The Towel

Years and years ago when my relationship with my husband was fairly new, he suprised me one Friday evening with a present. We had been going out long enough that I was there every weekend, but were not yet at the point where my apartment had become just my cat's apartment and a place where I stored my couch. We were exclusive, but not "forever" serious yet.

It was in a pretty gift bag and he seemed pretty pleased with himself. I was pretty pleased to be getting a gift. I opened it up and found....

a towel.

A blue beach towel to be exact.

I was a little confused initially, and must have looked it, because he said "It's for here."

Then I understood. Being a new(ish) girlfriend I had tried not to complain too much about the towel situation, but it was a bit of a problem. He was a single dad and they didn't have a lot of towels, they hadn't needed them, it was just the two of them. The towels they did have were small ones, I liked to be able to wrap my towels right around my body. His were what I'd have called "hair towels", suitable for wrapping turban style around my head to dry my hair, but not for a good post-shower wrap up.

This new towel was big enough to wrap around me. And it was designated "mine", for my use when I stayed the night.

It seems like a small thing, this towel, but looking back the gesture was huge. Phil wasn't just giving me a towel, he was saying "I want you here, I want you to be happy and comfortable and have the things you need while you're here."

It marked a turning point for us...before too much longer I was there several nights during the week as well as weekends. I started bringing my laundry over (including some of my large bath towels) since I was never home long enough to do laundry...and that led to just leaving my clothes there since it was "easier". Before too long we made the decision to just have me move in...there was no sense in me paying rent for my cat. We combined our two households worth of stuff (linens and all), had those big Forever and Ever talks...

Blink your eyes, and it's 9 years and 5 kids later.

Phil's given me many gifts over the years, but only a handful with heartfelt sentiment as powerful as that towel had.

It was an indicator of how sweet and thoughtful he was. That he would think of my needs and do what he could to make sure I was happy. He still does that today. He works hard to provide the necessities as well as the creature comforts for his family.

I'm a very lucky woman. I have the towel to prove it.

Spinning!

A while back I showed off my new wheel, who I have since named "Ashley", but I never did show you what she can do.

The first yarns off my new wheel

The fibre is superwash merino from Yarn Pirate, in the colourway "Culture Club". I split it into 3 equal(ish) parts and spun 3 bobbins up and then started the 3-ply. I ended up with 2 skeins of 3 ply totally 236yards and about 58 yards of 2 ply. It's really soft and lovely.

Because the bobbins on the Ashford are smallish they fill up quickly. I like spinning on it, so for my next project I spun the singles on Ashley and did the plying on Charlotte.

Which resulted in this yumminess

349 yards of merino. The fibre for this was a gift from a friend and it's so pretty. I think this would make really great mittens.

One of the groups I participate in on Ravelry did a swap that coincided with the Tour de Fleece, which is a challenge for spinners to spin every day the Tour de France rides. The swap we did paired spinners with those who don't spin, and the spinners spin up 8oz of fibre into yarn to send to their non-spinner, and in return they get 8oz of fibre. Plus goodies. It's a good swap.

For my partner I asked local artist and belly dancer extraordinaire Uberwench to make something special. I told her I was aiming to spun 4oz of a semi-solid and 4oz of a multi coloured and then ply them together. I told her my partner's colour preferences and sent her off to her dye pots.

This is what she came up with

So pretty...and soft too, a lovely superwash merino.

I spun up the singles on Ashley, resulting in this loveliness

I got busy plying on Charlotte, and the resulting yarns are just amazing

As is typical with my spinning I had way more of one ply than I did of the other, so I divided the leftover multi and got about 189 yards. The 2 colours plied together yielded a whopping 945 yards. Depending on what she knits with it, she could end up up with some pretty subtle striping effect. I love this yarn, it was really hard to send off. But my swap recipient loves it too, and I have been assured that I can get more if I really really want it.

I also started spinning a 16oz lot of a bamboo/merino I bought years ago from The Unique Sheep on Charlotte. I love both wheels, and I am trying to get more spinning time in.

Which is good, because we've just added a fibre-bearing animal to our house hold. Not a sheep though, because even I can admit that would be crazy.

