left some behind for others to use. I thought we had washed most of it down the drain when I sprayed out the bathtub, but it turns out I was wrong. I had significantly underestimated how much sand Beeb had put in his mouth. For DAYS after, every time he pooped, there was more sand in his diaper than had been in the swim diaper when we got home. Yeah, one of those things they don't tell you about before you become a parent. With three kids, we have had plenty of technicolor poops from chewing on crayons, but even those didn't prepare me for the sheer volume of sand this little dude was processing.

All said, I'm not in a huge rush to get back to a beach anytime soon, but on the other hand, I really do need to work on getting over my lake-phobia with all the nice lakes and beaches nearby (and so much cheaper than the swimming pool, since we will be losing our apartment swimming pool with the move.)

The next grand adventure was Friday night Knitting at The Sow's Ear. Prior to the evening in question, Dale-Harriet had put out the call (oink, I say, oink) for a little Hog-n-Blog meetup in the back room of the Sow's Ear. Let me tell you, the turnout was grand! There was Chocolatesheep Beth, Molly Bee, and Elizabeth SABLE representing the Hog-n-Bloggers. JaalaDay joined Beth and Elizabeth for the release of a new issue of Knit Circus and CathyCate had made the trip to Madtown and has posted some great pictures of the insanity here. Let's just say there was much laughter, some well-deserved escape from non-fiber life, and tattoos in places not available to the general public (they were temporary tattoos brought by CathyCate, and Cindy, I snagged one for you after our meme inspired tattoo discussion. I'll bring it to Last Saturday Knitting).

On Monday, Beeb mastered a new skill. I went upstairs to throw in a load of laundry and came around the corner to find him looking very pleased with himself in the upstairs hallway.



Mad skillz. He gots em.

Tuesday was a quick trip to the zoo since the humidity had broken and the weather was nice again. In the Herpetarium, we heard the tortoise "talking," so we went to investigate, since the most active we have ever seen the two tortoises is maybe blinking.

Oh. *ahem* Moving on...

FO and other fun

First, my finished alpaca handspun. It ended up being 161 grams (a bit more than 5.5 ounces) and 360 yards long. Since it is a two ply, that means the two singles totaled over 720 yards (I had to discard a bit of tangled mess at the end of plying...just 3-4 grams worth). Just FYI, that is 0.4 mile! No wonder it took a while to spin!


Second, my spinning update ('m not including washing and winding the finished product):

Spin My Spindle 22 Feb to 28 Feb 2008
Activity:	Plying
Fiber:	Alpaca
Spindle:	Ashford
Amount:	107 grams

Now, I need to decide what is going on my Ashford spindle, as well as getting back to the viscose. I'm thinking Corriedale.

Third, clue 6 for Secret of the Stole II was a bit slower than usual. I didn't finish up until yesterday morning and now clue 7 is already out and printed, ready to knit.



Fourth, last week, I went to Last Saturday Knitting and met Mrs. SABLE and her delightful son, BaxterKnits, and one other person, whose name I promptly forgot. Aaargh! I am so horrible with names that remembering two out of three isn't bad, but I still feel bad when I forget them. Beeb came with me, as I realized at the last moment that I didn't have any milk to leave with Kitty Daddy. He can't remember the third person's name either. *ETA: Mystery solved...it was Linda! I was thinking it might have been an L-word, but those random inklings are just as likely to wrong as right!*

Fifth, the sweet Beeb has been babbling "Da-da-da" for a couple days now. Treacherous little traitor! Can we just pretend that when he was saying "Gleh-gleh-gleh," he meant it in the sense of "Ma-ma-ma"? ;o)

Catching up...

First off, the various milestones:

Her diva-ness, Miss Bean Divine modelling her big-girl-that-uses-the-potty dress. We have been doing a sticker chart for big girl pottying and her reward was a pretty new dress that she is ever so pleased with. She is still in overnight diapy-pants and has the occasional "oops," but she is doing a great job and we are all ever-so-proud of her progress!

