Dreams in Fiber

Back in the Saddle Again

2012-01-19T09:21:00.003-06:00

So... how have you been? ;)

I don't know about you but I have some serious separation anxiety with my computer. Isn't that awful? I have been ranting here and there about how things need to get simpler and less impersonal and I was thrown into a massive wake-up-call that could have been avoided. BACK UP YOUR STUFF. Do it now, I'll wait. All done? Good.

The day after Thanksgiving we lost everything on our computer thanks to one of those lovely viruses that (insert not-nice word) across the world think up. The kicker is that I knew I was behind on backing things up and had put it off to the new year when I would buy either an external hard drive or some zip drives and that would be that. Nope. Had I done it when I knew I needed to I could have just bought a new computer and reloaded everything (which would have been the cheaper and less painful route). We didn't recover all of it; some of our pictures are gone and my patterns are in a state of unfinished chaos that I am working on cleaning up/re-writing. Lesson learned.

But, I am back now and wanted to say a public THANK YOU to the public library system that allowed me to get online at least once a day (on most days) so I could get my quick internet fix. And thank you SIL K for that last post explaining my unnecessary absence.

A brief summing up of the last few months: The minions are doing well in school. They had lots of fun decorating for the Holidays and we all had a nice time with family and friends. It's Winter so there was illness here and there which is to be expected. My RN gig is going. I'd rather be home enjoying fiber-related pursuits full-time but the paychecks are helpful and I have been busy dyeing up a slew of skeins for our local Knit In (though it's officially called Sticks and Strings now) next weekend and for my first shipment of the Lord of the Rings Club that a few other dyer friends and I are putting on. I am behind on photos so I will post the first two shipments of that when I get a few spare minutes.

Really, I don't have that many photos to put on the blog right now. My "day job" has killed some of my productivity but I did manage to get some photos taken of some of the Holiday gifts I made and of a test knit for an upcoming pattern of mine.

One of my personal Holiday traditions is the handmade ornament. I was looking at our tree this year and was rather pleased to see that about 80-90% of the ornaments we used were handmade - some by me, some by others. I love it! Though it's no secret that I am all for the handmades...

This year's ornament was the sweater. I can't tell you how addicting these things are to make and this isn't even a full display of the ones I made. I will be adding a few more for next year though I'm rather excited about the ornaments I will be making for this year!

Sometime during the Fall, I sat down with each minion and asked what they wanted to give their teachers this year. They both chose handmade objects (such a proud Mom moment for me!). Little man knew that his teacher loved to swim so he sat down with me and we worked out a simple wave pattern and my rule is that they each have to help me by actually knitting some of the stitches. He chose the leftover yarn from his Gansey for the main color. (Cascade 220 in the Atlantic Colorway).

Little miss has the same teacher little man did last year. She still wears a lot of black and white and other neutral colors so little miss decided that she needed a pair of mitts "with a thumb" so we looked through the stash and she saw the mitts I gave to my SIL for part of her Holiday gift and decided that her teacher needed a pair of those too.

Shortly before little man's birthday, it became clear to me that his feet are growing at an alarming rate and he needed new socks. Again. He chose to use a skein of Silk Sock by Fresh From the Cauldron in the Charlie Colorway.

I am working on a new pair for little miss right now as well but I am just getting started on her second sock. Actually, I'm working on 2 pairs for her right now so stay tuned for that. One of them is a new pattern of mine that I will be releasing soon hopefully - it depends on how much bonding time the computer and I get over the next couple of weeks and how many of my patterns I can recover.

These are a pair of mittens for my MIL. She chose the colors she wanted a while ago and I dyed it up, paired it with a textured pattern and voila!

This next project I did not knit. One of my Thursday Night Knitting gals was kind enough to test knit a blanket for me. A blanket that eats up yarn. She gave it to me to photograph and it is warm and squishy and lovely and I might just have to make one for myself sometime though it might take me a few years. This was knit out of Cascade Ecological Wool.

The Midwest has had an unusually snow-free Winter thus far and according to the weathermen that will change in the next few days so the minions will finally be able to go out and play in the snow. Hopefully. The weather has been cold and windy lately and everything is brown or gray and it's rather depressing. What I would do for some color... We even had a freak warm front where the temps in January were in the 60's. It was glorious! Right now it's crazy cold and I need to go find some mitts to wear around the house.

Until next time...

Sorry for the Delay

2011-12-17T21:44:00.003-06:00

Hello everyone, this is SIL K just letting you know that Erica's absense is due to an unfortunate computer malfunction (which may or may not be the same as above). She was told that her computer will be up and running in 3-5 weeks, so hopefully before New Year's, but don't hold your breath. Happy Holidays from Erica!

Quick Update

2011-11-23T12:23:00.003-06:00

Not much to say at the moment but I thought I'd put something up here just for a change of scenery ;)

These were the Halloween costumes this year that the minions chose. Sort of an odd couple really, but they both had a lot of fun trick-or-treating and it wasn't a bad night for it this year which makes a huge difference!

There has been knitting going on, but I haven't taken any photos lately. Seriously. My To Do list has been out of control as of late so I have socks and ornaments and mittens to photograph but I did photograph 1 project. Well half of a project, I haven't made the other one yet.

My friend, Krysten, put up these fun little thrummed kits on her Etsy site and asked if I would test knit a mitten to make sure there was enough roving to go around. I almost wish it was cold enough outside to wear them longer than a few minutes (they are so warm) but I'm not that crazy ;)

You can't post a picture of a thrummed anything without showing the guts. Aren't they fun?

That's it for now. Work is going. The Holidays are upon us and I have lots of Holiday knitting to try to start/finish, and someone's birthday is right around the corner so stay tuned for a more informative post within the next week hopefully :)

Happy Thanksgiving, Everyone!

Happy Halloween!

2011-10-30T15:01:00.002-05:00

Hope you take time to remember those that have gone before us and if you're lucky, chat a while :)

Random

2011-10-29T09:52:00.003-05:00

Have you ever introduced yourself to a Leaf Bug? Up until a few days ago I had never had a close encounter with one of these little guys.

Naturally little man was there to investigate in a flash.

But surprisingly, little miss was there to investigate like she had been wranglin' critters for years.

As always, we let him go on to pursue his dreams. I think this one wanted to become an architect.

Beggars Night is right around the corner, better get back to my sewing!

Leaf Pile!

2011-10-23T14:52:00.003-05:00

The hubby got a wild hair this afternoon to rake the yard for me. I'm not going to complain! The minions had a ball. Plus, we have 2 large trees that haven't dumped their leaves so there will be plenty more piles to enjoy as Autumn goes on.

Overdue

2011-10-23T12:25:00.005-05:00

It occurred to me the other day that I had some FO's that I never got around to posting about. Earlier this year little miss was flipping through one of my books and decided that I needed to make her this particular bag in different colors so we headed to our LYS and she got to pick out the colors she wanted and she told me what color to put where. This was crocheted using Cascade 220 and then felted. She wore it for that one day and hasn't used it since. Yup...

These are the minions' back to school socks. The other pictures only showed their wee cuffs so here are the actual socks after many wears so they are less than freshly knit. However, they are both holding up well which makes me happy!

I received word a few weeks ago that my Grandma D could use a neckwarmer so she got one. It had to be neutral and soft and I happened to have a few skeins of an alpaca/bamboo blend sitting there with no particular plans so voila! A soft neutral neckwarmer.

One of my favorite things about Autumn is the explosion of color. Unfortunately with the high winds of late the color explosion has been an abbreviated one but we were fortunate enough to enjoy a lovely yellow view from our backyard for about a week.

Now I just need to make a massive leaf pile and let the minions dive in - perhaps later this week during one of my days off. Speaking of work, work is going - nothing too exciting to report there. Although I was insanely happy about starting IV's and what-have-you again. I know, it sounds rather cruel and nasty but that is an occupational hazard of my profession I suppose.

The minions had conferences and both are doing quite well and little man got to experience his first "drop off" Halloween Party yesterday afternoon so he was pretty pleased about that! The minions are dressing up as Vader and Little Red Riding Hood this year. Remember this? Well, little miss has finally embraced the Little Red Riding Hood cape. She's worn it around the house for dress up now and again since then but this will be the first actual Halloween outing using it.

A few weeks ago we were at the in-laws' lake house briefly during a wedding weekend for my Uncle and Aunt and the minions got in one more (last?) boat ride for the year and of course there were critters. Little man even got in some writing time. I sewed up a handful of books and he is going through them like they were Kleenex. Looks like I will be making more in the future. Perhaps I have a budding author on my hands :)

The wheel has continued to turn and we find ourselves in caterpillar season. These puffballs are quite plentiful and both kids were rather enamored with their new friends.

That's about it for now. I'm trying to keep my head above water and find some sort of balance in my new schedule/responsibilities and many Holiday lists have been started. I continue to knit on little miss' sweater and have one sock for little man done but no photos yet. And of course the patterns...

Hope you are enjoying a lovely Autumn!

Changing

2011-10-03T16:01:00.004-05:00

I've always liked October. The air is crisper, the weather is nice, wool is in the air...

October's arrival does have a downside though; it brings with it the beginning of cold/flu season and we're working through our first case of sniffles but all is well otherwise.

It has been a little while since we went to the in-laws' lake house so we ventured down there for a bit of work and play before I start my new job. Yes, not only are the Seasons changing, my own little personal reality is going through an upheaval of sorts with my needing to go back to nursing. It's not that I am against nursing, it's more of the fact that I was perfectly happy staying home with the kids and all that and now I can't. In the grand scheme of things I can't complain too much though, so I wont. Well, maybe just a little... ;)

We enjoyed a nice Autumn walk and as usual, there were treasures to behold and critters to be found.

No idea what type of spider this is but it was crazy fast and about 2-3 inches long when measuring from the end of the front legs to the end of the back ones. Bleh.

The hubby caught some fish (and so did little man who took the opportunity to "teach" the hubby and my FIL the proper way to fish...)

And little man took care of a butterfly. I didn't have the heart to tell him that his new friend was probably nearing the end of its life cycle - he was too enamored with it.

Standing guard.

Since the weather was beautiful, I thought I would take the opportunity to snap some pictures of some of my latest handknits.... Remember not too long ago when I mentioned that I had an insatiable urge to knit sweaters for my minions? Well, I finished one and have the other on the needles now :)

I'm knitting them a bit on the large-side in the hopes that I can get at least 2 - maybe 3 - years worth of wear out of them assuming they are strong enough to live through the punishment only a growing child can dish out.

The pattern I used for little man's sweater was the Fisherlad Guernsey and I knit it out of Cascade 220 in the Atlantic colorway. Originally I had visions of a navy cabled sweater dancing through my head but when I heard that my LYS was going out of business I popped in and this is the color they had in a sweater-quantity. I couldn't envision this colorway working with my cabled sweater but doesn't it look divine in the Fisherman Sweater? I love how this turned out. I might be biased, but still. Then again I have always loved the Gansey/Guernsey style of sweaters so perhaps it's only natural that I made one.

I am almost through the yoke of little miss' top down cardigan so with any luck I will have that one finished soon. My productivity mojo has decided to take a vacation and I haven't been cranking things out like usual but that will change soon. I hope.

This next project has been finished for a little while now, but I haven't taken any pictures of it yet. This took way too long for me to complete and it would not have even happened had it not been for the generosity of one of my Knitting ladies who offered up 2 skeins (well almost 2, both were slightly used) of Noro to go along with my 2 blue skeins. They blended rather nicely, no?

I did not knit this next item - it was was knit by another one of my Knitting gals who was nice enough to test knit one of my upcoming Winter ebook patterns.

Yup, we're back with the ebook idea. I had the notion to send in a formal book proposal to a publisher because it was eating me that I hadn't given it the 'ol college try. After about a month I finally heard that they weren't going to accept it. Really though, I thought I would be more bummed about that but I still have the option/opportunity to publish them myself in an ebook format so that's what I'm doing. I will be releasing the Autumn ebook shortly - once I finish a sock. Mojo, dear mojo, where have you gone?

Want to see more change? I have this nightmare that I will wake up tomorrow and the minions will be out of my house with families of their own.

Here are a few more photos from out weekend. Little man's big score was the fact that he found a prize in his search for any and all things "John Deere". We're a big fan of tractors.

Apple Fest

2011-09-12T09:48:00.003-05:00

Nothing shouts Autumn is Here! like apples and this past weekend I took the minions to Living History Farms for their Apple Festival. It's been quite a while since my last visit to LHF and it was the minions' first trek out there and I will admit, it was fun to go again and revisit an old haunt through new eyes. Some things had definitely changed though - the stores used to be a lot more interactive and busy but I suppose that went away when they built their big welcome center/gift shop. And I don't think they let you eat any freshly-made samples anymore; everything is out of a container which is a bit disappointing though understandable I suppose.

In case you haven't been to Living History Farms, here are some photos that I took during our outing.

There is a main town section that houses oodles of fun buildings with little treasures inside.

The minions got to try their hands at the apple press/cider maker machine. Sorry, I'm not up on my technical terms there... You put apples in, turn the crank which chops the apples up and the pieces land in a bucket which is then pressed for the juice.

Man those apple fritters were tasty!

My favorite part though, was wondering around and seeing all the handmade lovelies - the women that were in the houses were all knitting or crocheting something and their handiwork was displayed all around. Perhaps I was born in the wrong era - making things at home while tending to the kids, handwritten letters instead of emails, farm-fresh food...

The minions had a good time there and I foresee us going again. There's a Prairie Christmas something-or-other in December that I am curious about.

Summer's End

2011-09-12T09:33:00.002-05:00

With Fall around the corner, the Dreams in Fiber Household headed South for a little R&R over Labor Day weekend. This provided the hubby with a chance to impart some of his grasshopper catching knowledge to little man.