Meet Beatrix MacPoufybottom

She's a 5 month old black english angora. She's super soft and very loveable. I cannot wait to spin her fibre.

Look at those ears though!

No really, look at them!

Awesome.

Deep Fried Deliciousness

Lately the urge to attempt new and exciting things in the kitchen has become overwhelming. I got it in my head that I wanted to try my hand at home made donuts.

A quick google brought me some recipes and I read their reviews to see which one I wanted to try. I wanted something uncomplicated, with clear directions. I looked up info on frying, since I don't have a deep fryer I wanted to be sure I could do this safely.

Side note: since doing this Phil has suggested that we get a little deep fryer so I can make these without all the temperature fussing. Which sounds like a good solid theory. But...way back when I lived with a very good friend and she owned a little deep fryer and I became flat out addicted to making fries. Cutting up potatoes with the skins on, frying them until they are crispy as all get out and liberally dosing them with salt, using three-cheese ranch salad dressing for dip....omg so good.

Yeah. I do not need that kind of temptation again. One of the good things about doing it stove top is that it is kind of a pain in the ass, once in a while thing to do. If I have an easy-peasy deep fryer to work with then that could get dangerous to my waistline damn quick.

Anyway...I consulted with a friend who owns a cafe and makes incredibly good baked goods, and while she hasn't done much with this sort of baked good, she did warn me against making sure my temp didn't dip too low. If the temp is too low then the donuts would absorb too much of the oil and taste funny. Make sure I had a good thermometer.

Armed with that advice I tried my hand at making these beaver-tail style donuts
. The recipe was really easy to follow, and getting to punch down the dough after it rose was a lot of fun



Then you pull off bits of dough and roll them out flat. Usually beaver-tails are quite big, I wanted something smaller and more manageable.

Tip: very carefully lay them into the oil. Dropping causes splashing which causes burns on your fingertips



I thought I had a good thermometer but it turned out that while the one I had was awesome, it didn't go as high as I thought. I did my best to keep an eye on the temp by guessing where it was above the highest temps, but I was concerned about not letting the temp go to high (not wanting to have a kitchen fire. Again). As a result, I think I low-balled it and as a result there was a little bit of weirdness to the taste.

They were still really good. Most of them I coated in cinnamon sugar



They were very well recieved, the whole family enjoyed them.

The last bit I made up a bit of garlic butter to smear over them and topped that with shredded cheese



Those ones were awesome and I'm glad I only made a few of them since it would be super easy to over-indulge in those.

I'm looking forward to trying them again, next time I'll be able to monitor temp better since I bought a new thermometer that clips onto the side of the pot and goes up as high as I need it to.

For my next attempt I used this cake donut recipe. The dough has to be refridgerated for an hour before being fried up, so I mixed it before I went to dance class with the intention of frying it up just before watching the latest episode of True Blood with some knitters. I'm still not entirely what happened, but I suspect that I didn't have enough oil so the temp rose too quickly. The dough I dropped in immediately burned and the oil began to smoke, so the pot was immediately covered and removed from heat (then put outside because it stank).

I gave it another go, being very careful to use enough oil and monitor temp



This dough is rolled out and cut into circles. I used a little biscuit cutter since I was really just making donut holes (do they count as "holes" if you never made the donut part?)



The dough went from flat disks to puffy in the oil. They were then transferred to a pie plate with coffee filters on it to get the excess oil off. Popped them into a baggie with cinnamon sugar to coat them and ta da!



They were so good! The kids loved them! I loved them!

I plan on doing them again, but this time I'll make full sized donuts. The problem with these little bite-sized bits of goodness is that you can eat way more of them then you intended to.

My next kitchen adventures will be scones and then croissants. If you never hear about that again, you can assume it went horribly wrong.

Flutterby

Years ago I worked in Early Childhood Education and in my first or second year of teaching I attended a workshop facilitated by a fantastic teacher who ran a preschool. She was very science-oriented and so many of the things she did with her students were inspiring.