And Mr. I'm-ready-for-steak-now Beebster. Look at those two pearly whites! They both popped through over the weekend.

For the rest, we will go chronologically. For Valentine's Day, I got gifts from both of the bigger kids. Bug made me a "key" out of his big K'Nex:

Isn't that sweet? And Bean gave me a "card" (which is actually a refrigerator magnet that Kitty Daddy got from his co-workers when he left the VA for his current job):

and a rubber bracelet (that she pulled out of their dress up box). Since she doesn't read, I'm going to give her the benefit of the doubt on the "card" message. We had a heart-shaped take and bake pizza from Papa Murphy's for our big, fancy Valentine's dinner.

Friday was Knit Night at the Sow's Ear, which was very much needed by a mama with three cabin-fever afflicted kids. To add to the fun, the evening had a Beach Party theme in honor of a new book released by a local author. If that wasn't enough, one of our hog-and-bloggers brought some yummy French tarts in honor of (among other things) her birthday last week. Since this is a woman whose blog has brought me great delight even before meeting her IRL at the Ear's knit night and who introduced me to the first presidential candidate since Bill and Opus in '84 that I have been able to generate considerable enthusiasm for (Dolores's history starts here...NB: if you are drinking anything, swallow before you read or I won't be held responsible for your keyboard), I was taken by an impulse to make a hog-and-blog piggy finger puppet for her (the puppets in the previous post were the only way this one could make it out the door Friday night). [Did anyone survive the mega-sentence, parentheticals, and links?? I'll wait until you catch up, really!] All-in-all, a wonderful night out for Mama!

Saturday, we made our third trip to the annual model train show at the Alliant Energy center. Bug has been asking about the train show every time we go past the Alliant for about the last six months. The show was much the same as previous years, but Bug was delighted nonetheless and a good time was had by all (even Beeb who slept in the front-pack on Daddy)!

I think the only thing I am still behind on from yesterday's list is the Secret of the Stole. I finished clue 5 yesterday. I am now past the half-way point on the stole. I am still enjoying the design. If you click on the picture, I have the new part labeled:


Oh, and today, we did our civic duty and the kids helped me vote in the Wisconsin primary. I wasn't able to vote for Dolores, since the Fibertarians don't participate in the primaries, but she will have my vote in November:

Clue Three in the bag

I finished the last couple of rows of the third clue this morning. The pattern is just lovely and I am enjoying knitting it so much!

Friday night was Knit Night at the Sow's Ear. I took the stole with me and got almost through half of the third clue. Quite a few people commented on it and I found out just how difficult it is to explain a mystery knitalong to someone who had never heard of one! Progress slowed down considerably over the weekend though. Lots of piddley stuff (like groceries) kept me buzzing around most of the day Saturday, so we could be prepared to have our traditional family Super Bowl party. For several years now, we put together several kinds of appetizers and munchy stuff midafternoon and pick at it over the rest of the day. This year we made baked spinach dip with chips and lots of veggies, sausage bites in the crock pot, and wings. Yum!

Oink, I say, oink!

Last night I finally made it to the Sow's Ear late night knit. Although it was an all-nighter this time, I only made it 11:30 or so. While I knit, the Beeb flirted and worked the room. As near as I could tell, he charmed all comers! I think it qualified as a "mom's night out" as the only kid with me can't move and can't talk back talk.

Although I have enough projects to keep me more than busy, I took advantage of my (mostly) kidless state to cast on a new project. I started the chain mail armor in New Knits on the Block. I am trying to do this for Bug for Christmas. Although I got a good start on it, I'm not sure I have enough Bug-free knitting time to keep it a complete surprise. The fact that I was starting to make mistakes on [yo, k2tog] was my cue that I had exited my productive knitting hours and entered my productive sleeping hours.