There was a bit of rain now and again but that didn't stop little miss. Fortunately things cleared up for a fire one evening.

Critters were caught and we even found a new-to-us species of spider. Evidently this is a "crab spider" and they come in different colors (and some change color). Truth be told though, I don't care what color they are, they creep me out.

More proof that spider season is upon us. I don't even want to know what this one is. I'm pretty sure it's no longer with us....

Over the course of the weekend I met several new grasshopper friends and even invited a toad for tea. One does want to be polite :)

It was nice to see the hummingbirds out and about as well.

A little bit of minion for you. You don't really get many opportunities to take a picture of little man without something in front of his face these days...

Hope the rest of your Summer is nice and relaxing.

And if you happen to be out mowing, don't try to mow over one of these! Just ask my FIL...

A New Chapter

2011-08-25T09:27:00.002-05:00

It's that special time of year...

Wait, are those handknit socks? Why yes they are! Both picked out the yarn for their special new handknits. Little miss nabbed a vintage Fresh From the Cauldron Silk Sock in the Atia Colorway.

And little man picked out a few skeins that "had just the right amount of color" in a store a while back and chose that yarn. I believe it was Patons Kroy Jacquard or something like that. I haven't used that yarn before and it wasn't as soft as the Silk Sock but it does have some nylon in it so hopefully it wont wear out too soon!

Did you see the tread on my new shoes?

Look! My backpack is so big it can swing me around :)

So grown up and ready to give 'em hell.

How can I possibly stand as to show off the socks, the shoes, and the fact that I lost another tooth?

I'm proud of you guys!

The Proper Way to Catch a Toad - According to Little Man

2011-08-25T09:15:00.004-05:00

There are a few things to consider when catching toads and little man wanted to make sure I addressed those on the blog...

First, once you catch your toad (or frog, or grasshopper...), you want to yell for Mom to get her camera but you also want to quickly grab on the sides of your new friend instead of cupping it in your hand so it doesn't pee on you. These two things are best done simultaneously.

Next, you want to get to know your new friend and hear if he has any life wisdom for you or if he's heard any good jokes lately.

Don't forget to take a good look at him so you can recognize him later.

Now that Mom has arrived with her camera (because she's usually not just standing there with it) wave it in front of the lens a few times in the hopes that she can get a clear shot. This can take a while so be patient. Of course one could always speed up the process by just holding still....

Now we need to start thinking about finding a good spot to set your friend in so he can get back to his To Do list.

But, in the event that there is anyone around, like a sister perhaps, you can first try to scare her and if that doesn't work, introduce her to your new friend.

Put that friend down in his new safe spot and repeat the sequence as often as you can :)

August

2011-08-20T11:17:00.006-05:00

August is one of those bittersweet months. Cicadas serenade us to sleep at night, Summer Break winds to a close, I turn a year older, the Iowa State Fair happens, veggie harvest is plentiful, and there's a frantic feel to it as people try to cram in everything they haven't done yet because school resumes and colder weather isn't too far off. It's akin to that feeling when you look at the clock and realize it's 4:30 and you have to start dinner but you still have a lot of stuff to do yet...

The minions and I have been trying to spend time outdoors. We had quite the critter-fest the other day, too.

Little man found a tiny little frog shortly after waking up. High Five/Let me squish your eyeball.

Then he found a bigger one.

And one more for good measure.

Little man likes to chat with his new friends and puts them close to his ear to see if they are "chirping" or not. This one succeeded in giving him a wet willy ;) You should have seen him jump. Well, both of them jump...

Can't leave out the inch worm...

Little miss was intrigued by the finds, but couldn't bring herself to actually touch them. She'll come around!

Both minions had fun at the State Fair though. We walked around and checked out the animals and went on a few rides. The fountain is always a must-see. Here's a mosaic of some of the sights that can be found while wondering amid the endless sea of food vendors.

This is the 100th year of the butter cow. That's right. A butter cow. Google it. In celebration there were oodles of mini bovines all over the fairgrounds. This was our favorite and you can see a few more on my Flickr page. There was a surprising amount of detail on some of them!

There has been knitting going on. Lots of it actually. And somehow I spaced off the back to school socks for the minions so I have less than a week to whip out 2 pairs for their first day back. Wish me luck :) Here are a few of the items I have been working on lately.

I have several more projects in the works and I am trying to get as much done as I can before the school/work schedule transition occurs so we'll see. This month has been rather stressful but exciting at the same time. More info on that will come soon but until then, keep your fingers crossed for me!

The remainder of August should be interesting... I will be knitting furiously and we will be enjoying the last few days of freedom and hopefully you are too!

Almost

2011-08-08T10:12:00.005-05:00

I can't believe that Summer is almost over and that school is set to resume in a few weeks. The phrase "Make the most of today" is a constant drum beat in my mind anymore.

The Dreams in Fiber household has been trying to make the most of what is left of Summer by going out and finding new things to do. A few weekends ago we headed down to Indianola for the Balloon Festival. If you ignored the heat wave, lack of a breeze, and unaware attendees, it was a good time :) Both minions had cameras at the ready. This was the picture little miss wanted to share:

And this was the one little man wanted to share:

Here are a few that I took.

It was really fun to see all the colors and given the fact that the wind was minimal, they just hung there so we really got to take a good look at them. Plus, up until then I was unaware of the fact that there are different balloon shapes for racing and such. The eagle balloon was little man's favorite.

It was a bit hard to see at times due to the lovely umbrella that the morons, I mean, lovely people right in front of us, popped up just as they started to fill up the balloons :/

Yesterday the temps had backed off a bit so I took the minions to a playground to snap some pictures. We had the playground to ourselves which was nice.

The trip was cut a bit short though thanks to some minion (little man) shenanigans - I had warned them when we arrived that the slides would be hot and possibly a bit wet since it had rained the night before. After a while little man must have forgotten this warning but fortunately he had decided to go down the slide on his feet so his backside only got a bit wet. As soon as he stood up little miss called down to him "Little man, is there water down there?" Nope was his reply. No water? What?????? She flew down before I could tell her differently so we headed home so we could get cleaned up and put on new clothes.

I've been plugging away on my new patterns and projects which means that the next post will have some fiber-y goodness for you! Until then...

Toothless

2011-08-07T13:35:00.000-05:00

It pains me sometimes to watch them grow up so fast...

It's No Secret...

2011-07-24T16:49:00.003-05:00

It's no secret that I am a cold-weather person. That said, I will admit that about the time January rolls around, I do miss the colors and the big fluffy clouds, and a few other things that you only experience during Summer like knock-down-drag-out water gun fights.

I suppose you could go outside and battle at any point during the year but it's probably not advised to do so in the middle of Winter (at least not in Iowa) especially when things get as fierce as they do when the minions do battle.

It's all good fun.

Besides, once it's over you can go and hunt for grasshoppers!

I realize I haven't been showcasing much fiber lately and that is partly due to the fact that some of the projects/patterns I have been working on are still hush hush. I did manage to take a few photos of some of my upcoming ebook patterns though...

I'm not saying what this project is all about or where/when it will be available, but I love how it turned out and since this isn't the yarn it will actually be showcased in and since you can't really see much detail, I'm allowing this photo. Because I can ;)

My little diva...

Sibling Rivalry

2011-07-22T11:08:00.006-05:00

Little miss has no fear, well very little, which is why my blood pressure tends to skyrocket at times.

Last year, on the very last day of swim lessons, little miss and her instructor made their way over to me instead of walking to the shallow play area where the rest of their group (including little man) was headed. At the time, I thought that we might have needed to make our way to the restrooms or something. Nope. Little miss had seen all the older kids jumping off the diving board and wanted to do the same. So I smiled, gave my permission, and watched my little girl strut out to the end of the board, curl her toes around the edge and jump in while the older kids (some of whom were too scared and had to be lowered into the pool) looked on. She loved it and we were very proud of little miss but it was just eating little man that his little sister had done something he had not.

Fast forward to this year's swimming lessons. Little man was hell-bent on jumping off the diving board too; he was not about to be shown up a minute longer. As luck would have it, they were split into two different sections this year and little miss' group got to jump off the diving board again while little man's section continued to work on their back float. Now she was up 2-0. This didn't make little man very happy. Today was the day, the day level 2 and up got to jump off the board. Little miss' group got their before little man's so she got 2 more dives in. We're at 4-0 for those keeping score.

Now it's little man's turn. Finally, finally he can show the world that he too, can conquer the diving board. He was all excited in line, counting down the kids in front of him until it was his turn.

Cautiously, he made his way to the end of the board, thought about it for a while, and jumped in.

Well? What did you think? I asked him as he was getting out.

That was a waste of f-u-n and I think you know what that spells. I think the rivalry, well this one anyway, might be over ;) 4-1.

Beating the Heat

2011-07-21T11:06:00.003-05:00

Who doesn't love a good heat wave??? o.O

Good thing the kids have swimming lessons, well tomorrow is the last day but they've had 2 weeks worth of them which is fabulous for me, sitting there at the pool sweating off the pounds ;) If only it were that easy!

Here's a few minion-y photos for you.

Little man had an eye appt bright and early this morning and his eyes were dilated. Good thing it was kinda cloudy for the first part of today's lesson!

Can you believe school starts again next month???

Busy Bees

2011-07-05T12:38:00.004-05:00

We've had a busy couple of weeks filled with birthday preparations, a bit of knitting, lots of dyeing, and a Holiday weekend. Given the rather large number of photos taken recently, it might be a good idea to throw some up on the blog in an attempt to get caught up.

Hmm, where to start. We planted a tree. Well, transplanted a tree.

It went a little something like this: we've had a rogue Walnut tree (? we think it was a Walnut) growing in our front garden for a couple of years - we've known that this tree will have to come out given its close proximity to the house but none of us were rather motivated to potentially kill it by transferring it. Finally, it was time. The hubby to little man: "Should we transplant the walnut tree today or just try to plant a Buckeye?" "I like the Walnut tree." "We'll have to dig a big hole over there in the other part of the yard and dig another big hole around this one and move it. Do you want to help with that or dig a small hole and plant a seed?" "I don't know, I like the Walnut, it's so nice." "Okay." Shovels were found and digging commenced. The root system of said Walnut tree was a wee bit bigger than we had originally thought so we were having a bit of a time trying to unearth it. After about 40 minutes or so, little man comes back after abandoning the tree-transfer-project in order to go play and asks the hubby, "Why didn't you just plant the Buckeye seed?" Mmmmhmmmmmmmmmmm. It was too late at that point; the tree was half out, we were covered in bug bites, and the large hole was already made. Eventually we got it in, added some water and stepped back to appreciate the end result. "Think it'll die within a week?", the hubby says to me. "Yup." Fortunately I had the foresight to snap a photo of the tree with a bit of minion help because in less than a week, we have an unsightly dead stick sticking up out of our yard. Good times.

We decided to hold little miss' birthday celebration the weekend before her actual birthday. In the morning, we headed out to our local zoo and ran by most of the animals and traipsed in and out of the construction zones. I think the zoo will look rather nice after the renovations are finished. Until then...

For some reason it had escaped my attention that some chickens have weird feathery legs - on half of them. Weird. Granted I'm not up on my chickens, but it made me laugh :)

Later we had family over for a bit of food and fun. Some of my younger cousins made it over and provided some entertainment.

Then it was time to play and eat and open presents and eat cake and ice cream.

A big THANK YOU to everyone that came and/or sent in little gifties - little miss loved it all and if I can get on the ball, actual "thank you" cards will be coming in the mail.

The minions wanted me to take a moment to show you their new Tee Ball trophies.

Last weekend we headed down to the in-law's lake house for a little fun in the sun.

And since it was the 4th of July after all, things were ignited... There are more photos on my Flickr page, but here are a few.

That's about it for now. I've made more progress on the ebook prototypes and I finished up some other Rainbow Barf Club (Club that my friend J is presenting in 2012) test-knits and if any of you are participating in the Collaboration "Divas" Club, your yarn will be mailed out to you this week as will the 2nd and 3rd Dr Who "Club" Shipments. For whatever reason, in the heat and humidity of Summer, all I can focus on is the need to clothe my minions in handknit sweaters. Seriously, it's a bizarre deal but I can hardly focus on anything else these past few days; I keep getting images of sleeve caps and seaming and warm woolyness dancing in my head. Stay tuned for those projects I guess ;)

Someone...

2011-06-30T19:24:00.001-05:00

turned 5 this week! Happy Birthday Little Miss!!!!!

Seriously?

2011-06-22T19:25:00.011-05:00

Evidently it's been a month since my last post. Am I surprised? Yes, but not really. The days just slip by too fast anymore. Have I really done anything blogworthy? Probably not but I'll put up a little update for any interested parties :)

Tonight was the minions' last Tee Ball game of the year and it was a rather fitting end given the start of the season. The season began with oodles of rain and ended tonight with constant mist/drizzle. We "played" one inning and then called it quits. They had fun though. I will admit that I am a bit bummed because I had wanted to take the camera to document their last game... Maybe I will make them get their ball gear on and take them to the fields on a sunny day for some photos. Maybe not. We'll see :)

School is out for the year - both minions did well in their respective classes and after a week off we are back at Summer School for a few hours each morning. The district got some sort of grant for Americorps volunteers so it's more of an extra reading/inquiry-type program that the kids are enjoying. After this current session ends we will be doing swimming lessons and then we'll see.

Speaking of the minions, how about a few photos, huh?

Obviously we've ventured down to the lake. Little man even got to "catch" his first frog of the season :)

Okay, the hubby got him.

Isn't he cute?