None caught my attention more than the idea of raising butterflies. I tried unsuccessfully to get my director to order some in and while each year I worked in the field I thought "I should really just do it on my own, and share it with the kids" I never got to it. When we started home schooling I re-visited the butterfly idea but again, I never got around to it.

Then a few months ago one of the parents in the home schooling group asked if anyone would be interested in going in on a set of butterfly larvae from Boreal. She received a huge positive response and I think there were a couple sets of 80 ordered. Each family got to take home 10 Painted Lady Butterfly larvae in little cups with food.

Unfortunately for the blog, the delivery date happened the same week we moved. So I didn't get to picture taking of the process until they were in the chrysalis stage. Totally missed the caterpillars, and I regret it. When they arrived they were tiny wee things, just over 1cm in length and no bigger around than fingering weight yarn. Within a week they were big fat things, about 4cm in length and thicker than most bulky weight yarns (but not so big as pencil roving).

Sadly, one of our caterpillars died before he could make a chrysalis. The kids were sort of bummed about that, but it led to a few good chats about life cycles.

The instructions told us we could put gauze or cheesecloth under the lids of the little cups for the caterpillars to attach their chrysalis to, and while most of ours did that, they then promptly fell off once they were totally encased. I taped a strip of gauze to the side of the (empty) fish tank that would be their home and carefully picked up each one and hooked it on to the gauze just like the video showed.

I was not expecting their little bums to start wiggling frantically as I moved them, a surprise that nearly had me dropping them.

Surprise wiggles aside, I did successfully get them situated in the tank and the waiting began



Because that's how life works...most of them emerged while we were out of the house. We came back from Cam's band class to discover we had 5 butterflies hanging out in the tank


The streaks of red are meconium

The instructions told us to make a sugar water solution (5 tbsps sugar to one cup water) and soak cotton balls in it, then put the cotton balls in the habitat for the butterflies to eat from. I hadn't gotten around to buying cotton balls. I thought I had plain cotton make-up pads, but couldn't find those anywhere. I did have something made of clean cotton I could use, and it worked rather well...



Heh. If you can't quite figure out what those are, picture them with a string attached.

The next morning the kids and I are hanging out eating breakfast and Grace exclaims that there are more butterflies in the tank. I do a head count and sure enough, there are two more. We blink and a third has emerged and is shaking out his/her wings. We turn our attention to the last chrysalis, and it is definitely wiggling. As we watch the butterfly's head pokes out and then whoosh! It's out! It happened so quickly I didn't have time to grab the camera. I would have loved to have gotten video of it.



On Saturday our butterflies entered what is now referred to as their "experimental college days". They discovered their mating drive and man alive did they ever act on it. We had been discussing when we were going to set them free, and decided that since they had been mating we should probably get to it sooner rather than later...we wanted them to be able to lay their eggs. Since we were going out to my parents place on Sunday for Father's day, and they have a lovely garden, we opted to release them there.



I took the screen off and we waited for them to take flight. They left in pairs mostly, except the last two. One took off and the last one had to be encouraged to move on (I took a stick and let him climb on, then transferred him into the garden. He did fly off to rest elsewhere though, so I think he's fine).

All in all, it was a great experience. I look forward to next year :)

In which we meet a Real! Live! Mermaid!

Friday June 8th was World Oceans Day so the kids and I got up early and headed over to the Maritime Museum of the Atlantic...free admission and all sorts of really cool exhibits.

Our first stop was the Bedford Institute of Oceanography table, where the kids got to explore rocks and sand and got to watch a webcam streaming live from the harbour, in a spot not too far from our house. The staff working the table were awesome, great with the kids and even managed to get Cam involved in the display (no mean feat, seeing as he was really into his role of "moody tween" that day. He also managed to dodge almost all of the pictures I took. One day that kid is going to look at our family albums and complain that we never got any pics of him at family things and I will pull out all the blurry shots of him running out of view).



From there we said hi to Merlin then headed into the main gallery. The big draw for us was Raina, the Halifax Mermaid. She did not disappoint.



