Nickel Creek and What to do about the next sweater

So I have the Ipod on to Nickel Creek.. a little bit of blue grass to drowned out the video gaming boys in the background. I have the perfect next sweater project, it really is perfect, and I fell in love with it the moment I saw the pattern.... except... I really just need to use the yarn in my stash, and I'm not sure that I have any that will be right for it, and it is knit in different parts... I know that sounds crazy, but I am a huge devote' of Elizabeth Zimmerman, and we knit in the round. We cut sweaters down the middle for a cardigan. I have no great desire to knit little pieces and then sew them together... it's a dilemma.

See?




But look at this!!



And this..



This screams out to me, can you see why?

I would love it in a dark color like this, but I think that I am going to do it in an aran (cream colored) super wash wool so that I can wear it all the time, and throw it in the washer and dryer.. but oh! If I were rich I would get more alpaca and knit this up in that.....

The big dilemma is this, do I wait on this one to get the perfect yarn? Or can you see this in the old fashioned cream color?

I think I need to play with it for a while.. oh well, I'm trying to bust out some Christmas knitting anyway.. but my fingers itch for this pattern!!!!

Finished sweater!!

I know I'm going a bit overboard on the pictures and detail here.. but I am SO excited about the finished sweater! The pictures do not do the crimson base color justice! There is a depth to the color with black undertones.. and the sweater is so warm! Oh, and it fits!

So you get the idea right?

It has been more than a little crazy here, we were all down with the ol' H1N1, let me tell ya.. I'm still coughing, and the whole famn damily was ill at the same time. Our doctor put us on Tamiflu right away, and I'm here to tell you, if you get the chance.. TAKE IT! Tamiflu really lessened the symptoms.

As my grandmother says, we were all "puny" here at the Kafooster household, but we're on the mend. Besides, the quarantined household allowed me the time to finish my sweater!

Hair cut pictures..and that sweater.

So we had hair cuts last week, and aside from Sam continuing to say

"Mom, you're really close to my ear right now... be careful!"

and both of them saying... "Are you done yet? It's taking you way too long!"

every thing went pretty well.

I am always surprised that a hair cut changes the look of young boys/men so much, and they are both growing so much lately that I seem to turn around and am seeing the young men more than boys... These were taken last Sunday..

Ben, after his bath.. he has my dad's curls to his hair, and there is so much red in that blond of his...

Sam, with a more hip (yep, I used that old word) hair cut... Sam is growing so quickly, we are almost eye to eye now.. (I'm only 5'1" so that is not tough for my kids, but it is still weird..)

And about that violin thing.. yep, I've decided to do it, but, I have to get a violin first.. I'll be looking at the local pawn shops, or on e-bay.. when I get it (no hurry..) I'll start learning to play instead of shreek... which is John's fear..

Happy Sunday everyone, hope it's a nice lazy day.. I'm going to put some soup in the crock pot... chicken and rice I think and then spend the rest of my day listening to boys play video games, and finishing up that sweater.. oh by the way.. this is what it looks like...

The checkered area in the front is where the "steeking" will take place, where you secure the yarn with a sewing machine then cut down the middle stitch to create a cardigan.. Pretty right? I'm excited about my new winter sweater!

Ben's picture has arrived... finally!

So here it is.. I've got to tell you, I am so pleased that both have turned out so well.. check this out!






They both look so grown up!



I have been so busy trying to get everything done (work, housework, knitting, homework, housework, dishes, cleaning, housework.....) I think I'm falling back into that never ending cycle of recriminations that I used to do before the broken shoulder incident... I am trying to pull myself out of that cycle and trying to give myself permission to do things just for me.. I am working to finish that sweater that I started before the shoulder surgery that I just now picked up again, maybe tomorrow I'll take a picture and show you how far I am.. really I'm close to being finished.. this year I will have a new, alpaca cardigan. Also, I discovered a spinning teacher here in Hillsboro, and I called her and promised myself that in the middle of this month I am going to take a couple of lessons so that I can move forward in my attempt to spin my own yarn.



And tell me if this is silly, but I really want to learn to play the violin. This is something that I have always wanted to learn, but I was thinking really? At 40 years old? Learn the violin? But then I thought, well... why not? Wadda think? Too much ?


With everything else that's going on in my life, taking on yet another task seems daunting. I wish, truly that I was born an organized person. I just do not have the time to learn all the interests that haunt me! Certainly not learn them and keep up with the laundry!

Sam's Picture is Back

So Sam's school pictures came back.. they are actually really good. He was clearly thinking of our school picture conversation. See...