Little man did get his Monster Golf on though...

And last week I caught a 3-4lb bass which makes me insanely happy - I've been in a bit of a fishing slump for the past (cough) few years so it was nice to actually catch a fish instead of vegetation for once!

Other than that, what have we been up to? The hubby has been busy with his USSSA (or whatever it is now - what happened to AAU?) team. The minions and I ventured out to the Adel Sheep and Wool festival a few weekends ago and I got a wee bit of natural Alpaca to spin up on my spindle for my upcoming ebooks. Oh, I haven't talked about that yet - I've been busy trying to get things ready for my upcoming set of ebooks. I had a dream a while back that I put together a book inspired by the Seasons of the Midwest so why not follow-through on it? There will be 4 ebooks total representing each Season and that will start (hopefully) this August/September with my Autumn-Inspired release :) I was originally going to try to see about getting published by someone - because how awesome would it be to hold your own book? - but I admitted to myself that I know absolutely nothing about that process but I do know how to put together a pattern so why not release them as an ebook? Here's a taste of some of the projects I've been working on.

Thankfully I have an absolutely fantastic group of friends and fellow Knitters that are helping me out with the test-knitting process because otherwise... Knitting several sizes of various projects is a great way to stashbust! Just saying...

What else? The minions have been spending a lot of time at the library/reading library books and I've been dyeing up a bit of stuff in between my bi-weekly mowing sessions. Thank you rain for allowing my lawn to grow at breakneck speed. Hmm. I think that just about sums it up.

Ooh, ooh!!!! I almost forgot. Remember last post when I was lamenting about my lost handknits? I GOT THEM BACK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I was expecting a package of prototypes for some different patterns that I am working on so I didn't realize what I was actually holding at first. Then I looked at the addresses and realized that my precious babies were back in my arms and I gave a giant Whoop! and immediately followed it up with some vigorous fudderwacking much to the enjoyment of the Utility guys working about 10 feet behind me. I had forgotten that they were there but their laughter brought me back to reality. Whatever. I was just overjoyed. I put them back in the mail the following day (after checking that they were still safe in their packaging) and my friend got them and now I can breathe a sigh of relief. THANK YOU POSTAL POWERS THAT BE :D

Tell me you can look at this guy and not have Zeppelin immediately pop into your head....

Must be a saucy bird thing...

The Love Affair that Wasn't

2011-05-22T19:47:00.002-05:00

A few weeks ago genius struck while I was in the shower (like moments of genius always do); my store-bought bath puff doodad was starting to come apart and I thought, why do I need to go to the store and buy a new one? Why can't I crochet up a whole slew of these poof things and just wash and dry them? It'll be brilliant! A quick search on Ravelry yielded just what I was looking for - I was one step closer to claiming yet another corner of my house with handmades. Earlier this week I finally CO for my little green lovely and I was completely smitten. It was a simple pattern and it resembles brain coral (i.e., perfect). Gave it a wash and dry and hung it up in the shower and it looked so cheery. I congratulated myself yet again for this stroke of genius. Needless to say I was eager to see how it worked out knowing full-well that I would love it and that I would then have the green light to crochet up my bath poof army.

It was like trying to wash myself with a crumbly cannonball. So pissed. My rosy outlook has passed and though I am still mourning the idea of a bath poof army, at least I had the sense to try it out before I made myself more. But hey, now I can use the cotton I had set aside from the stash for all my would-be poofs (I was very gung-ho about this idea) for new washcloths :) Or brain coral should the minions need something like that for Science class ;)

There has been more knitting going on though. I whipped up a wee cable hat for little miss' Assistant Teacher to give as a gift to her best friend's daughter.

And I've been on a roll with knitted washcloths and things.

The minions have had continued success at Tee Ball. I can't believe they only have 9 games left plus whatever end-of-season tournament they decide to put on.

They took a break from practicing to model the South Shore Lodge beanies I made out of the Dead Walleye Hat Trio leftovers. These two hats will be traveling to Canada with the FIL on his annual fishing trip which is coming right up!

And now for a bit of sad news.... 2 of my dye buddies were headed to the Maryland Sheep and Wool festival over Mother's Day weekend. I was a bit later than I wanted to be when it came to finishing up the two projects for K but I made it and thought it would be fun for her to receive her handknits over that weekend. Things were washed and packaged and mailed out and the lady at the post office assured me that the package should arrive by that Saturday. It didn't. Can't win them all, right? The hotel was instructed to mark the package "Return to Sender" and I would just send it on to her once I got the package back. Thing is, I still haven't received the package. My handknits are lost somewhere in postal world. ;( So send me some positive waves so the Postal Friendlies can find my handknits and return them to me so I can get these two lovelies to their intended recipient :)

In other news... Earlier today, the Dreams in Fiber family and I were heading out to see some friends that we haven't seen in about a year and the kids noticed a wee bird that was grounded. Don't know if it fell out of a nest or what but it sure wasn't flying anywhere. Hope nothing gets it...

Tee Ball - Minion Style! - With A Little Something on the Side

2011-05-03T17:11:00.004-05:00

We had our first Tee Ball game of the season yesterday and it went pretty well considering that the minions only attended 2 practices beforehand thanks to rainouts and illness. Little miss has shed a tear from time to time (e.g., last practice when a ball went by her) so I was a bit worried but she couldn't have had a better time!

Little man was a bit more serious about it; though he is a seasoned Tee Ball veteran now so that is to be expected.

Are you having a good time?

"Mom, I'm watching the game." Oh, sorry. How about you little miss, are you having fun?

"Yup."

Here's a few more photos from the game.

That's right folks, it was all work and no play.

Wait a minute, there's a smile, sort of... :) Well he was happy anyway!

And now for a little something on the side, knitting content!

Firstly, I would like you to meet Norman.

Norman is a Slug's Slug. He enjoys spending a lot of time outdoors, base jumping, rock climbing, and has been to every amusement park in the Continental US save for one and he has his tickets booked for his trip later this Summer. Norman is also quite the ladies man; it doesn't get any smoother than Norman. Plus, he can cook! Just not with salt ;)

Little man has been asking for a slug for over a year now and he even picked out the yarn he wanted his slug to be knit out of. I'm not sure why it took me so long to make him. Perhaps it was because I thought it would take longer than it did. Either way, there will be more slugs in the future including a "Darth Slug". We can't leave Vader out of the mix...

I would also like you to meet Violet. Violet currently resides in the Principal's office at the minions' school. Said Principal was having a really bad week a little while ago and we all know that there is no better way to brighten one's day than with a saucy Slug.

Violet is also a bit of an adventurer, but prefers to explore hidden ruins and Medieval Castles. Though, a nice relaxing stroll on the beach hits the spot from time to time. She is also the place to go when you need a good batch of Snickerdoodles. Just saying. They're awesome!

Also off the needles is the pair of replacement socks for little miss. These were knit out of Fresh From the Cauldron's Silk Sock in the Elizabeth I colorway. I love dipping into my vintage stash :)

Earlier this year I knit up a new pattern for Jen's Princess Bride Club. The pattern is rather lost in the variegated colorway but it really knit up into a comfortable pair of mitts so I'll have to do one in a solid to show off the textured pattern a bit better.

Now that my package has been sent and received, I can share with you two handknit projects that I mailed out to Jen for her Winter Package. Yes it's Spring. No it doesn't matter. This is also a new pattern that will be included in her upcoming Rainbow Barf Club in early 2012. I rather like the simplicity.

And these are a pair of mitts out of handspun - Fat Cat Knits Merino in the Majestic Colorway. I happened to score myself the last braid in that particular colorway after-the-fact and I have visions of a lacy baktus floating in my head :)

Lastly, for the time being, I have a few more Inspired-by-Dr-Who Colorways to share. This is the second shipment's offerings: Yarn in #10

And the second set of companions: Captain Jack, Sarah Jane, Mickey, Jackie Tyler (lt to rt)

And this is #11 which is the yarn portion of the 3rd shipment.

I have a few more projects off the needles but needs to be blocked and almost off the needles so there will be more fiber-y goodness and minion-y goodness soon. I can't believe there is only something like 23 days or so left of school for the year!

Passing it On

2011-04-10T13:34:00.000-05:00

Little miss came up to me late this morning with tears streaming down her cheeks. "What's wrong, sweets?" "Why is my hair curly? I don't want curly hair! I want it to be flat!" "Well... You have curly hair because I have curly hair." That explanation didn't seem to help. "Honey, I remember all too well how much I used to loathe my hair. You might as well accept it now and move on and save yourself a lot of time and energy. Now that it is warmer and more humid out, it's gonna curl. That's just how it is." "I have curly hair because you have curly hair?" "It certainly looks that way." "Well you can take it back." "I'll try my best." "Was your hair always curly?" "Yup."

"Great!" and she walks away with a disgusted look. She'll learn ;)

Outing to the Park

2011-04-10T09:55:00.002-05:00

It was a beautiful (and hot!) afternoon yesterday so the hubby and I took the minions for a walk/wagon ride to one of the nearby playgrounds. Although I still have yet to take any fiber-y photos, I did manage to snap some minion-y ones during yesterday's outing to the park so I thought I would share! They are becoming quite the daredevils which I am sure does wonderful things to my blood pressure...

(her hand, his feet)

Still Plugging Away

2011-04-09T12:09:00.002-05:00

How in the world is it April already? Wasn't it just St Patrick's Day? Oh yeah, there were those really awful weeks between then and now... I suppose I should get things caught up though :)

A handful of generations ago now, part of my Father's family came over from Ireland and my Grandfather died on or around St Patty's Day, I can't remember exactly now. On St Patrick's day the hubby, minions, and I headed out to the cemetery to fulfill our annual tradition of providing those folks of Irish decent that have gone before us with a taste of whiskey and a salute of our own.

Little man was in full regalia. And why yes, that is indeed a pickle necklace, thanks for asking ;)

I swear this one changes every time I look at her.

We had a nice Spring Break. We went to the Zoo and had fun playing outdoors. Then I started my new jobs. Wow was that a Muse killer! New schedules and new responsibilities coupled with an old tendency to back away from change - an interesting couple of weeks to be sure. Once I started getting into the swing of things the minions picked up the stomach bug that is going through the school and disrupted everything once again. On the plus side, I got to clean up after them for about a week straight. (Note the sarcasm). Funny though, I don't go into work and the Muse returns - imagine that! That was an ugly week though; neither one of them had been that sick for that long before. They were so pale I swore I had vampires in the house! But, we're better now and went to our first Tee Ball practice of the year this morning. Technically it was the Team's second practice, but they missed last week's due to excessive vomiting. It happens. It looks like a nice team this year though and one of the other Mom's is a knitter too so that was fun :) I don't often get to chat about knitting and knitting patterns while freezing and watching baseball.

The hubby has been busy being a Pitching Coach for a 10 year-old team out West. He's gone quite a bit, but I think he's having a good time which is the important thing. Little man has started getting into tennis and little miss has been excited to do just about anything outside now that the temperature has warmed up a tad. The flowers are even starting to wake up. AND, (and I hope I don't jinx it), we planted some seeds over Spring Break and they are actually still thriving - for the most part. The minions got a little excited and planted more seeds than should have been so I tried to thin things out a tad so we'll see if they bounce back. Some of them are doing really well though so keep your fingers crossed!

There has been knitting happening amid all of the recent chaos. I finished up little man's Al Capone socks,

and I finished 2 knits for a friend of mine that are included in her Winter Package but I haven't mailed it yet so I can't show those pictures yet. I even finished up a replacement sock for little miss and have CO for the second, but I haven't taken any pictures of that project yet.

The sign ups for the first Inspired By Dr Who "Club" have finished and here are the first 2 colorways:

#9

Companion Set #1 (l to r: Rose, Martha, Donna, Amy)

I'll get those dyed up soon. Oh! I did a bit of crocheting for the house, too! I almost forgot :) I needed a few new potholders and some scrubbies. They have all been used and abused and they work well which makes me insanely happy. Plus, let's have a round of applause for more stashbusting!

See, not a whole lot going on which is why I haven't posted in a while. But, I got scolded the other day for not posting so...there you have it.

I have more projects on the needles and have been working up some new patterns that I want to get started on. You know, when I find time... Oh, and I finished up my other Seth sock but I haven't taken pics of those yet either. Wow, this is a big post FAIL! Next one will be better though, promise!

Happy St Patrick's Day!

2011-03-17T12:41:00.001-05:00

Rejuvinating

2011-03-15T14:28:00.002-05:00

Since the minions are on Spring Break and this is my last week at home with them before starting work, I was brainstorming things to do and places to go during our little mini vacation at home. Why not stop in at the Botanical Center? I knew it would be a little busier than normal given the increased number of kids on break and I know they do a lot of business around lunch time but I was not aware that today was their Special Spring Break Activity Day. There were lots and lots of people there but we all had a great time just the same. The heat, the humidity, the color... So needed!

Naturally I took along some handknit projects and I am pretty confident in saying that no one there has ever seen someone trying to take a photo of a sock before, especially when the person taking the photo is also modeling the pair ;) At least I was able to start several conversations today about the weird things people do! I know I just posted these, but here are some truer colors of my Seth Clearwater Sock,

little man's Al Capone sock (I'm to the gusset of the second sock so it wont be long now!),

and my finished pair of Jameson and Clover socks :)

Both minions took along their cameras so I'll see if I can pull some of their photos for a future post. I also want to get little man a "big person" camera sometime this year... Don't mind me, just making a mental note :)

Little miss was climbing on anything she could think of to climb while I was looking through my camera and little man was bound and determined to take home some sort of nature today.

Since it was the Special Spring Break Activity Day, the kids were able to do some arts and crafts in one of the back rooms.