One especially fun part of knit night was getting to meet some of the local knit-bloggers that I read, including Molly Bee, Chocolate Sheep, and Dale-Harriet (and Lovely Daughter with whom Beeb flirted shamelessly!).

Eat your heart out, Martha!

We don't need to take our Halloween decorations down. We just turn 'em into Christmas decorations. I made nine little Santa hats for the bats living on our sliding glass door and Bug put the hats on the bats. The pompoms on top came from the three-hole punch. I haven't yet come up with any bright ideas on how to Christmasify the spiders, but perhaps inspiration will come!

Completely unrelated (yeah, one of those posts *snort*)...I got my Ravelry invitation over the weekend. Oh my. Very cool stuff. Of course, that means I can see the potential for another huge internet time suck. For now, I'm trying to behave and just enter things a little at a time. I'm KittyMommy there too, if anyone wants to add me as a friend!

In other knitting news, I am doing my best to convert a non-knitter to the dark side (Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha). Another knitting friend and I have been extolling the virtues of knitting to the victim non-knitting friend and seem to have gotten her hooked. I gave her a pair of homemade needles and a little ball of yarn with the promise of lessons in October and we are finally getting together this afternoon. Even better, it will be late afternoon, so I KittyDaddy agreed to come home a little early and watch Bug and Bean. He is willing to have Beeb too, but the Beebster is still happy to hang out in the sling and not dump hot cocoa or remodel furniture or otherwise leave a trail of chaos and destruction in his wake. That and it's easier to take him along than to pump. Some actually Mama-time! And on Friday, I'm planning to go to the Late Night Knit at the Sow's Ear on Friday. Twice in one week, which is pretty much unheard of! In case you are wondering, both events will probably look a little like this.

Finally, today we celebrate Beeb accomplishing one-quarter of a trip around the sun. Little dude is three months old today. It doesn't seem possible...it's just going too stinkin' fast. Don't even start with the fact that I will have a five year old in less that two weeks. Ack!

Daddy evenings

Since the beginning of the year, we have been trying to implement semi-regular "Daddy Evenings," where Daddy stays with the kidlings and Mama does whatever the heck she wants! I try to take some time two to three times a week to get some things done that aren't conducive to little (but, oh so cute) hangers-on. So far I have been using my get-away time to drink coffee at the 'Bou and work on writing a paper for submission from my dissertation and to go over to the fitness room in the main building of our apartment complex to lift weights, do aerobic exercise (stair climber or stationary bike) and watch either "House, M.D." or "CSI" on cable instead of fuzzy antenna signal. Who knows, once I get this first paper submitted, I might even go completely wild and crazy and do something like socializing or running errands. I do have one more (maybe two) papers that need to be written after this one, so the coffee shop may remain a good option.

Bug tends to go a little ape at the idea that Mommy is leaving him forever and doesn't love him and is abandoning him to the raw elements. Have I mentioned that Bug has a flair for the dramatic?? Although I am tempted to go into over-protective mommy mode, I know that this is more sound and fury than actual concern. In fact, last time I came home, he was engaged in a to-the-death pillow fight with Daddy and told me to go away, because he didn't want me home. And tonight, when he started in complaining, I suggested that Daddy might be amenable to another pillow fight and the grousing was cut off mid-word as he chirped "Bye, mommy" and went to arrange the sofa pillows into proper fighting form. What a goofball!

Groove things were shaken

Woo-hoo. Mama had a long overdue girls' night out. I joined a couple of ladies from a group I have been attending and we went to "Women Who Love To Dance" night at a local bar. It is an early event (at least according to clubbing standards) that went from 6:30 to 9:00 pm, so it didn't keep me up too far past my bedtime. It was a lot of fun, there was a broad range of ages, and the music was dance music from the 70's, 80's, and 90's. Although Bug wasn't sure what to think of Mommy going someplace fun without him, I think he and Bean had a good time with Daddy, watching Star Wars movies, eating popcorn, and drinking hot cocoa.