I knew Grace would be excited, but I was pleasantly surprised at how into Gabriel was. She gave the kids a little treasure, Grace chose a sea shell and Gabriel chose a smooth green stone which he clutched in his hand the rest of the visit. He even went up later and quietly asked if she could put mermaid sparkles on his face. He was fascinated by her, and it was wonderful to see.

(Frankly, I was too. If you click through to her website you see that you can hire Raina to do birthday parties. Highly tempted to have myself a mermaid party this year.)

(And I have no idea what Cam's thoughts on the mermaid were. Again, moody tween is moody. At one point I told him if he didn't at least try to become engaged in what we were doing I would make a big deal of hugging and kissing him right there in public. He got a bit better after that, lol)

We wandered around the museum a bit, then the kids played with some dead fish



Then we headed outside where we ran into some other home schooling families. We checked out the exhibits outside, collected all sorts of pamphlets and booklets and posters and stickers, chatted with all sorts of interesting people and learned some cool things.

And got pictures with a giant lobster



All in all, a pretty great day out with my kids. The definite highlight was meeting the mermaid. I mean...it's a mermaid. A real live mermaid. Awesome.

Moving out, moving in, moving on.

We moved house last weekend.

Phil and I had grand intentions of sorting through our belongings and sending away the things we don't need. We have a lot of stuff, which is expected in a household of 7. We spent about a month slowly packing away all our things, then a week frantically packing things, then a couple days shouting "Just throw it in a box, I don't care we'll sort it out when we get there!!!" Things didn't exactly go to plan is what I'm saying.

See, just over a month ago my husband came down with mono. Which sucked, he was so sick. Bad timing, since he wasn't able to do much. Then as he mended, the twins decided now would be a super time to cut some teeth. Which meant that even with both of us home, only one of us could actually be doing anything since the other was busy holding cranky babies. Add in all the running around that's required for a family of 7, and man...time got away from us in a big bad way.

I thought back to when I was little and my parents bought our house. They shipped me off to go camping with my grandmother for a week or so. So I was off enjoying tenting, roasting marshmallows and generally enjoying the company of my Nan and other family...Mom and Dad packed, moved, unpacked etc. So I left the apt to come home to our house, set up and ready for living in.

My parents were geniuses.

Mom did take my bigger kids over night and then the twins too during the moving day, so that rocked.

Moving weekend also fell on recital weekend for Grace. So in the midst of moving I had to get her to rehearsal, and then Sunday was pretty much a write off as we attended her recital. She did fantastic, and just like every other year I teared up while watching her.

We also discovered that we have amazing supportive friends, without whom I would have been an absolute mess. I only cried once, they kept things moving forward, kept me from losing my mind. They rock.

So for the past week we've been unpacking, finding places for all the furniture and belongings, sorting through stuff to send it on it's way if we don't need it or want it. I've lost track of the number of trips to the Salvation Army drop off spots, or the number of bags and boxes of baby stuff we've sent in the direction of my brother for his wee boy. There's still a ton of things to go through, but the pile is dwindling, and that's a very good thing.

The new neighbourhood is fantastic. The kids already have friends, Grace has even already had a sleepover. There's lots of space to run around, playgrounds nearby and it's been awesome. I've made some friends too. I think we're going to be very happy here. We've gotten most of our things where they belong and it already feels like home.

The past couple weeks have been quite stressful and I tend to do one of two things when stressed...I knit or I bake. I ended up making 2 batches of chocolate chip cookies as I packed up some of our kitchen the night before we moved (I figured they'd been good for morale, lol) and the other day I cast off my Colour Affection shawl. It's soaking right now, I'll post pics of it later.

So that's us all caught up. I spent most of yesterday sleeping since it was the first day I didn't have a million and one things to do so I crashed hard. The kids have a few more activities and then they are done their extracurriculars for this school year and then all that's left is finishing up our schooling, then come on summer vacation.

It's good to be home.

This is getting out of hand...

We're getting ready to move and I've started packing by assessing what I have on the needles. Seems like a reasonable place to begin the process.

I've discovered that yet again, I'm a terribly unfaithful to my projects.

Let's begin with what's been on the needles the longest....