This is why most of my photos are candid. I can't take a posed photo if my life depended on it and they were the ones that wanted me to take this one so they could show everyone their new gardens! Oh well.

With any luck Spring will be on its way shortly so we can enjoy some warmth and color every day. Yup, here's another failed attempt at a posed photo. Looks like I'll be sticking to my candids...

Wild Ride

2011-03-14T18:47:00.002-05:00

What an odd and introspective past month or so. I meant to post FO photos and then I meant to post a mosiac of some sort from our Annual Fart Food Party (more on that later) and then things came up and I wanted to try to do this and this and that first so I could include it in a post and then it just didn't happen. Life is like that sometimes.

If memory serves, my last post went up shortly before we hosted our Fart Food Party (FFP). I should probably provide a few details. This annual event was something that I married into; years ago (when my hubby was a wee lad), my MIL and FIL thought it would be a fun little something to help break up the Winter blahs and before they knew it, it was a regularly scheduled event. Basically, a bunch of people get together and bring a dish or two of a gas-producing food and people eat and drink and have a good time. As word began to spread, the event got bigger and bigger and people began to "train" before said event so they could perform at their optimal level... o.O There were prizes of course that fit in with each year's theme. A few years ago the in-laws hosted what was to be the final FFP and things remained quiet until the hubby decided to start it up again. This time, at our house... I didn't actually take any photos at the event, so here are some photos of this year's "Blast From the Past" FFP taken by little miss, my MIL, and the hubby's Aunt A.

The minions have been doing well in school and are currently enjoying a bit of freedom while on Spring Break but they both think going to school is more fun. The fact that they enjoy learning just makes me insanely happy. Little man is reading more on his own now every day and little miss has made up a ton of ground with her writing and letters and all that.

For the past while now, I have been able to stay at home with the kids full-time and do my "dye-thing" (as the hubby calls it) but it would seem that that will be coming to a close and I will be adding 2 jobs into the mix. I had hoped to be able to remain at home until the Fall when both kids will be in school all-day (which would allow me more time to work without messing with daycare) so the fact that that wont happen sent me into a bit of a pouty pity party. After speaking to some people online this past week about the trials that they are - and have been - working through and after seeing the recent Earthquake/Tsunami events, my perspective has shifted and I have gotten over it so-to-speak. I have no reason what-so-ever to complain. I will still knit and dye and spin and will even be putting on another Club (sort of) inspired by Dr Who later this Spring. Somehow. Adding these jobs to my Mom duties and my little business and family time will definitely test my time-management skills but I think it's doable. It would probably be easier on everyone if I wasn't such a Hobbit who liked my little realm to stay just so and not change but that's not very realistic, is it? ;)

There has been some knitting and some spinning completed these past few weeks. I finished up a pair of thicker socks for little miss (that started off as little man's...) using Fresh From the Cauldron's (FFtC) BFL DK in the Nightcrawler colorway,

and I finished the first really long sock for little man out of FFtC BFL Worsted in the Al Capone colorway.

His second sock is on the needles as we speak. Let's see, what else... I finished a vanilla sock for me - (FFtC Silk Sock in Seth Clearwater)

and then received a fantastic Winter Package from my friend Jen (of FFtC).

I immediately CO for a pair of St Patty's Day socks using her Silk Sock in the Jameson and Clover colorway. Hee hee :)

Iowa is absolutely void of any color right now and the endless beige just seems to suck the life out of any potential color that happens to show up. Tomorrow the minions and I will be heading to the Botanical Center for some color, warmth, and humidity so hopefully I'll be able to snap a few better photos then. I'll finish up the other Seth sock and little man's Al Capone sock here soon.

Also contained in my recent-FO-pile was a pair of mitered mittens for my Aunt T and a hat for my Uncle B which I sent off but never heard if they received them or not so keep your fingers crossed...

The mittens were knit using a 2ply handspun (woolen method for any interested parties, worsted weight) from a braid I received from my friend Krysten's Southern Charms Club - Steel Magnolia's edition in the Walk Me Home colorway. The hat was knit using my new base Superwash Aran in my Norse Colorway.

Oh, and I almost forgot, I finished up my pair of FIFA socks :)

Slowly but surely I am starting to restock my pitifully lacking handknit sock stash just in time for Summer! One of these days I'll get around to darning my others. Speaking of handspun sock hole issues, little miss blew out both of her new-school socks right at the heel so those are goners. I'll make her a new pair soon :) Is that it? I think that's it for the knitting portion.

As for my recent spins, I spun up a skein of my SW BFL in my Wizened colorway for my friend's Birthday but I forgot to snap a photo before I mailed it off... Yeah, I know. Maybe she'll let me post one of her pictures when she takes one. I did, however, take a photo of these skeins.

These are Gherkin's Bucket Mixed BFL/Silk in Winter Cower and Spring Salute. I had 4 oz of each and plied them together resulting in approx 400 yds worsted weight 2ply plus a wee 10-12 yd skein of Spring Salute that I n-plied using the leftover singles. Not sure what they'll become, but I think they would make a cute Baby Surprise Jacket. We'll see. Little miss might claim them for her own too, you just never know...

That's about it for now. I'll let you know how the new-job thing goes... In the meantime, does everyone have their March Madness Brackets filled out???? I am hoping to dominate this year!

Spring's Dirty Little Secret

2011-02-13T17:26:00.001-06:00

Yes, Winter, I realize that you have not yet relinquished your hold over us, but I do thank you for taking a wee break and allowing Spring's warmer temperatures to invade the area even if it is only temporary. Of course, that means Spring's dirty little secret has come to light once again - as much as I love being able to go outdoors sans winter coat (but wearing fingerless mitts and a cowl of course!) the whole melting snow process is just plain filthy.

Since the daylight was staring to fade, the hubby and I thought it would be a good idea to let the minions enjoy a bit of fresh air and run around a bit. There were snowballs... naturally...

And then the minions discovered how fun it was to unearth boulders of snow and throw them into the ever-growing puddle of funk that is currently lounging in our driveway.

The hubby was not about to be outsplashed...

This picture is a bit blurry and I have no idea what just happened, but it must've been good!

In an attempt to provide some sort of color to the post, this is little man's new earflap hat (though I have no idea why the earflap is folding in like that)

and you can feast your eyes on the "stuff" that can be found on our fence :)

Also, I have no idea what is going on with Flickr at the moment but I will try to re-upload some of the photos tomorrow in an attempt to have them displayed correctly.

Brrrrrrrrrrr

2011-02-03T09:48:00.000-06:00

It's cold. I'm a Winter/Fall type of person (hello, handknits!) and normally I enjoy the cold but this is one of those times where I just can't completely get rid of the chill.

It's Winter in Iowa, what do I expect? The minions actually had their first Snow Day of the year yesterday and compared to last year, I think we're in much better shape in that department! The hubby even stayed home due to adverse road conditions so the Dreams in Fiber family had a nice little extra weekend-ish day together which is always nice. Did I stay indoors and get warm and cozy? Nope. I went out and took some pictures of the drifts and what-have-you in between shoveling. We had a pretty good one right in front of the house.

I was perusing the sidebar yesterday and noticed that I haven't updated my KnitMeter yet. I knit how many miles last year and here I am in February already and I have a pathetic 0 miles knit. I suppose I should remedy that since I have done some knitting this year. In fact, I have a few photos to share today.

First up are the belated Christmas socks for my MIL. She's had them for a little while now, but who's keeping track? These are a hand dyed 3x1 rib.

Next up, I finished my Mom's Christmas Cowl (sshhhh, she hasn't seen it yet!) at the Sticks and String Event. I wanted to use it as a sample of my Subtle Signs Cowl and managed to BO and weave in ends about 20 minutes before it started. Nothing like a little deadline knitting! It's washed and blocked now and ready for giving.

This cowl utilizes a Brioche stitch which is something I have to pay a little more attention to so I couldn't take it around as my purse knitting basically because I didn't want to screw it up and anyone who has knit Brioche before can attest to the fact that you don't want to have to tink back and/or fix a mistake! The yarn was actually a skein that I had reserved for myself, but I am dedicated to Stash Busting this year (I did a pretty good job of it last year so I thought I would keep the momentum going) and this skein seemed to fit the bill so I wound it up and CO. I can always get another skein later. Incidentally, it's Mountain Colors 4/8 in the Sierra Colorway. And I have a bit leftover so perhaps I'll make a coaster or something out of the remainders :)

The Sticks and Strings Event was a lot of fun. There was a fantastic turnout for Vendor Night and I got to meet new people (some of whom were wearing socks made from some of my patterns - very exciting!) and I got a good chunk of knitting done. As luck would have it though, I have not been on my best behavior when it comes to CO for new projects so most of them are still in various stages of completion. I finished up a handspun mitered mitten for my Aunt and am to the gusset of the second mitten. I am onto the foot portion of my poor neglected second FiFa Sock. I knew I wanted to make a pair of thick socks for both minions for Valentine's day so I let them pick out "special yarn" from my Stash for their respective pairs before last weekend's event. On Saturday, I CO for and finished little man's first sock but I, well, I don't know what happened because even though my gauge/measurements were fine (supposedly) it ended up way too small for him so instead, this pair will be gifted to little miss once I CO/finish the second sock. Little man was very gracious and didn't want me to have to rip out the entire sock and start over so he told me to give this pair out of 'his yarn' to little miss. He got to pick out new yarn from the stash for his much larger pair that I really want to CO for but am trying to finish up a few other projects first... I did start and finish a handspun earflap hat for little miss though and the yarn for little man's hat is wound and ready to go. This is her Princess Garden Party hat - she helped pick out the dyes and we poured them onto the fiber together; I spun it up and this was the result.

(Yes, that pile of snow is really taller than little miss)

I suppose I should do something productive like start laundry or organize a closet or two... Maybe I'll knit just 1 round first ;)

One good thing about Winter (in addition to the stellar Core workout that shoveling provides) are the unmistakable tracks left in the snow.

In just a few more days...

2011-01-26T10:24:00.000-06:00

This pile of color (only part of what I'll be taking with me) will be transformed into pretty re-skeined yarns and braids of fiber for the Sticks and Strings Event :)

I am really looking forward to this weekend - nothing but fiber-y goodness!!

In other news, both kids are signed up for Tee Ball this year (should be fun) and little miss wanted me to share with everyone that the other day was Crazy Hair Day in her class....

"Style"

2011-01-21T10:29:00.000-06:00

I happened upon a link earlier today that took me to a page where I could create a mosaic of items that reflects my "style". It was fun to look through things and see what I liked and what I didn't. I would not, by any means, say that I am a stylish individual - just ask the hubby (i.e., I've received various eye rolls and occasional comments about my mismatched accessories and/or plaid/color pairings), but this might provide a hazy sketch of my wardrobe preferences.

Rather low-key, neutral, and involving lots of knitwear! Go figure ;)

Crunch Time

2011-01-17T10:28:00.000-06:00

I have been busy busy busy trying to get things dyed up and re-skeined for the upcoming Sticks and Strings Event happening in just a few weeks. I am very excited to vend during part of the event and to have a weekend devoted to nothing but fiber-y pursuits. I might even get some WiP's finished up that have been waiting patiently over in the corner while I stink up my house with wet wool and dye stuff. So, not much to show on the fiber-front right now, but I did happen to take some pictures of the minions outside enjoying the recent snowfall.

(Snow Swimming - you sort of had to be there... Perhaps it will catch on and become part of the next Winter Olympics!)

Sometimes...

2011-01-09T16:28:00.000-06:00

Sometimes waiting for Spring is hard.

Sometimes the wait is a bit more bearable when you're wearing new handdyed, handspun, handknit mittens.

Last One of the Year

2010-12-30T14:09:00.002-06:00

This is that jolly time of year where we are supposed to reflect on the past year and speak of resolutions for the upcoming one. I'm not a big resolution-maker; I like to make lists instead. So instead, I'll show you a few pictures of the minions and one more Holiday project photo (since I forgot to take a picture of the finished pair of socks I gifted to the hubby's Grandmother, oops!).

An earflap hat was requested by my SIL so that's what she got - this was knit using my handspun (2ply, worsted/HW, fiber: Fluff Oatmeal BFL in the Frog Prince Colorway). I rather liked how it spun/knit up.

Technically speaking, I do have a rather crummy shot of my G-MIL first finished sock that I never uploaded originally because I was going to finish those socks in plenty of time to take a much much cooler picture of later. Ha ha. I finished that sock the night before I gifted them to her so there I was in the hotel soaking the pair and hitting them with the hairdryer so they'd be dry by the next morning :)

They were on time though! Actually, I was only late on 1 item that was gifted - the rest I'm not counting because I pushed them back into January/February anyway, so there!

All in all it wasn't a bad year for me fiber-wise. I ended up knitting 15.2 miles worth of yarn this year (though I did count the Dark is Rising Club spinning because A) that was a lot of yardage, and B) it took up a lot of knitting time. I didn't count any other spinning though). Combine that with last year's 11 miles and holy hell, I made it through my marathon! Woohoo!!

This year's project tally:
hats: 17
cowls: 6
pairs of mitts: 3
sock pairs: 6
bags: 2
scarves: 3
single socks: 7
pairs of mittens: 5
pairs of legwarmers: 1
ornaments: 6
eye pillow: 1
shawls: 2
gnomes: 4
misc little projects: 7
towel: 1
dishcloths: handful
new original patterns on Ravelry: 11

What else did I do in 2010? Both minions are in school now, I started volunteering in their respective classrooms a few times a week, the minions grew by leaps and bounds and did well in school and during swimming lessons over the Summer, I got my yard mowed in the Spring before my neighbor did (mwahahaha), AND most of our leaves were bagged up before the snow arrived (this is huge! trust me), there was a lot more spinning/working with handspun, I began stranded knitting and haven't looked back since, and I put on my first solo largish Yarn Club. Not too shabby. Though I really fell off the sock wagon this year - what the hell happened there? That will have to be remedied in 2010 -- Guess I have a resolution after all! The hubby and I will also be starting our second run-through of P90X so that will be fun. After I make it through the first week again anyway.... That first week is a killer!

