Knitting Iris

Living like snails.

Here is something nice to look at for the next couple of weeks, something that also happens to fit into the Project Spectrum theme.  Yesterday, I brought this Christmas cactus and Amaryllis (finally blooming now!) to a friend's house for her to take care of and enjoy while we're away for the next couple of weeks.

We're off to Seattle today.  There, the boys will be staying with my parents and from there, C and I, just the two of us,  will leave for Panama on Thursday.  I can hardly even believe we're really doing this!  It's a win-win-win situation, working great for all of us: my parents, the boys, and of course, C and I.  We have all been so looking forward to this for the past couple of months.  C has been working overtime for the past month or more (Who am I kidding? Really, the past year or so.) so that we can go. 

We haven't done anything like this in a very long time.  We'll be living like snails with only a small-ish backpack each.  We've made no reservations, aside from our flight. It will take about 10-12 hours to drive to Seattle, 10 hours of flying, including a short layover in Houston, to Panama City, followed by a 10-12 hour overnight bus ride, and an early morning ferry ride to get to our destination.  Then who knows from there?  I have only a few plans: sleep, swim, knit, read, and most of all, walk a lot at a full, normal, adult pace. In short: relax.  I'm not sure we know how to do this anymore. I'm sure it can't be far from the proverbial "it's like riding a bike."  I just know I'm going those two boys like crazy!

Inside?  Snorkeling gear.  Swimsuits.  Camera. A  good bit of knitting:  1 ball dark green Misti Alpaca laceweight for the Trellis Shawl.  Socks That Rock Marbles for Jaywalkers.  Leftover rainbow yarn  for socks for the boys.  Green variegated Kid Merino for these socks.  Some of this might get left behind in Seattle for the return trip home. 

See you sometime around April 5th, give or take.  There will be so much catching up to do.

Spring. Sort of.

Spring Equinox ritual: paint toenails green.  I'm not sure how long this has been going on, but at least 10 years now.

Everytime we drive by the neighbor's pond down the road, we've been checking to see how much the ice has melted and we wonder at how the geese can keep their toes warm.  We count all the new baby cows that we can see in the neighbor's fields and how many pairs of geese there are in the grass around the pond

So nice to hear the birds singing.  It's still quite cold (20's-30's at night), but we've been firing up the woodstove the past couple of mornings and opening the front door to the crisp, fresh air.  Ahhh.  Spring. Sort of.

In the bag

In the bag:  A couple random bills.  Some change, including a couple pesos and a loonie.  A new aqua nail clipper.  A 60's daisy notebook from a friend.  A wool felt tissue holder that R sewed for me. A rock, or "crystal" from E.  A faceted piece of glass known as "magic raindrops" around here.  A jingle bell from my stocking at Christmas.  A paper clip.  An old mint tin filled with acetaminaphin.  Car key.  A blue marble.  Green nail polish I haven't used since Halloween.   A pocket knife that I forget is there and never use.  Hand sanitizer that I never use. 

In my wallet:   A little cash.  Store discount and punch cards, and health insurance cards.  No credit card; I don't have one.  I don't think about carrying pictures of the boys because they are with me 99% of the time, although I probably should just in case they get separated from me somewhere.  A mini-sewing kit I've never used.  Postage stamps.  An emergency yarn needle, that has been used many times for weaving in the ends of finished socks.

The bag itself?  A Sophie bag, knitted of Briggs and Little Heritage Yarn in a grey/white ragg color, overdyed with blue and purple Kool-Aid, most of which is faded out of it.  I've washed it many times and it never seems to felt all the way.  I do not like this bag, but never think of replacing it.  The twisted i-cord straps catch my hair and pull it out, getting stuck in a tangle that needs to be torn off the straps regularly.

I admit, I did weed out the old receipts, lint, and cookie crumbs, and I finished off the bag of almond M & M's while I was pulling everything out of my bag.  What I thought was such a hodge-podge of things in my purse really doesn't look that bad when it's all laid out nicely.

Look what Shannon and Neuroknitter have in their bags!   While I only have the ever-present marble or two (there's often one or two in my pants pockets, too.  I pocket them while sweeping the floor.)  they have their Socks That Rock Marbles socks, in progress, in their bags, and they both look so beautiful.  I need to get going on these!  O.K.  They are officially being bumped up on the "to be knit" list.  Thanks for the inspiration for the post AND the socks, and thank you again for the yarn, Shannon.  I've got the yarn divided in two and the Jaywalker pattern printed out and ready to go!

Old and New

I love old trucks, but they don't necessarily love me, driving them, that is.  They've been known to drive me to tears (pun uninteded).  I just like the way they look, whether on the road or sitting out in a field or junkyard.  Twice in the past week,  I've found myself driving behind, and admiring, the truck pictured in the middle above.  There's just something about the faded color and the shape, the perfectly greyed boards used as a tailgate and side gates, and the similar color of the rusted old bumper that made me take notice.  Then, by contrast, there is the newer, similarly colored truck in the bottom picture that does absolutely nothing for me, but what about when it's old?  Will I like it any better then?

