Winter in March

Well, it finally happened.  We got real snow here in Virginia.  The kind you can sled in.  The kind that makes decent snowballs and is beautiful in the trees.  It started Sunday night and there was no school on Monday or Tuesday.  We spent most of the day on Monday shoveling, sledding, and playing.  A great time was had by all.  

On the knitting side of things, the recent cold snap made Ben ask for slipper socks.  Those are on the needles right now.  I am making them out of Cleckheaton Country 8-ply in tan and some hand dyed stuff that I got at Springwater Fiber Workshop the first or second time they went out of business.  They are nice and thick.  Should keep the toes nice and toasty!  

This weekend we decided that since it was snowing out, why not make some bread to go with our dinner.  The kiddo and I made some lovely herb focaccia bread shaped like a leaf.  As soon as it came out of the oven, he was ready to eat it!  It was pretty tasty!

Happy 2008!

Well, the holidays have come and gone... Santa was good to the kiddo (as were grandparents, parents, aunts & uncles!) The slot cars have been a blast. We have spent countless hours racing around the basement! We got a new digital camera, which I love, and an iPod that I have been loading with all of our CDs so we can listen to music more easily. (The CDs currently live in the storage part of the basement and are bit difficult to get to!)

The down side of the holiday season has been dreaded disease! We have all been stricken, myself seemingly worse than anyone else, with a horrible upper respiriatory virus. It hit the kiddo for a couple of days before the holiday and then he was fine. My husband and sister both got it just in time for the Christmas festivities, then I got it 2 days after Christmas. Mostly it consists of a very painful sore throat and lots of sinus goop. I just hope it clears up soon! I am supposed to go to St. Louis for my other sister's wedding on Friday so I have a lot of getting better to do in just a couple of days!

The kiddo went back to school today and was a bit sad that break is over. He did not really want to leave my side this morning at school, but he took a deep breath and walked right in. It was a bit sad for me too. It was really nice having everyone home for a week!

Knights reign

The middle ages have taken over the house. Sir Kiddo is totally into knights and castles at the moment. He made a helmet for himself out of cardboard (with a bit of help!)

I think he looks groovy! If only there were a fair maiden that needed to be saved!

The kiddo cooks!

We went to see Ratatouille over the weekend and ever since, the kiddo has wanted to cook things. He has a great kids cookbook "Pretend Soup" by Molly Katzen and today he was reading it before breakfast and found this recipe:

Bagel Faces!

The actual recipe calls for things like bell peppers and olives and cherry tomatoes, but this fruit version was a big breakfast hit! Strawberries for eyes and nose, peach slices for mouth and eyebrows! He even ate the whole thing! Of course, my thought about it was what would my vegetarian friend who will only eat food without a face think of this...

The Jockey sweater is still rolling along. One sleeve is done, and the 8 is stitched on in duplicate stitch. The other sleeve is about half way there. I finished the hand dyed socks that were made with the really cool blue, purple and teal handdyed yarn on the Oregon trip so, of course, I had to buy more sock yarn. I got 3 pairs worth of Lorna's Laces Shephard Sock at the shop where I used to work and stared the first pair on the trip. They are brown and tan and look like peanut butter cups! So far I like them a lot. I will post pictures tomorrow! I want to get a pic of the kiddo with the mostly done sweater on.

Back from Oregon

No posts for the past couple of weeks as we were on vacation in Oregon. We had a great time! The kiddo and I spent a week at the Oregon Suzuki Institute perfecting his violin playing and then my hubby arrived in time for the final concert at camp. It is a truly thrilling thing to see your little guy up on stage with about 200 other violinists all playing "Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star" in unison! A good time was had by all and we got to spend a week with some amazing teachers and catch up with friends from last year.

After camp we headed to McMinnville to see old friends and old haunts. Of course there was a joyous reunion with all the girls at Boersma's Knitting Basket, where I worked before the big move east. The kiddo and I even spent a day teaching the girls to dye yarn with food coloring...

The set up in the unused top floor of the Boersma's store in McMinnville.

The kiddo helping mix up a batch of food color dye.

One of the final products...

We made it through 10 skeins of yarn and a ton of Wilton's dye without staining the floor. Needless to say, we all had blue and pink hands, and the kiddo had a few blue freckles! I have no idea what those gals are going to do with all of that lovely stuff... 10 mis-matched hand dyed skeins of worsted weight wool... but I can't wait to see!

The visit to McMinnville also included visits with old friends and a reunion picnic in the old neighborhood, which featured meeting the new owners of our old house and finding that the kiddo's height marks were still on the door frame in the pantry. We transfered the height marks to some paper to bring home (we had done it once before, but alas, that was the only thing that got lost in the move...) It was great to see all the old neighbors and the house again.

After a few days we were ready for adventure so we packed up and headed to Mt. Hood. We spent the 4th of July playing in the snow above Timberline Lodge and stayed there for the night. Timberline is one of the very few places that you can ski year round so we were able to watch skiers and snowboarders while we hiked! The next day we went back down the mountain by way of Hood River, OR (famous as the spot that John Kerry took a day off of campaigning to wind surf). We stopped at one of the kiddo's favorite spots, Bonneville Dam and visited the dam, navigation lock and fish hatchery there. It is really neat to see since it is a HUGE dam and this was the first visit that we have made where there were fish in the fish ladder! Lots of Shad and a few Steelhead and Salmon too!

It is nice to be home but we all miss Oregon. It was hard to come back to the Virginia summer, but since we were met at the airport by adoring grandparents, we will all survive just fine...

New Dye Job

Yesterday we dyed more yarn. This time, we did a cold pour method and the kiddo handled the dye very well. He even wore latex gloves (which were really too big) for the process. I am sure that we will do this again. It was was really fun, and the yarn is really pretty too!

This will be hats and mittens for the kiddo next winter (or maybe something else if we make a better batch of yarn next time!)

Dye Job!

Today we dyed the wool from KnitPicks. Here is the kiddo's green in the dye pot... It almost looks like we are boiling up a muppet!Here is some lighter green in the bucket after the dye pot... The goal is to knit a striped sweater with two shades of green for the upcoming winter.
This is my sock yarn working in the crockpot. I love this blue!!! I can't wait to start knitting this stuff up!
The finished product hanging up to dry in the shower. Look at those shades!

And... The cardigan as it progresses. Look... It has sleeves!