I have the Knit In coming up at the end of January that I am busy dyeing for at the moment and I have some plans for new colorways and kits and Clubs and Collaboration Clubs... Busy busy busy and loving every minute of it! Goodbye 2010 and Hello 2011!

Happy Holidays!

2010-12-20T18:16:00.003-06:00

I know, I'm a bit early, but that's alright. I needed to give my hands and arms a mini-break from the needles and I had a hunch that I probably wouldn't be getting back on the computer for a blog post between now and then. So enjoy :)

Last night I had turned off the lights so I could enjoy the glow of the lit Christmas tree and I wanted to try to take a picture of this one ornament because I liked how the light was hitting it. So I got the camera and was getting into position when I was fortunate enough to experience a foot cramp and accidentally took this picture during my graceful ascent. I'm still not sure how I did it, but I had fun trying to recreate it!

Never did get the ornament picture though, oh well.

I don't have any new minion photos to share but I can get you caught up on some of the Sooper Sekret Holiday knitting that has been going on.

Okay, these weren't Sooper Sekret, but they are awesome so they will be mentioned! I loved the fingerless mitts that Hermione wears in the latest Harry Potter movie so I thought I would play copycat and knit myself a pair of Toast mitts out of my handspun Ginny colorway. Not an exact match, but I like them and was able to wear them to the Harry Potter movie last month.

Now we can get into the Holiday stuff. Well, some of it. I've been a busy gal these past few weeks despite some illness and some other unforeseen pleasantries.

This trio ended up being a Holiday gift since I didn't finish them on time..... Yeah.... They should have been done earlier this Fall but we're not going to talk about that. They're done now though and will hopefully arrive at their new home in Canada before this Saturday. Wish them luck and speedy travel!

Both little man and little miss wanted me to make their teachers Holiday gifts this year. I had things all planned out in my head early on in the semester and then it all changed. All of it. Little miss' teachers put in requests this year so the original plans I had for the two of them flew right out the window and they ended up with a pair of legwarmers and a pair of warm mittens respectively.

Then we have little man's teacher(s). I was all set to go with a scarf for little man's teacher, and I had even started it, but it wasn't working for me so it was frogged and the yarn sat there. And it sat there. And before I knew it, I didn't think I had time to knit a scarf so I asked little man if I could switch it to a cowl. "Is that for Miss W or for Mrs Y?" Mrs Y? What? Mrs Y was hired as an adjunct in the middle of the semester and my brain was so locked in to my "To Knit" list at that point that a gift for Mrs Y just didn't compute. Alrighty then, a gift for Mrs Y, coming up (i.e., I'll fit it in somewhere...). That was last week.

I finished one mitten yesterday and my hands and arms were so sore at that point that I tried to break it to little man last night that, unless he wanted to choose something else, Mrs Y might only get one mitten before school ends for the year. I could see his disappointment, but he said "okay". Miss W and Mrs Y will receive their cowl and mittens tomorrow and then I will go out and buy more Ibuprofen because I'm out. Nothing like a little motivation, 'eh?

(Mrs Y wears "a lot of black" so little man wanted "a bright pair of mittens so she could add more color to her wardrobe").

The other 2 things that I can share right now are the gifts that were handed out at one of our family Holiday Celebrations this past weekend. For one Cousin, I made a pair of Toast and for another Cousin, I crocheted a scarf. They both seemed to like them which always makes me happy! Both are sitting on the handsewn bags I whipped up for me to use as wrapping paper and for them to use as bags to hold whatever their little hearts desire.

Remind me to start my Holiday Knitting for 2011 on January 1st, would you? This year's list has been whittled and whittled again, and I still have to finish 2 gifts, and start/finish 2 more before I hit my "Must Make" goal. The rest will be made after the Holidays, which is alright with me. I'm happy with what I've done thus far and I'm not done yet... You'll have to wait to see that (and the minions) until next time.

Have a Great Holiday Season, Everyone!!!!

That Time of the Year

2010-12-12T16:27:00.001-06:00

We had our first snow of the Season this weekend and although little man has been feeling a little under the weather for the past few days, I thought I would let the minions brave the very cold wind/temperatures for just a few minutes this afternoon so they could experience the first snow and, with any luck, burn off a little pent-up energy.

Snow angels were made immediately and shortly thereafter, both minions remembered how fun it was to throw snowballs.

I'm not sure what they were going for exactly, but they had fun "decorating" the tree out front.

A few minutes outside was enough for these two (and for the photographer) today.

Now it's time to get back to the Holiday Crafting while sipping a nice hot cuppa tea.

Just Poppin' In to Say Hi. Hi!

2010-12-05T15:57:00.002-06:00

My name is Erica and I currently have too many WiP's right now to count. Think double digits. I don't want to take an actual count because I am still deluding myself into thinking it's manageable:)

In the meantime, here are the minions sporting their new Chef Hat/Apron sets I sewed up for little man's Birthday. I couldn't give little man one and leave out little miss...

Note - little man is also holding a trio of softies I sewed/stuffed for his Birthday. He asked for them. They are actually from a knitting book of mine but I cut some corners (he said I could), cut out a "pattern" and sewed them instead. I think they look rather, uh, interesting, but he seems to like them so who am I to judge???

Did You Know...

2010-11-30T13:55:00.009-06:00

I have a little man and he is now 6 :) Happy Birthday!

Okay, technically it was a few days ago, but still... He had a "fabulous day" and wants to Thank everyone for their nice gifts. Actually, I want to THANK YOU too because who knows if I'll actually get on the ball and send out real Thank You notes like I should. He loves everything and has used and/or played with it all now I think :) The minions also had the opportunity to enjoy their first actual Theater/Musical performance last week - my Aunt and Grandma offered to take the minions to a Mary Poppins Performance though I ended up subbing in for my Grandma last minute. They both really enjoyed the performance and so did I - it's been a while since I've been to a show :)

Other than that, we had a nice Thanksgiving and spent time with Family and are getting ready for the upcoming Holidays (i.e., the Holiday Crafting Frenzy is in full swing). So... I'll have some finished projects to show you in a bit. Right now I have to go blow my nose - we are all working our way through the latest virus that has decided to visit the Dreams in Fiber household. Yeah!

Commencing Holiday Freakout Mode

2010-11-16T14:56:00.001-06:00

My SIL K and her son Z came back for a little visit this past week.

On Saturday we all attended a Life Celebration Party for our Friend which is what he wanted.

It was a good time - it was nice to see everyone even though I half expected T to walk in at any minute. The minions did a fabulous job that afternoon - little man helped keep Z occupied,

Z occupied his Mama,

and little miss occupied herself.

Afterward we all headed down to the in-laws' lake house to unwind and plant some apple trees with the help of another Family Friend P.

It was a big sandbox weekend.

As I look at the calendar I am shocked to see how few days separate now from the Holidays and I am so far behind at this point that it's laughable. Truly - I started laughing hysterically when I organized/wrote up my To Make list. Of course that laughter might have been caused by the delusion that I thought I would get it all done. Each year I tell myself that this will be the year that we can take everything in in stride and relax and enjoy each other's company and somehow the time just keeps slipping on by. This will be a simple Holiday Season - I've got the cards and the pictures picked out and ornaments made (though I still have a few left to make for the Holiday Swap). I am implementing a new Tradition for the minions this year - each has to MAKE something for the other and I'll help when needed. I'm curious to see what they come up with :) Most of the presents are done with the exception of what I still have left to make and lets not get started on what I still have yet to dye and sew for the shop and upcoming events. Sigh. It's a good thing I really enjoy making things - otherwise it would seem like work! Maybe that's my problem - I love making things so much that I just keep adding things to my list :) At any rate, I must see to that list...

Latest Edition

2010-11-09T16:46:00.002-06:00

So how do I look?

Too Soon

2010-11-04T22:38:00.000-05:00

The Dreams in Fiber household had to say goodbye to a friend this past week and it sucks. It really really sucks. There's no other way to put it (and that's a really light way of putting it - I'm trying to keep it clean though I have a few other choice words ready to be inserted where necessary). He was one of those really wondrous people that had a zest for life and loved to share things with people. He could always make you smile and had a great laugh. You know, a special one. I would hope that we all know at least one person that could fall into that category. I find that I am okay if I don't really let myself think about it. When I do allow myself to acknowledge the fact that the song I just heard was introduced to me by him or the recipe that I wanted to make pales in comparison to the one he made, or that next year I wanted to plant a particular flower that I first saw in his and his wife's garden, I get weepy. I'm not a weepy person. It sort of snowballs. I get to thinking about how special he was and then I think about his wife and the friends and family he left behind and I'm sure you can figure the rest out. I try to keep it away from the minions though they both know. Earlier this morning, I had "a moment" while I was putting away some laundry and little miss came up and asked me "why my face was like that". I told her that I was sad and that I missed my friend. She told me that "a hug will make you feel better" and proceeded to give me a hug and then told me that "whenever you feel sad, just tell me so I can give you another hug". I didn't want to let go. I wavered a bit, trying to decide whether or not to blog about this. But then I thought perhaps it might give someone a push or a reminder to let the ones they care about know it. Go out and create some memories - you never know...

Late to the Party

2010-11-03T09:56:00.005-05:00

I had meant to actually do a Halloween update on Halloween, but a few days late isn't too bad!

Little man informed me a while back that he wanted to be a rocket ship for Halloween this year. Not knowing exactly how I was going to put this costume together, I may have offered up a few other options/suggestions, but it didn't matter - he would not be deterred. Okay, Rocket ship coming up!

All but one knew what he was during our trick-or-treat outing which made him happy. He loved how the costume turned out which made me happy :)

Little miss was quite the flip flopper when it came to her costume choice this year. Her spectrum went from Princess to Tinkerbell to monkey to Little Red Riding Hood to Little Red Riding Hood dressed up as a monkey... In the end we opted for just the monkey costume I had made a few years back and I wasn't going to complain about not having to make 2 costumes this year! This is little miss' response when I asked what her favorite part of her costume was.

"The tail, duh!" Evidently I could have asked better questions...

Here they are together in their natural state sporting the handmade trick-or-treat bags.

Little man wanted you to pay special attention to his bag because he picked "The most awesome fabric".

The days are shorter and it is definitely colder outside. Winter is coming upon us quickly and I don't think I am as happy about that as I normally am. There is still too much to do. Autumn, though it is my favorite Season, always has an element of urgency to it and I am just not keeping up this year. I wrapped up my Dark is Rising Club this week and have begun to assemble my too-long-as-usual list of Holiday Knitting/Crafting. If I keep plugging away everything will get done eventually, right?

Lots of Pictures of a Few Projects

2010-10-23T13:06:00.002-05:00

In an effort to get caught up a bit on FO pictures, I had the kids don their new Fall head wear for a wee photo shoot on the deck. They were both in a rather odd mood (especially little miss), hence the plethora of minion photos with a bit of wool thrown in for good measure...

Little man came to me a while back and informed me that he needed a new vegetable hat. Now, in case you weren't aware of this already, little man is a "Chef" and is all about food - toy food, real food, fabrics displaying food, and evidently handknits sporting food. Initially he wanted "carrots and onions and beets and turnips and potatoes..." but I talked him into keeping it simple and focusing on one item and he chose carrots. He even helped me with the design process :)

Sometime back in July, I spun up some pink singles to use for a hat and maybe a little something else for little miss. I CO for a hat shortly thereafter and finally finished it up a few weeks ago. I think it was a few weeks ago. At any rate, I didn't finish it yesterday! In honor of the forthcoming photos, little miss wanted to look "extra special". Note the fancy shoes and the Chicago Bears dress!

(hangnail, Spongebob bandaid)

She even had to pose with my socks.

I finally finished up my second Hermione sock (on the left) to complete the pair and got around to working on a nice mindless Stockinette Sock in handspun from All Spun Up on Etsy. I bought the handspun skein before I started spinning so I could use it as a gauge for how fine I had to spin to spin for socks. Now that I can spin, why not knit up a very warm pair of socks! The Hermione socks have been worn a few times and are getting fuzzy. I knew this isn't the best yarn to use for socks (because it gets super fuzzy) but I wanted to make a pair of socks with it anyway. They just wont be hard-wearing ones.

That's all I have for now. The minions have been battling whatever-it-is-that-is-going-around-at-the-moment over the past few weeks and though little miss had it first and has since rebounded, it hit little man a bit harder and he is finally on the mend. Now, I need to spin because I'm a bit behind on that at the moment!

Carrying On

2010-10-18T09:24:00.003-05:00

I know that I mentioned lots of FO photos for this post, but I just haven't gotten around to taking pictures of some of the things that I've finished in the last few weeks. I've had other things to do :) There will just be more next time! I suppose I should get to the ones I did manage to take though, huh?

These are the Dark is Rising Club skeins from the previous shipment. I did things a little differently this time around and let the Wild Magic take control of the dyes - each was randomly done and each is unique.

I was in the mood for some traditional 3 ply lately and managed to squeeze these two lovelies in before the current Club spinning commenced. This one was Falkland from Color Craze Fibers on Etsy,

and this was a Superwash Merino from Fat Cat Knits on Etsy.

One of my colorways, Ginny, on SW merino - 2 ply.