Sorry about the quality of the scan. Any one of you who know me are going to laugh and would be right to say that this is an expression straight off of my own face.. Really this is 100% his mother.. poor kid.

Ben has not had his school pictures taken yet, which is really strange, normally this would be done by now, but picture day for him is not until Oct. 20Th.

The first part of the school year was horrible, everyone got sick within the second week. Sam's school had 55 kids leave the school on Tues of the 2ND week.. Not just calling in sick, mind you, but start throwing up in the hallways, classroom,bathrooms, or office, and be sent home. Luckily everything seems to be calming down.
Sam is loving his class so far, and I am thrilled.

Ben seems to be okay in school, but he is at that stage where, when you say anything at all to him, his response is "I know, I know" in an exasperated tone.

"Ben put your shoes on"
"I know, I know"
"Ben your sandwich is ready."
"I know, I know"
"Ben, get your head in the corner, you cannot call your brother a dick!"
"Mom!, that is so unfair!" (this is the other thing that I am hearing all day long!)
"Ben, in this house we are supposed to be respectful towards everyone and calling people names, even our brothers, when they are being mean, is not oka....

(interruption)

"MOM! I KNOW, I KNOW!! Can I get out of the corner now?"

humm. well, you all get the picture, right? I remember that Sam went through this at nine. Ben has it down pat. The rolling of the eyes, the disgruntled grunt, the shaking of his head as he walks away exclaiming,

"You just don't understand what I'm saying Mom!"

On to other things, the weather here is supposed to turn for a very fast drop in temperature this week and me and my shoulder are here to tell you that the weather channel is absolutely correct!!! Ouchie momma! I'm just going to make sure that I have a supply of pain medication on hand for the winter. But I will come in hand for the family weather needs.

I had a friend laugh at this the other day and say..

"Wow, that really sucks, that's like being the weather girl X-Man, and the only super power you got was different kinds of pain to tell you what's coming, but you don't get to move it around like Storm"

I have to agree.. If I have to be a mutant, why can't I have the cool super powers?

Picture day..

It's picture day at Jr. High... I have to tell you, I hate picture day, because, although I have very handsome young boys.. I do not very often get good pictures from school. It's not really the photographer's fault. I have children that have taken in into their heads that professional photographers are not to be smiled at. Because of this unfortunate mindset, I get pictures like this...








and like this...



Really these guys are so adorable... when they are not in front of school photographers they look like this...



Or like this..

So this morning, before Sam left for school, I started this conversation...

"Sam, I'm paying for these pictures, and every year.. really they are just crap"

"So."

"Why don't you picture the Photo guy in his underwear?"

"That really doesn't do it for me mom."

"How about a cartoon anvil on his head" *

No response from Sam so I say...

"Umm.. How about a bird landing on his head."

"How about a bird pooping on his head" (small grin escaping from his face... quickly drawn back in)

"Whatever works... You know, Sam, when I was in the 7th grade, I was trying to look all sexy for my photo, and it was the worst picture I ever had taken, it was like this."

(View mom bugging out her eyes, sucking in her cheeks, and ducking her head) **

"REALLY DUDE, every time your Amuma (Basque for grandmother) pulls that thing out I cringe.. I'm trying to save you that pain later in life..."

This gets an actual laugh.... I am hoping that he will think of that face when the Photography guy whips out his camera... failing that, I told the story to his amazing aides at school when I dropped him off this morning, I hope it works..

I get to have a similar conversation with Ben next week. Sigh.

* No actual School Photographers were harmed in the writing of this blog

**This picture is not available for public viewing...ever.

New yarn..

So I called my friend Amy.. and said.. I hate you being in Texas and not just four blocks away, because, if you were four blocks away, I would drive over to your house, right this very minute and show you the new, self-striping yarn that I dyed.

All by myself.

It is so beautiful that I was tempted to drive over to Amy's old house to introduce myself to the complete stranger that lives there to show off the yarn. (Old habits, you know...)

Amy said.. put it on your blog. Then I can look at it tomorrow. Well Amy, here it is, and it is a thing of beauty. Hard to see, but there is a dark and light brown, then a dark and light pink.

Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty, Pretty... you get it.




One of the many cool things about Amy, is that before she ever saw this yarn, when I told her that I had finally made self-striping yarn in my very own dye pot, she started, like, jumping up and down with excitement (of course you can tell over the phone!) like if she had been just four blocks away, she would have jumped into her minivan and would have been to my house before I could have gotten out of my driveway...