Laurel Jane's Cap (ravelry link), designed by Deb Barnhill, published in Beyond Toes

This is the second time I've knit this exact cap. But when I knit it the first time I didn't put the plastic in the brim and the result was that the brim laid flat over my face. Not terribly attractive. Or practical, since the brim covered my eyes. I tried to undo the kitchener stitch to insert a brim, but managed to unpick the wrong thread and had to rip back to the beginning and start fresh. It stalled out because Cotton Fleece is really hard on my hands. I only have the decreases left and I can't yet bring myself to pick it back up since it makes my wrists ache to look at it. I'll get back to it. Eventually.

Next up is Geodesic Cardigan

Not very far into this one I'm afraid. It's another re-knit. I had knit this yarn (Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light) into a simple top down raglan cardigan but got as far as dividing for the sleeves and realized that the needle was just too big and fabric too loose. This has fallen by the wayside since I had other knits to take care of.

Another sweater...this one is mystery knit along I was doing, the pattern is called My Honey.

I'm knitting it with knit picks shine, which is a cotton blend. So while I'm working on it almost every day, there is that element of hurt that comes with knitting cotton. Grace is eager to have her sweater, so hopefully I'll have this one done soon.

This next one is my "Purse Project", basically what I carry with me for moments when I have to wait or I have some random down time I can get in a few rows

It's knit with Schoppel-Wolle Sockenklecks basically it's been dyed after being knit into a scarf. You unpick the cast off edge and knit it from there. My goal is to knit up the leg until I hit the mid point of the scarf and then I'll start the second sock. I might pull it back a few stripes though to add more stitches per row so they'll fit my calves a bit better. They're fun and bright and I love them.

Also quite bright is my Hitchhiker

Knit with Wollmeise in the Flower Power colourway, it's bright and lovely. The knitting is simple, so it's great for tv watching. The colour is crazy, hence why a simple pattern is the way to go here. I think it will be lovely to wear in the grey winters we have in Nova Scotia.

On top of those pictured above I also have a colourwork scarf, a pair colourwork mittens, a pair of socks I'm sort of working out the design of as I go, and gloves for my brother that I've been working on for two years (gloves are fiddly as fuck).

So I really had no business casting on something else yesterday out of these yarns

Tanis Fiber Arts Blue Label Fingering Weight in Atlantic (grey blue), Tidal (light blue) and Peacock (tealish blue), and it's on it's way to becoming a Colour Affection, which judging by the number of projects and times queued (2551 and 5767 respectively as of this writing) this the new viral pattern. It's simplistic and addictive and I'm already done the first section. I can't wait to see how the colours I've chosen come together.

I justified starting this new one because I finished these

Rogue Roses knit with Socks that Rock lightweight in "Gertrude Skein"

I'm practically sitting on my hands trying not to cast on for a sweater with the Cascade 220 in a lovely shade of blue that I have waiting in the craft room. I think if I'm to stand a chance of getting any of these projects knit I'm going to have to pack up all the stash and patterns.

If anyone out there has Finish-it-up-itis would you kindly find some way of passing it on to me? If not, maybe you could come over and pack my house because clearly I have entirely too much knitting to do.

One Year

My twins turned a year old on Thursday, May 10th. On some level I'm still processing the fact that I am someone's mother, let alone the mother to 5 children, and my mind warps whenever I contemplate the fact that I have twins.

It's taken me a while to write out this post, mostly because I wasn't sure how I wanted to do it. I wish I could breeze into it and say "Oh their first year was so marvellous I'd do it again in a heartbeat if I could", but that simply isn't true.

Last year I had a c-section and recovery from that major surgery sucked donkey balls. My muscles are only now starting to work again. I have a scar from where they cut into my body and that freaks me out. Not that I had a c-section, that doesn't bother me. I needed it, my twins were in a very dangerous position and vaginal birth could have been disasterous. I had a great team who worked very hard to bring my babies safely into this world and who went above and beyond to make me feel at ease. No, it's the actual cutting that troubles me...a hole was made where one was not before. I'm still processing it.