Given my frequent trips to the school to drop off and pick up the minions during the week, mindless knitting projects have been my friend. In fact, I've finished up 3 socks, portions of 2 hats, and this cowl which, incidentally, is the only thing I've photographed thus far.

Technically, I started this cowl last January and it hibernated for a few months and then I'd work on it again and then it would hibernate once more. I did a nice chunk of it over the Summer during swimming lessons, and again, it sat there for another month or so... I had CO for this hat with the idea that it would turn into a Sockhead Hat, but once I was into the Stockinette portion I realized that that was not going to happen and though my head kept telling me to frog it and do something different with the yarn, I kept knitting on and finally decided to turn it into a cowl instead with ribbing on either side so it can be worn slouchy or pulled up around the face for those really windy days. At any rate, it's a FO for the pile and not a moment too soon since the colder weather has arrived!

The minions and I have been trying to get outside and enjoy the fresh air whenever we can. This past weekend the hubby and I took the minions on what little man refers to as "an adventure". The adventure was a trip to a nearby park where we played on the playground and had a picnic and then went on a wee hike. Little miss was in a goofy mood and may have been channeling some sort of food vendor from New York or Chicago.

Little man was having all sorts of fun collecting his treasures and thanks to a clearing along the trail, we were even able to stop for a moment and watch some horses meander by.

This was his big find. "Mom, it looks like Sci Fi!"

(Note the temporary Tinkerbell tattoo - she's very proud of it)

Totally Thomas

2010-09-20T12:50:00.000-05:00

This past weekend featured a trip up to the Scenic Valley Railroad in Boone, IA to see Thomas the Train.

It's become an annual event for the Dreams in Fiber household. Remember how lovely it was last year? It was nice and sunny and perfect for taking pictures. That was not the case this time around. It was cold with constant rain and/or drizzle but perfect for sporting the hand knits!

Little miss didn't want to wear her other mitten because it would obstruct her view of the temporary tattoo featuring James and that was out of the question.

The minions had a good time which was all that really mattered.

I have some finished objects and some handspun ready to photograph for the next post :) Hope you had a nice weekend!

Full Serving of Fiber

2010-09-09T22:10:00.000-05:00

I was perusing through past blog entries and it's been a little bit since I've posted anything fiber-related! Why didn't someone tell me I was so lacking in that department lately? Without further ado...

I've been doing a little sock knitting. This is one of my newer patterns - Dumbledore's Christmas Stockings - and I knit this sock using my Superwash Merino 3ply in the Wizened Colorway. I'll make the second sock one of these days ;)

I did manage to finish up the first FIFA sock though. It was my mindless knitting project for a while and evidently I needed a lot of mindless knitting ;) No idea when I'll get to the mate for this one either. I am detecting a pattern here....

I did manage to complete this PAIR though. I don't think I'll mention that it took me about a year to do it... (hangs head). These were knit using a skein of Black Bunny Fibers that I've had in the stash for more than 3 years now and I believe it was a wool/nylon blend. Bled like you wouldn't believe when I washed them!

While I'm on the subject of socks, this is a better photo of the actual back-to-school pairs for little man and little miss respectively. They both picked out their "special yarn" a while back and it was the first time I've worked with either of them. Little man's is a blend of wool/nylon/cotton/elastic which was a bit weird to work with, I'll be honest. But, so far they've held up well to the wear and tear of an almost 6 yr old. Little miss' socks haven't been worn all that much yet, but they felt pretty sturdy while I was knitting them and I've used a spare piece of that yarn as a stitch marker for a few other projects and it still looks new - that's sort of my gauge for how well a yarn will stand up (i.e., if I can abuse it while knitting another project and it doesn't fall apart or pill like mad, the finished products usually do pretty well). It's all very scientific! Ha ha :)

Now that school is back in session, the fundraisers are in full swing. You can insert your groans here. For part of the current fundraiser, each classroom is responsible for putting together a special themed basket that will be raffled off later this month. Little man requested that I "whip something up" (evidently I use that phrase more than I thought I did), so I made a set of rival beanies (U of I Hawkeyes and the ISU Cyclones) which fits in with their Hawks vs Cyclones basket. These were knit out of the good 'ol Cascade 220 Wool and will fit up to an Adult Small-Medium I think. They fit the minions and me anyway and I have a tiny little dome.

In keeping with the Hawkeye spirit, I also finished up a Hawkeye scarf/hat set for a friend of the family. I had a friend of mine, Gherkin, dye up some SW merino pencil roving for me in Hawkeye colors a while back and I spun up the 8 oz and came up with this. I haven't been able to get together with the recipient yet, but I don't think he checks the blog so I'm feeling pretty safe in regards to posting the picture.

During the perusal of older blog posts, I realized that I was a bit negligent when it came to posting what I have been sending out for the Dark is Rising Club as well. This was what went out in August - it was the Greenwitch shipment and included a skein of handspun (or a braid of fiber) in greens and browns and with it went a hand sewn spinning and/or project bag made by yours truly and a little journal for any secret keeping that might be going on. I've had a nice response to these bags and I will be listing some (in various fabrics) in the shop so stay tuned for those!

This is the latest shipment - The Grey King - and the sock yarn is my Superwash Merino 3ply in the Cafall colorway and I sent out a pattern for the Pendragon Socks along with a few other little goodies. I've had a very nice response to this sock pattern so I thought I would mention that both the cowl pattern from a previous shipment and this sock pattern will be released on Ravelry for purchase in the first part of December.

That's about it for the FO's right now. I have a few other projects on the needles that are nearing completion and I'll be doing a bit of spinning again for the final Dark Is Rising Club shipment but I have a few skeins to spin between now and then so with any luck, I'll have more fiber-y posts coming in the near future!

"Me Turn, Me Turn"

2010-09-09T13:22:00.003-05:00

Miss Independent.

We weren't excited at all.

(she chose where she wanted to stand for her pictures)

"Mom, you no need to come in with me. Me know where me going!" "Can I come in for a minute to at least take a picture and see where you hang your backpack?" "Yeah. Little man told me you would be sad with both us at school so you can go to the library and reads lots of books and then you wont miss us!"

She knew right were to go and where to hang her backpack. She saw the daily routine so often last year when we dropped little man off at school that she knew what to do when and found her chair and that was that. "You can go now, Mom." "Okay, sweetie. Have a good day!"

"Me will and I'll let you know how the socks work out!"

It's too quiet around here.

Summer's End Part 2 of 2

2010-09-08T11:51:00.004-05:00

After exhausting ourselves during our zoo exploration, we loaded ourselves back into the van and headed down to the in-law's lake house.

It was nice and windy and perfect for kite flying!

If you happen to live in or are visiting the Midwest right now, you can attest to the fact that it is now grasshopper season and boy were they in abundance last weekend! Little man has become quite skilled at catching things and he didn't even have to stop flying his kite to catch this one.

Speaking of catching things, I think I've lost count when it comes to how many frogs and toads little man has caught over the Summer. Here's his latest toad.

Naturally he was very pleased with himself and why shouldn't he be? It was a nice catch! He does like to introduce himself to all of his finds and shakes their hands (I use the term loosely) before he finds them a nice little habitat and he always releases them. And then I make him wash his hands thoroughly ;)

The hubby was the one that actually found this little fella in the garden while he was harvesting some peppers.

Little man had to get in on the action!

At least this one wasn't saucy!

Little man is really enjoying Kindergarten and now considers himself to be "an even bigger man". Little miss starts Preschool soon. I've been busy dyeing and shipping out Club stuff and finishing up various projects that I promise I will show you soon, but it happens to be a gorgeous day and I am going out to enjoy it and to mow my yard because our neighbor across the street hasn't been out doing his for a few days now and it always gets him fired up when he hears someone else's lawnmower! Seriously. He mowed his yard twice one day last week because a person a few houses down was mowing theirs in the morning, and another guy on the other side was mowing his in the afternoon. Our neighbor just can't be outdone I guess ;)

Summer's End Part 1 of 2

2010-09-08T11:13:00.002-05:00

Labor Day weekend has come and gone and it took Summer with it. Summer must have had some pressing agenda because she left us more abruptly than normal. I thought I would break up the Dreams in Fiber Holiday Weekend activities into two posts since they are both heavy on the photos.

I threw some stuff in a few bags on Friday night so we could get a jump on Saturday morning which involved driving over to Omaha, Nebraska and visiting the Henry Doorly Zoo. Little man wanted to explore the Desert Dome and had fun checking out the animals and cacti.

After the Dome, we headed into a different exhibit to see what it had to offer and had the opportunity to learn what tiger fur feels like along the way.

Little miss wanted no part of that action. She was rather curious as to how the sloth can "hang out" like that for "so yong" (we're working on our "l" sounds).

These guys were a lot of fun. There were swarms of people around but this little one in particular found something of interest to look at.

I guess whatever it was amused him.

Then we found more saucy animals. Maybe I just have a knack for finding them.

Of course, it is entirely possible that they are not saucy at all, but amused. Perhaps I amuse members of the animal kingdom. I mean if the monkey thought something was that funny, maybe they just can't help themselves! Either way...

Here's a few more images from our zoo adventure.

I Knew This Day Would Come...

2010-08-26T09:29:00.001-05:00

I just didn't want it to come so soon. If little man is sporting new hand knit school socks, that can only mean one thing!

Today was his first day of Kindergarten.

I know he'll have fun and will do well. Of course that doesn't make it any easier on me! How many days until Summer vacation? ;)

Cramming it all in

2010-08-22T22:30:00.004-05:00

3 days. 3 whole days left before my little man starts school. Gulp. I remember Summers lasting a lot longer when I was a kid. Now they just go by in an instant. Since this Summer is coming to a close, the minions and I are trying to load up these last few days of freedom with lots of fun. We headed out to the Iowa State Fair this past Friday and it was a good time - it wasn't as busy as it was when we went last year, and we managed to beat the rain which is always a bonus.

The minions had a lot of fun scoping out the animals in the barns, hitting the giant slide, and exploring new sights and sounds.

I found this particular goat to be rather saucy.

When it comes to little man though, I think the ultimate highlight from this year's Fair was the model train set-up. It was huge, it was elaborate, and it was to scale which is very impressive due to its layout. This was his favorite car.

This weekend we headed down to the lake for some R & R. The minions enjoyed a little beach time, Grandpa H showed them how to float properly, and both minions spent a good chunk of time scoping out all the snails in the area.

Fall is right around the corner and I couldn't be happier about that fact. Thanks to a freak cold front a week or so ago, the temperatures here actually fell to the mid-60's for a brief instant and I happily took advantage of that arctic bliss and sported some handknit wool socks. It was heavenly. My hands have not been completely idle while we've been trying to squeeze the last drops of fun out of Summer and I'll have some fiber-y goodness to share in the next post. Speaking of posts, were you aware that the last post was my 200th blog post? Yeah, me neither. I should probably pay more attention to things like that, huh?

Staying Cool

2010-08-10T11:15:00.003-05:00

The heat and humidity this Summer has been something slightly less than ideal, especially this past week. So naturally, the Dreams in Fiber household did what most Iowans do when they need to cool off, we hit the water.

This was the minions' first beach/lake/sans life jacket (though within easy reach of an adult) experience and they had a good time. As a Mom, I was pleased to see that some of the things they learned in swim lessons earlier this Summer has stuck with them.

Little miss wasn't too sure what to think of all the sand sticking to her feet.

Little man got to use some of his "moves" on the hubby, too.

It was too hot to stay out for very long and we timed it so we were leaving as the masses were arriving which was also a plus - how often do you get a beach all to yourself?

New Toy

2010-07-27T15:28:00.001-05:00

I missed these during my upload yesterday - enjoy.

What Did Your Weekend Look Like?

2010-07-26T22:13:00.002-05:00

I have a lot of irons in the fire right now and am busy busy busy but I thought I would give you our weekend in photos.

A Beautiful Day

2010-07-13T22:24:00.000-05:00

I did something today that I haven't done in over 2 decades, so I thought I would share. Think back to when you were a kid and everything was a big game. Little man was playing baseball with the hubby and little miss and I started the evening off by playing "kick" outside in the yard. All of a sudden, in her pink twirly dress with her hair falling down her back in curly tangles, she looks at me and shouts "Can't catch me!" and she's off. There I was, in jeans and everyday clothes chasing down my 4 year old with a huge grin on my face. I can't remember the last time I ran anywhere while sporting a big smile and laughing to boot! For so many years running was just exercise, you put on your running gear and counted the minutes and the blocks and the miles while silently cursing yourself the entire time for letting yourself get so out of shape or being more tired than the day before, or not going as far as you wanted to... It was work, it was an accomplishment that I could cross off the TO DO list, it was something I had to fit into my day sometime/somehow or I couldn't sleep and would then be out running at 2 or 3 A.M. It wasn't necessarily fun. Today, running was fun again and that makes me really really happy.

A Little of This and a Bit of That

2010-07-13T17:04:00.002-05:00

Somehow, July is half over. This is particularly distressing to me for a few reasons. But I'm not going to mention the fact that school will be resuming all too soon FOR BOTH MINIONS. Nor am I going to mention that there are only about 5 months left for Holiday crafting and I haven't started any Holiday projects yet. None. Zilch. Nada.

I will give a little update of sorts in regards to my fiber-y pursuits, and of course, a bit of minion.

Let's see, where to begin. The Dreams in Fiber household enjoyed a nice 4th of July Weekend. We invited little man's Tee Ball Coach and family (4 kids) down for an overnight at the lake and the minions had all sorts of fun. I didn't really get the camera out too much because there was a lot of splashing going on near the pool and/or it was raining. Here's a few photos of the weekend though.

I also sent off another Club shipment. This shipment included 6 100 yd skeins in the Signs Colorway and a cowl pattern along with some snazzy stitch markers.

