Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Happenings

Between the hubby and the minions and work and my knitting and the countless other mundane details of daily life, I find that I can work myself into a little tiny area where I am focused on the immediate and not the big picture. When this happens, often times it takes a big something to knock me flat on my arse so I can say "Wow"! Kristiina is one of those big things, or in this instance, person. I have been hunting for a particular knitting book - THE Knitting Book - for quite some time. I've mentioned my searches in past blog posts and my family can certainly vouch for my frustration in not being able to find it. I am happy to report that I HAVE FINALLY OBTAINED A COPY OF EEVA HAAVISTO'S KNITTING BOOK!! The Publishing Company, WSOY, recently released a copy of Eeva Haavisto's Book, Sata kansanomaista kuviokudinmallia, and I was able to obtain a copy through the lovely Kristiina.I was still so shocked about the whole thing that when the package containing the book arrived I didn't open it right away... I just kept looking at it. Eventually my curiosity won out and I opened the package to find, not only THE Knitting book, but a wonderful handmade knitting pouch and a very helpful Finnish to English translation list of the colors used throughout the book :) Kristiina, I can never thank you enough!

It's been a little while since my last post and I wish I had oodles of knitting projects to show you, but I don't. I was going strong there for a while, whipping out pairs of socks and market bags but I seem to have lost my stride. I did finish the pair of Molly's Monkeys for my Aunt M and I also knit the first Dublin Bay sock for Mom.The second sock is on the needles. The time that I had been spending with my knitting needles has been spent in the kitchen. Spring is in the air and last week I took the minions to a couple greenhouses in the area. Little man is such a nature-guy that he was in heaven. Inspired by some of the flowers that I had seen, I thought to myself, why not start dyeing up some of my own yarn? So I did. I had been meaning to start dyeing a while ago now so I happened to have some skeins of natural wool just waiting to be dyed. After viewing one of little man's favorite flowers, the Hibiscus, the hibiscus colorway was born - both in sock and in worsted weight.Another one of little man's flower choices was the Dahlia. Once I finished my first skein, I found that the dyeing process is very addicting! Here's Ratatouilleand my husband inadvertently named these next skeins "Bruised" when he mentioned that that is what the skein looked like as it was drying. Here it is in Merino/Tencel Sock yarn and in Worsted Weight Superwash Wool. A friend of mine, Jen, made the cutest little dragon with the Worsted Weight skein :) Such fun. Little man wanted to "dye" one of his own so I gave him complete control over the colors... this is his skein Reef.He hasn't decided what he wants me to make with it yet, but he'll let you know that it is his skein!

We've been having some decent weather lately and the minions have been enjoying quite a bit of outdoor time. They like to "help" Daddy mow the lawn with their bubble mower.It's not all fun and games though -- with only one bubble mower one of them is not happy at any given point in time.Visions of those unhappy faces don't usually last too long though; there's plenty to explore.The hubby has even had time to enjoy playing a little basketball.During this past month, we found out that our Ophthalmologist thinks little man needs another surgery on his eye to bring it back into alignment. His eye muscle wasn't as strong as he had thought it was which is why his right eye is usually deviating to the right side. No one is too happy about this, especially my family... As of now, his surgery is scheduled for late June. Speaking of little man, did you know he was such a Man of Expression?He requested that I take and post a picture of his Big Wheel tire. Little miss is doing just fine! Her vocabulary is astounding as is her little attitude... :) Supposedly she gets that from me, but isn't that what they all say?

4 comments:

KristiinaS said...

Hi there;) You can see lovely Haavisto mittens at a blog, which was opened just for these mittens:
http://haavistokal.blogspot.com/

Wonderful colours you have dyed, yam.
Warm spring regars from Helsinki:)

dorothee said...

I read somewhere that the parent who talks less actually influences kids at learning-to-speak-age most.

Beautiful photos!

Squibstitcher said...

great pics and a fun post! I'm so happy for you with your new knitting book! :D Can't wait to see what cool new things you create from it. the kids look like they're having so much fun now that a late spring is starting to peak out for you ;) So nice to see green grass, too-- lots of brown crabgrass here :/ but at least with no grass, there's less icky-spideys to crawl across my often flip-flop clad feet! ;P

aija said...

I'm glad you found your copy! I received one as well from a Raveller... beautiful stuff. (So's your yarn!) :)