Right after my twins were born I was hit with literally every single symptom Bell's Palsy can throw at a person. I had the paralyzed face, the weird effects on my voice, the watery eyes, the painful echo loud noises would make in my ears. My neurologist was almost impressed by it all, he'd never seen someone get ALL of the symptoms.

My body crashed and emotionally I went to hell. I dealt with horrible depression and anxiety, all while trying to adjust to my new role as mom to 5 children and all the extra work that comes with being a mother to twins.

But there were great moments too...my boys are gorgeous and interesting little people. My older children are amazing me every day. My husband is an absolute champion who pulled me up from the darkness and helped me through. I discovered that my friends really are there for me and love me for who I am. It was a real litmus test for those around me, and I was so happy and felt so cherished when the dust settled and they were all still there.

I did things I didn't think I would get around to doing...like finally getting my tattoo that I've wanted for years (a mermaid knitting. My husband designed it, it's beautiful), which was my reward for coming through to the other side of my depression.

I did things I never thought I would ever do...I cut my hair really short and dyed it a blue-black colour. I got into belly dance and at our student showcase got up in front of a room full of strangers and danced...with my belly out. Streth marks and all...and I felt amazing and beautiful and powerful doing it.

So while it would be easy to dwell on the negatives of the past year, I don't want to do that. It's over, we're moving on. But neither do I want to dismiss or hide what I went through. It shaped who I am now. And as I have said many times, talking about it keeps me accountable. I hid my depression for too long, and no one knew it was happening (I have a very good "social face"). By talking about it, I can't slip back into it, my support network won't let me.

I look forward to the good things the next year will bring. There are changes coming, and while they aren't the changes I was hoping for I feel good about them. Positive. I feel like I can handle anything that's thrown at me (Side note, confidential to Life...that was not a challenge).

Thursday evening friends and family gathered in our home to celebrate the twins turning one. There was food, presents, cake...and so much love.

And at the center of it all...babies covered in chocolate

About 4 or 5 years ago I bought a second-hand spinning wheel (a Louet S10, that I named Charlotte) and fell in love with spinning. I love how when the knitting gets too hard on my hands I can spin and be creative while using a totally different set of muscles. I love hand painted fibre and how it never spins up the way you think it will. I love looking over my handspun stash and seeing my progression as a spinner.

Oddly enough, I don't often knit with what I spin. It's almost as though the yarn is the finished product for me, needing no further crafting for it to be "done". I'm working on that.

Around 2 years ago my mom and dad bought a wheel for me from an antique shop. After looking it over, I realized it's probably not as old as initially thought, but the price was good regardless. Unfortunately, it wasn't something I could spin with as it was missing key elements, the flyer being the most important. I knew the wheel was in the Ashford Traditional style (probably not bought from that company, but built from those plans) and that I could purchase what was needed easily. While I half-heartedly shopped around for a flyer assembly, the wheel sat in the craft room...pretty to look at but largely useless.

Then a friend of mine got a homemade wheel with the same dilemma...needed a flyer assembly. She found one at a sort-of local yarn shop and got set up with her first wheel. Inspired by her, I got spinning on Charlotte and made some yarns happen. Then I got curious about her new flyer assembly. Not long after, my husband was scheduled to help his mom move, and his route would take him right past the shop. And we had just gotten our tax return...and mother's day was coming...

(side note...how awesome is my husband? He takes a side trip to walk into an unknown yarn shop and purchases a flyer assembly. I love that man)

Next dilemma...my wheel was a reddish-brown colour and the new flyer assembly was lighter natural wood colour. I always figured if I was going to get this wheel ready to go I would likely paint it. I considered stains and while talking to my friend Ann decided on blue. I headed to Home Depot and explained what I was doing to a very helpful staff member. He got excited about my project too and helped me choose all the supplies I'd need to make this happen.

And so began the spinning wheel transformation

Before:

I carefully took the wheel apart, taking pics of each piece and how it fit together and what screws went where. Even with the prep, seeing it laid out like this made me a little nervous

After an afternoon's and evening's work, all the parts where painted and sealed and waiting for re-assembly. The following evening I reassembled the wheel, assembled the flyer. I touched up the wheel itself and left it for another day to set.