On the subject of new vs. old, I lost one of these fingerless mitts just days after knitting them, so after finding another ball of the same yarn, I knitted a new one, and then another.  The  one on the left is the old, original one.  Now, I can safely lose another,  but of course now I probably never will.   As for the stool, I spied it out front of the thrift store the other day.  The colors and shape are what caught my eye, but it's a bit rickety, holding a person's weight only if they don't wiggle too much. So. Which is better, old or new?  Which do you prefer?  What do prefer old? What do you prefer new?

Green Day

Top: Some of this week's crafts.  R came up and constructed the Shamrock houses for the Playmobil people himself.  The rainbow mobile idea was found online.

2nd: Hunting for leprechaun's gold (pennies) dropped in the walkway either by a leprechaun or the end of the rainbow, one can never quite be sure.  Remember the Night Rainbow? The boys' green get-ups are courtesy of C's mom and dad.

3rd: I went to town with the two little leprechauns and they went around pinching anybody who wasn't wearing green and then giving them a  green sticker with either a shamrock or a leprechaun.  We stopped at a local nursery to pick up some potting soil and grass seed.  "The little plants, called plugs, were in and ready to be transplanted up into bigger pots.  This is one of the places I worked before kids.  It was always so satisfying to be working in a warm greenhouse with plants (we called them "the babies") so early while the snow was still flying outside.  Now, one of my very good friends has that job, so it's fun to visit. 

4th: We came home and planted a bit of seed in a pot with hopes of having green grass by Easter.

More: dinner with friends and family, including corned beef with cabbage and potatoes, rye bread and soda bread, and green jello, followed by cookies and green mint-chocolate chip milkshakes.  Yum!

Irish Eye

Up until the birth of our older son, my eyes were distinctly green.  They say parenthood changes everything.  Well, apparently it even changed the color of my eyes.  Not only did we get a blue-eyed baby, but my eyes turned blue, too.  I never even noticed until one day somebody made a comment about my blue eyes.  My what?

I used to claim that I didn't need to wear green on St. Patrick's Day, since I was always "wearing" the green of my eyes.

In the past couple of years they've worked their way back to a middle ground of bluish-green, but still they'd be described as blue.

Growing up in a family of predominantly Norwegian heritage, I've never paid much attention to St. Patrick's Day, other than the fact that it always coiincides with my half-birthday.  Now that I've married myself into a St. Louis Irish family and we have children, I'm putting a concerted effort into making this a special holiday, more and more each year.  We've been crafting and reading up on Ireland and St. Patrick all week and we've quite a bit planned for tomorrow, besides the Wearin'  O' The Green.

"See? Nothing In My Hat!"

What do you do on in the middle of March when there isn't enough snow to play with, but by lunchtime the wind and snow are both blowing sideways, driving you back indoors? 

Finally make the curtains to hang under R's bed which I've been planning on making for at least a year now., of course!  I haven't been able to find any fabric that I like, so I settled on some more of that $.99/yard muslin.  Today, I ironed and hemmed the panels and then we grabbed some potatoes, kitchen knives, and green craft paints and printed our own.  This led, ironically, to a discussion about the Irish Potato Famine and the re-reading of The Dragonfly's Tale.

The curtains were hung and the paint wasn't even dry yet, when the boys pulled out R's new Magic Set from his birthday and put on a show, but not without a snack break of mini-carrots for the magicians, the audience, and of course, the magicians' rabbit.  So fun! 

Homeschooling at it's finest! 

Not much knitting on the baby sweater, though.  It's looking unlikely that I'll finish by Saturday.

Irish Drinking

After a bit of green, shamrocky crafting, we cleaned up, put on some Irish Drinking Songs, laid out the thrifted linen dish towel printed with the Irish flag, made up some Irish Soda Bread cookies (Quite good. Interesting flavor: caraway seed.), and poured the tea. 

Not exactly Guinness, but I've got to keep focused.  Only 4 more days to finish that green baby sweater.  The shower is Saturday at noon.  It feels like I'm in the midst of my own mini-Olympic challenge.  Maybe without the Guinness, I can win another award: the Guinness World Record for fastest knit Rosebud Sweater?

A-tenting we did go.

We've been camping in.  We even got out the camping gear: a big foam pad and all the sleeping bags.  Last night was my turn sleeping in there with the boys and the night before was C's turn with them. 

Now, I can really see why this wasn't quite so successful.  I guess it's too limiting.  Who wants a plain ol' house when you can have a tent in the woods, or a bear cave, or a fort or a...

Leprechaun Socks

KnitPicks Parade, Forest colorway.  Toe up.  #2 dpns. Over 48 stitches.  Nice yarn, but the tiniest bit splitty.  This leprechaun hasn't had any green socks of her own in quite awhile.  They're actually intended to be ski socks.  Sport weight socks fit best inside my leather telemarking boots.  I made them over 8 stitches fewer than normal so they'd fit snug and with no ribbing except for at the very top so that they won't bother my ankles when they're buckled TIGHT inside the boots.  Now, this leprechaun just needs a hand knit ski sweater to go with them, right?