This was the smaller pattern sample knitted with the prototype from my first Club shipment.

Somehow I never posted a photo of the 4th pattern I finished for Squibstitcher's VSC 2 Club or the pair of Graduation socks I made for my Cousin T. At least I don't think I did. Some of this stuff was finished so long ago I had to search my Flickr photo pages for them! If' it's a repeat, sorry.

Innocence - the Lucy Fichu

And a pair of Monkey socks knit using Fresh From the Cauldron's SW Sock in Poe's Absinthe Induced Dream Colorway.

Right now I am busy spinning up skeins for the next Club shipment but before that I did a bit of spinning for myself. Some Superwash BFL that I dyed up

A bit of Finn

Some Corriedale

I had a wee bit of Superwash Merino Pencil Roving left on the cone so I dyed that up and spun it - it was less than 3 oz and is in a new Colorway that I'm naming Ginny after Ginny Weasley.

After the mail arrived yesterday I was informed by little miss that I needed to take a break from spinning my Club stuff so I could tackle Signature "Culah" and Much Deeper Than the "Othuh".

This was Gherkin's first shipment for the Southern Charms Club - Steel Magnolias Edition. I don't think there was any question who these two were going to.

I have visions of pink stripe-y goodness. I also dyed up a skein of sock yarn for myself inspired by the FIFA World Cup 2010 logo.

Technically I CO for these socks before the World Cup had ended, and as long as I finish them before the next World Cup begins, I'll be fine with that. My To Do list trumps the knit projects for me, so who knows when I will make any more progress on these.

Other than that, the minions survived swim lessons and we're going to sign them up for one more session before Summer is over, and most of the school supply shopping is finished. What is it about office supplies that just makes me go weak in the knees? I couldn't resist these beauties, and they're all MINE!!!!!!!

I have more projects/ideas in the works but those will have to wait as it's a nice afternoon and the minions are antsy. A bit of minion until we meet again.

Why We Knit

2010-07-06T10:26:00.000-05:00

I came across this You Tube video the other day while floating through blogland. I thought I would share it with you.

Are You Kidding Me???

2010-07-01T17:06:00.003-05:00

I just had one of those parenting moments where I was completely and utterly speechless. I didn't really bat an eye when little man figured out how to walk up my hallway walls all on his own a few weeks ago or when he taught little miss how to do it. I don't cringe overly much when I see the minions playing on the playground anymore, either. But I don't really have an explanation for their behavior this afternoon when I dished out a snack for them.

It's Summertime. It's warm out. Ice cream always sounds good in the Summertime though it's one of those treats that the minions don't get too often. I was at the store the other day and for whatever reason, a little thing of strawberry-vanilla frozen yogurt just sounded good so I picked it up as a special snack. Yes, I realize that frozen yogurt is not the same thing as ice cream, but both kids eat yogurt so what's the big deal?

The minions have been troopers this past week while I have been working away on some projects and things and after we finished up running some errands and stopping at the library, I thought it would be a good time to try out this new frozen endeavor.

"What's that?", they ask. "Ice cream..." "Why is it pink?" "Don't you love pink?" "Yeah...." "So why does it matter that this is pink?" Silence. I put a couple little scoops in a bowl for each of them and set it down on the table. Neither one of them makes a move as they eye me suspiciously. "Me no like this." "You haven't even tried it. "Well, I'm only having one bite." "Fine. It's your snack, don't eat it." "But I'm hungry." "So eat." "I don't want this." "So don't eat it. It's good, what's the deal?"

This is where they both start acting like I tried to sneak them vegetables. Little miss is actually crying because I gave her a special treat. CRYING! They just sat there looking at their bowls with disgust written all over their faces. Good lord, they eat ice cream. They both eat this flavor of yogurt with little to no hesitation. What kid cries when given a frozen treat? Has it ever even happened before? Anywhere? Did I open up some sort of weird vortex by dishing out frozen yogurt and now children all over the world will shun tasty treats?

Whatever. More for me. At least my flowers are pretty!

Day of the Bison

2010-06-29T18:48:00.002-05:00

Iowa is just pretty. That's all there is too it. It might not be the first thing that comes to mind when one hears the word "majestic", but to get out in the middle of nowhere, to hear the wind through the grasses and the corn fields,

to hear the birds and the life all around you while you look at a never-ending sky...

It's pretty majestic.

Today was absolutely gorgeous outside. It wasn't too hot, the sky was nice and clear blue, and little miss was feeling better so the minions and I headed out to see if we could spot any bison. We were driving along and got all hot and bothered when we saw these two off in the distance.

We thought our trip was a huge success at this point. Then we drove a bit further and let us just stop and contemplate the meaning of "huge" for a moment, shall we?

This is huge. This is massive. This was completely awe-inspiring.

And this was eye-balling me the entire time he was crossing the gravel road right in front of us.

The minions' eyes were saucers and I found those precious moments to be completely exhilarating. I just sat there the whole time thinking how incredible it was that we were right there at that precise moment because a few minutes either way and we would have missed it completely. After they walked over this ridge there was no sign of them anywhere.

I do have a confession though. Here are these wonderfully massive creatures and though I should have been content to just be in the moment, my mind did start to wonder a bit and I thought about how fun it would be to spin their fiber. Come on, how could I not??? I just want to run my fingers through it and turn it into yarn!

I'm not crazy though. I wasn't getting out of the van to get a closer look!

I don't think they were as impressed by us, as we were of them.

Leave it to me to catch a bison dropping a deuce in the middle of the field! I didn't even realize what it was doing when I took this photo 'cause I was just happily snapping away. No matter though. I mean, how often are you going to see that?

Look Who Turned 4!

2010-06-28T10:06:00.000-05:00

This past weekend was one big celebration for little miss' 4th birthday. On Friday evening we went out to the restaurant of her choice with my in-laws and on Saturday afternoon we had friends and family head over to the bowling alley for a little bit of fun and food. Yesterday we spent a lot of time getting to know some of our new games and ensembles and helped Daddy in the yard. She was having such a great time!

Today (her actual birthday), we woke up at 4:30 sick and puking. What a craptastically awful way to spend a 4th Birthday! She was sitting in my lap this morning in the bathroom and says to me "But it's me birthday. I don't want to be sick on me birthday." I'm glad she was having a good time over the weekend... So far she seems alright this morning since the lovely little episode earlier, but feel free to cross your fingers and lets hope we're all done with whatever it was she picked up!!!

Happy Birthday, Little Miss! You are growing up into such a wonderful and smart little lady who knows her own mind :) I can't wait to see what the next year brings for you.

Minion Happenings

2010-06-22T11:31:00.002-05:00

It seems as though it's either raining/storming or really hot and humid lately so when it's not too unbearable outside, the minions like to take advantage of their good fortune. It's serious business!

The minions are enjoying actual swimming lessons in the mornings which leaves the afternoons open for other outings to the Zoo or to check out the Buffalo, or bike riding, or heading to the library. We've been doing a bit of school work each day - can't have them forgetting everything they've just learned now can we?? And it goes without saying that it's always a good time to catch a fish.

We even headed out for a bit of sightseeing last weekend. This is part of one of the aisles. It was an explosion of explosions!

The end of June is almost upon us which means my baby will be turning 4. 4!!! How did this happen???? We're planning to have a celebration of sorts this weekend and we still have no idea what we're doing, the cake hasn't been planned or ordered (she can't make up her mind whether she wants Mom to make it or to get it from the store), and no one even knows that we're planning anything yet, well they do now I guess :) Talk about a Mom Fail Moment! But I did finish up one of her Birthday presents the other day.

We were discussing what she wanted me to make her for her Birthday while on the way to the store a week or two ago and she told me that I could just buy her a toy at the store. Like a knife to the gut. Little man immediately jumped into the conversation "Little miss, Mom is going to be really sad if she can't make you something for your Birthday." He then informed me that I could make him something for her birthday. He's so thoughtful! While at the store, I had the minions pick out a pack of socks each since they go through them like they're tissues and little miss picks out a 3-pack of pink socks with white skulls on them. Thinking that she had chosen these socks for the color alone, I asked her if those were the ones she really wanted. Her response: "Argh, Matey!". I guess those were the ones she wanted! Then she told me I could make a matching pair of mittens. Mittens, coming up!

She likes them, and they fit, so I'm happy. I even have enough pink yarn left over to make a whole new pair! I might do that because there are modifications that I would like to make with these like using a thumb gusset instead of the peasant-style thumb.

Other than that, I'm finishing up the goodies for this month's Club shipment and have started dyeing the fiber for the next one... I've done a bit of spinning (for me), and a bit of knitting, but I don't have any photos at the ready or I just can't show them yet, so stay tuned for fiber-y goodness! I am off to eat some lunch and mow the yard. My neighbor across the street did his yesterday which means I'll be a day ahead of him :)

Oh, and little man wanted me to remind everyone that he is a champion...

Summertime and the Livin's Easy

2010-06-21T19:51:00.000-05:00

Why does that song always get stuck in my head around this time of year? As it tends to go with cycles, Summer is here at last. Enjoy your Solstice.

The minions will be making an appearance tomorrow.

Tee Ball 2010 Comes to a Close

2010-06-21T15:21:00.000-05:00

It turns out that little man had quite the Tee Ball Season this year. It was his first team experience as well as his first sports experience and I think that he really ended up enjoying himself.

All year, the teams incorporated an Everyone Have Fun style of game play -- everyone got to bat, everyone got to take turns getting a grand-slam, there weren't any Outs...

Then, we had the Semi-Finals this past Thursday where, for the first time, Outs were to be made and the Score was kept. Little man's team ended up winning that game and moved on to the Championship game, much to the disgust of the opposing team's Coach who was really taking things a bit too seriously in my opinion. The opposing players were blocking the path to 1st base so there was a higher likelihood of having an out there, kids on the other team were sobbing while waiting in line for their treats after the game, and one of our players was even clobbered twice by the opposing team's players - once during the game and once after. IT'S TEE BALL!!!!!!!!!!!!

Saturday morning rolls around and the big game is now upon us. After sleeping through the first inning, our team finally woke up and managed to tie up the game (while simultaneously sending the Parents into a frenzy) and had to go into extra innings.

By this point the parents were beside themselves. The kids were just happy that they got to keep playing...

Since we were the Visitors, we batted first and brought in another 4 runs.

The opposing team was only able to bring in another 1 run before we managed to get our much-needed 3 Outs. WE WON!!!!!!!!! I don't think they were excited one bit ;)

"Mom! This was a huge success!!!!"

Now, some of you might be asking yourself, well what about little miss, what did she do during all of this?

She was a pretty good sport about going to her big brother's games. She had some little friends to play around with and occupied herself pretty well.

There was always someone around to play "kick" or hide-n-seek with.

And she did watch some of the games and cheered little man on. I think both minions are looking forward to next Season!

Memorial Day Weekend

2010-05-30T17:19:00.002-05:00

The minions and I ventured out to the cemetery this weekend to pay respects and to feed some ducks. Our timing was rather fortuitous as we were able to spot a Great Blue Heron down by the pond. He (or she?) didn't stay in one spot for long... Here are some photos from the outing.

Summer's Unofficial Start

2010-05-30T13:21:00.000-05:00

Memorial Day Weekend has long since marked the unofficial start of Summer -- a lot of people don't have to work on Monday, school is almost out, swimming pools open for the season, and the weather is usually beginning to warm up if it's not hot and humid already. We've been a little under the weather this past week in the Dreams in Fiber household so we didn't want to get too crazy, but we still wanted to enjoy a little fun in the sun too.

Little man and little miss have decidedly different approaches when it comes to playing in the water. Little man owns it. Little miss is a bit more cautious.

Little man would stand here all day if I let him.

Note the 'safe' distance...

By the end though, as it usually happens, they both end up having a good 'ol time!

A Bit of Minion

2010-05-19T10:37:00.000-05:00

I haven't really taken many photos of the minions lately; it's either been cold and rainy or I didn't have my camera with me. Since it's been a while since I've posted any minion activity, here are a few photos taken during little man's last baseball game.

As far as updates go, little man is starting to really enjoy baseball and little miss occupies her time during the games playing with some of the other kids and/or cheering her big brother on. School is almost out and both minions are looking forward to uninterrupted play/sun time. They think they will have uninterrupted play/sun time anyway ;) I have some activities in mind for them too! Little miss will be starting Preschool in the Fall and little man will be heading off to Kindergarten. I don't know what I will do with myself when they're both in school!

I have been plugging away getting things ready for my first Club shipment which will go out June 1 and working away on some WiP's. I really need to get those finished because I have some projects that I need to get started on and others that I just really really want to CO for right away. Today looks like it will be a beautiful day to spend outdoors - good thing I like to spin outside!

Flashing some FO's

2010-05-14T10:26:00.001-05:00

It's about time, isn't it? This will just be a little quickie of a post to show some of what I have been working on lately. In no particular order,

This is my Jonathan Cowl. Historically, I have never been one for wearing things around my neck - turtlenecks are a cruel form of torture. That said, it was ridiculously cold outside during little man's last Tee Ball game and I wore Jonathan to help keep out the chill (along with my Winter coat, handspun mittens, Irish hat...). This is a very soft, very drapey yet warm cowl and I ended up wearing it for the majority of the day, even when I was inside! Who would've thought?

Mina Socks - this is another pattern I worked up for Fresh From the Cauldron's VSC 2 club. It will be available sometime next year, March I think.

Next up, we have my Van Helsing Bag (the 3rd of 4 patterns for the VSC 2 Club - the 4th is on the needles now). This is the large size but the pattern has instructions for S, M, L sizes.

Remember those tube socks from the 80's? My Dad always used to wear them and I thought it would be fun to make him a retro pair of knee high tube socks without the tube.

These took a while. And, I know they're not exactly like the Hanes socks, but I had to put in an actual heel/gusset. Had to. Tube socks are just weird, aren't they?

There has been a bit more knitting, spinning, and crocheting than that, but that's what I have for you today. Enjoy your weekend!

Tee Ball

2010-05-04T09:43:00.008-05:00

Tee Ball games have officially started. Little man wanted to make sure that there was a photo of his equipment on the computer.

He's got a few games under his belt now, but these pictures were taken from his very first game. When asked how he felt before the big game, he said he was a little nervous and a lot excited.

He took the field.

And had a few good hits.

He was in such a hurry that he bypassed home plate once or twice, but it was so he could head into the dugout and tell Mom what a good job he was doing :)

Things got a bit long towards the end...

But we were very surprised and excited to learn that there were treats to be had after the game was over!

"I think I can do this again, Mom."

Little man is enjoying Baseball and becoming a bit more comfortable on the field. It's so fun to watch these games and see how the kids make plays and what-have-you. Every now and then there's actually a legitimate Out made!

I will have more Minion photos next post along with, drum roll....., FO pictures! That's right folks, I actually have some photos of some completed projects to show, so stay tuned :)

Random

2010-04-24T17:14:00.000-05:00

I just love these flowers. That is all :)

The Colors of Spring

2010-04-19T10:04:00.003-05:00

After such a long white Winter, I cannot tell you how exited I am to see colors like these popping up all around me!

As usual, it's been a little bit since my last post, but hey. I have two little minions, the weather has been nice, and I've been busy! What are you going to do? I have done a bit of spinning since I spoke to you last.

And a bit of knitting, but I don't have any new knitting photos at the moment. Of course it doesn't help that I've added a few more projects to the needles in an attempt to get the patterns written for my friend J's VSC2 Club that will start up in the near future. Speaking of J, look and see what she sent me a while back now! There's a bit of everything here, yarn, tea, project bags, fiber, tasty treats, knitted goodness... The nice thing about doing these little swaps with J is that the time frame regarding when they are to arrive is nice and fluid. We both know the other is busy so if the Winter packages arrive in the Springtime, all is well :)

AND, speaking of Clubs... I am happy to announce that I am going to be putting on a Yarn Club of my very own inspired by Susan B Cooper's The Dark is Rising Series. This was one of my favorite series to read and re-read growing up and one that I still re-read from time to time. Sign-ups are open through midnight April 30 (CST). This will be a half hand dyed yarn, half handspun yarn (or fiber if the participant prefers) and I have been a busy little bee these past few weeks trying to get yarn bases/fibers and little swag goodies lined up for the event.

The Dreams in Fiber household took a little breather this past weekend though and headed to the in-law's lake house all by our lonesome for a little rest and relaxation. Flowers were picked,

Milkweed seeds were scattered,

and little man even accompanied me on a little adventure having to do with the upcoming club (so more on that later) where we discovered this.

All this says to me is "Nimrod was here". I'm not saying all hunters are nimrods, but honestly! How thick do you need to get to decide that using a sign like this as target practice is a good idea? And they were everywhere; all of the signs we came across looked like this! Morons.

Anyhoo, after a quick little dinner, and a nice little sunset, the hubby and the minions got in a bit of casting.

I'd call if fishing, but no fish were caught that evening, just lake slime. That was just fine by us though. Moons were to be found and fires were to be had.

Not a bad little mini-vacation. Of course now we're back to the regularly scheduled activities. Tee Ball games are set to start in a week or two, I'll be busy with spinning for the Club, my Thursday Night Knitting Group is going to have our own little Knit In, one of my cousins is getting Married in a little bit, my nephew is getting baptized, the Iowa Sheep and Wool Festival will be going on, patterns must be written, projects must be knitted, things must be dyed, grass must be mowed, clouds must be looked at, birthdays must occur... All of a sudden our weekends aren't as free as they were a month ago, but that's fine too :)

On a little side note, a lovely retired gentleman lives across the street from us and he spends a lot of time on his lawn. A LOT of time. Which is fine; his yard always looks great. Sometimes he even mows it twice in one day! But that's a story for another time. Our neighbor has also made comments to both the hubby and myself about how we have chosen to divvy up our own yard work/shoveling duties. This is also fine as he is entitled to his opinion. I am mentioning our neighbor today because this year... This year... wait for it... I MOWED MY LAWN BEFORE HE MOWED HIS! Mwahahahahaha. I'm not entirely sure why I have such a high level of satisfaction in regards to this little fact, and I'm sure it solidifies my position as an evil person, but there it is. I'm giddy about it :) Of course he's mowed his lawn now 4 times to my 2 and has been out multiple times daily with various sprays and things, and his lawn puts ours to shame, but I'm good with it. We have two active little minions that like to spend a lot of time in our yard so I'm not going to use tons of products to keep our yard looking like a lush green expanse of land that would be welcome in any golf course across the world. I'm sure next year he will start mowing in February.

Until next time... ;)

Last Weekend

2010-04-06T17:04:00.002-05:00

As most of you (I'm assuming) already know, last weekend was Easter weekend.

The minions woke up Sunday morning and found that the Easter Bunny had left them a bag of goodies. There weren't actual baskets at our house. Instead, there were rather large bags that the minions can fill with all sorts of things throughout the year...

Then we headed over to my Parents' house where the minions were able to hang out with the family and collect some eggs.

After a little while, my Nephew T arrived and the kids (and the adults) had a good time playing outside in the nice weather.

Now those are some brows!

Every year I try to do a mini garden starting with seeds. I check the temperature, the water, the soil... And, every year the newly hatched plants do well up to a point and then keel over which gives me an excuse to head out to one of the local greenhouses. I guess my thumb is more of the fiber-y variety than of the green sort. Both minions were extremely excited to get going with the seeds this year so I agreed, secretly hoping that the seeds would just take off and grow and grow and grow this time. Taking my track record into consideration when it comes to this sort of thing, I also decided that this year I'm not worrying about anything -- just throw in some soil, throw in some seeds, water things occasionally, and if they're hardy enough to sprout up regardless of the conditions, they just might have a sporting chance.

This photo is just proof that there is some green going on in the Dreams in Fiber household right now. Whether or not it continues to be green... We'll just have to wait and see. Just in case though, (hubby this means you) a gift certificate to a greenhouse for Mother's Day might not be a bad idea. :)

Starting Tee Ball

2010-04-06T13:18:00.003-05:00

Little man had his first Tee Ball practice a few weeks ago. It was quite the experience.

We've worked with him a little bit at home (i.e., catch, grounders, batting) but this was his first team experience. This is not the face of a happy little man!

After a bit of encouragement little man's mood had improved and he found himself enjoying practice. I'm rather proud of him for sticking with it and not giving up.

Little miss spent her time at practice scouting the grounds,

finding all sorts of leaves,

and rolling down the hill.

After observing some of little man's strengths and weaknesses, my two men began to work on some specifics and having a good time.

The second practice went much better.

And as always, little miss was never far from her soccer ball.

Fiber-y Pursuits

2010-04-05T08:16:00.003-05:00

It's been a long time coming now, but here's a post entirely dedicated to wool and what I've done with it lately :) Actually, it's probably going to be a rather small post because I was hoping to have finished some of the WiP's I'm working my way through, but that hasn't happened yet. That's the trouble with working on more than one (or two or three) projects at a time - each is completed slowly but surely so I feel like I am making absolutely no progress at all. But... just think of the day I'll have if I can manage to finish them all up at the same time! Here are some of the projects I've actually finished.

Continuing on with the stranded knitting kick, I present to you the Dead Walleye Hat. My FIL saw the Dead Fish hat I made for little man and thought that he needed one to take on his yearly trek up to Canada with his fishing buddies.

And, I was wielding the trusty crochet hook back in early March and whipped up this messenger bag - which was originally going to be used for the Portland trip, but I didn't have time to line it like I wanted to, so it stayed home. It's just the right size though, which makes me happy!

And of course, the minions needed a few new gnomes. Little man's is on the left and little miss' is on the right. I am also happy to report that the original gnome for little miss made it home with us from Portland after all so they each have 2 :)

Little miss is modeling the latest Cousteau hat.

The weather has started to warm up a bit here so there's been more outdoor time and less knitting time (which doesn't help the FO production at all!). Couple that with the HUGE spinning kick I've been on lately

and it pretty much explains the lack of knitting photos.

I have been toying around with the idea of starting to sell some of my handspun yarn on my Etsy site (along with a few other odds and ends) and I have been working on some new Club/Kits ideas pulling inspiration from Susan B. Cooper's The Dark is Rising Series which I am rather excited about. Stay tuned for more details on that.

I should have an all-about-the-minions post soon; I have to upload a few pictures from the camera first. But, right now I'm going to get some spinning in before the minions wake up!

Seriously...

2010-03-23T21:00:00.001-05:00

When did my minions get so big?

Spring is Here!

2010-03-23T20:39:00.007-05:00

Baseball and green grass, Spring has arrived, right?

Well, technically yes, though this is how our first day of Spring turned out.

Most of the ice is gone from the lake now (well, probably all of it now).

If you look really hard at this photo towards the middle of the tree you can see the snowball that the hubby threw at me.

He missed ;)

Really though, the snow didn't last too long. In fact, today the minions and I were able to enjoy some outdoor time at one of the nearby playgrounds

and then we went home to work on some hitting/ground balls (seeing how little man's Tee Ball practice starts this week!). Little miss loves her soccer ball.

As always, both minions love their wheels!

I know I promised actual knitting content, and it will come in due time, I just had a lot of minion-y goodness to share at the moment.

This was the last day of Winter for us, what did yours look like?

Painfully Obvious

2010-03-18T17:24:00.007-05:00

I spent a some time last week working on a few little projects. Some Travellin' Gnomes for the minions (evidently Little Miss' Gnome wasn't done traveling because she didn't make it home with us, but there will be more I'm sure)

and a crocheted Ode to Molly Weasley shawl

which was entirely made up of leftover sock yarn held double and works for my current Thursday Night Knitting Group KAL which is a shawl of your choice. I simply substituted the KAL with a CAL, but I don't think anyone minds and too bad if they did! ;) There were some other projects that I will mention next post but these two were special because they were to be used for our trip to Portland, OR to see this trio - my SIL K, my BIL M, and their latest creation, Z.

This was the minions' first experience on an airplane and I thought I would whip up a few gnomes, just in case. I figured, if they were nervous on the plane they could hold onto them for support and if they did just fine (which they did) they could be a Hey, you did a great job! project. Little man really liked looking at the wings.

It was a shorter trip and there are tons of photos. So many in fact, that anyone who saw me while I was wandering around over on the West Coast can attest to the fact that it is painfully obvious that I need to get out more. There are so many photos, that I will warn you now - this post is extremely heavy on the mosaics (that link is for you K!). If you want to see any of the photos in full size, they're all on Flickr.

So this is Z. 'Cause I know you're curious. He's a big man now, 5 months old! And I think he had a nice time partying with the minions. Little man really liked reading to him.

These are some miscellaneous photos taken on our way to the playground which is near K and M's house.

(Told you I need to get out more!)

The minions had a field day at the playground. It's been so cold and miserable here that it's been a while since they were able to stretch their legs a bit. They didn't waste any time trying to make Mom cringe!

And of course the in-laws had some time with their latest Grandchild.

Little man was all over the place. He was moving from one thing to the next so quickly that I'm surprised he was actually in focus.

Little miss was a little more subdued while at the playground, but she OWNED the teeter-totter! Just look at that mane!

I had to put this next image in because look at the handknit socks this little cherub was sporting while at the playground. No idea who she or her Mom are, but these socks are awesome!

The minions had such a good time at the playground that they didn't want to leave.

But leave they must, for I had my own agenda for the afternoon! A quick dip in the ball pit

and we were off to Rogue. Mmmm, Rogue. Let me count the ways.... Such tasty little brews/spirits and the food wasn't bad either! Evidently the Portlanders (is that what they're called????) aren't quite as excited to visit this little brewery as I am because, well, it's there, and they're there, and I'm not. But... if you're ever out that direction, stop on in, you wont be sorry!

The next day we headed out to Cannon Beach, after a quick waffle/coffee fix of course.

The minions enjoyed some ice cream and treats while we waited out the rain,

just so we could see this. It's the Goonies shrine.

We would choose the coldest, rainiest, and windiest day to go to the beach. We lasted all of 5 minutes - if that - but the kids can say that they've been there, and little man has the salt water/sand in his shoes to prove it!

Originally we were going to have lunch at the beach and hit this restaurant for dinner, but we hit the restaurant for lunch instead. This is Camp 18 and it had a myriad of vintage logging equipment and tools and odds and ends to check out. There's even a wee trail on site so you can work up an appetite.

Well, what about the yarn???? Portland is loaded with little yarn shops and my SIL K and I headed out to 2 of them on our last day there. I really enjoyed Twisted.

They have a wall of single socks (how fabulous is that?) AND I found some really great yarn produced in Oregon and had a helluva time trying to decide which ones to get - just ask K. Fortunately for me, they are supposed to be opening up an online store which I am very excited about. They even sell natural pencil rovings, squee!

Here are a few more random images from my wanderings.

I will have a few more images (maybe) to post later - they're on my SIL K's camera and I don't know how well they turned out yet. One of the pictures is of this absolutely crazy bookstore.... I didn't know if they could get me out of it for a minute or two but I was able to restrain myself and walked away with only 2 books ;)

It was a nice little trip. Hopefully we'll be able to see them again soon. I will have more knitting/crochet content next post for you too :)