And the result

is a beautiful blue wheel.

But I wasn't ready to congratulate myself just yet...what if it didn't work? Sure the parts all went round when I treadled but would it make yarn? My husband had said he was fine with me painting it and getting it ready, but I really shouldn't play with my new wheel until after Mother's Day since the flyer was my present But..he's not home right now I needed to test it.

Success!

So now I have two wheels and I am one happy spinner. I haven't named her yet, waiting for when I can really play. My wheel came with a lazy kate that I still need to paint (it should match after all). I have 4 old bobbins and 4 new ones to play with.

Happy mother's day to me!

The Poor Children of Knitters

Children of Knitters suffer many hardships.

To begin knitters are drawn to many colours and patterns, and this means that the hats and mittens and scarves of Children of Knitters probably don't match. The hat may be a shade of blue, the mittens pink, the scarf green.

The Children of Knitters are often seen wearing items that were made purely for the fun of it...sweaters with dinosaur spikes, hats that look like fish, scarves and mittens shaped like alligators.

The Children of Knitters are subject to over-sized woolen sweaters, because children grow fast and the knitter wants the knitwear to last.

The Children of Knitters are often overly warm as the knitter expresses their love in wool...dressing babies in lovely hand knit cardigans and bonnets and socks then wrapping the whole lot in a cozy blanket. In summer.

Not to mention having to compete with stash for storage space or hearing "Just one more row and then we'll head to the park" or having their knitter parent pull out a sock to knit during the recital.

But these humiliations are nothing compared to this...



The shame of being forced into a partially knit garment so Mom can take pictures for her Ravelry page.

Poor, poor Children of Knitters.

Mmmm....Nostalgia...

We've had a rough few days around here...the babies are sick with rotten colds again, this time filling their sinuses and making for a lot of goo. They're having difficulty sleeping, which means Mom and Dad aren't sleeping. Last night was especially fun as I sent Phil out to sleep on the couch since he had to get up early for work this morning while I tried to get the boys settled. It was a long night, I finally got them down and got to close my eyes at around 5am. I slept in 20-30 minute bursts until 9:30 when the girl child woke up and wanted breakfast.

So with very little sleep I was cranky. I spent the day surfing the net and knitting, and wiping wee noses. I felt like crap, and I started feeling lower and lower. This day needed a pick-me-up ending. But it had to be a good one.

This day called for cookies.

And not just any cookies...I got out my book where I've written down all my favourite recipes and found the peanut butter cookies from the Pillsbury Cookbook that lives in my mother's kitchen. That book is full of family favourites, but I think these cookies are the best.

When I was a kid I'd help Mom or Dad make them, and by "help" I mean that I was in charge of pressing them with a fork.



It's still my favourite part of the process.

When I was smaller, I'd watch the cookies through the window of the oven, waiting for them to be ready. As an adult it's hard not to sneak peeks



As a teenager, I'd bake them on my own sometimes and I'd have my nose in a book while they were in the oven. That hasn't really changed...except my book has an on/off switch now.

Other things have changed since I baked these as a kid...I now do all the measuring, though I'm not at all able to "eyeball" measurements as my Dad can (the man can literally toss flour and whatnot into a bowl and come out with perfect pie crust. It's his gift). I'm also fully responsible for clean up, which isn't nearly a fun as the baking or eating part.

Most importantly, I now have my own little helpers, eager to do the pressing, eager to watch the baking, eager to have a cookie still warm from the oven.

The best part hasn't changed though...



Mmmmm

Exactly like that.

Since my twins were born I've had moments where I look at them and think "they're sort of like puppies".

Not that they are covered in fluffy fur or have floppy ears or pee on the floor. But the way they sleep piled on top of each other or roll around on the floor all over one another.

The way they will totally bite you when playing with you, including creeping over and biting your unsuspecting bare toes.

The way they will nip at each other or pull on the other's hair.

However the Puppy Comparison really hit home the other day. It was the early part of the morning, when I'm buying snooze time by nursing the babies and snuggling them to keep them sleeping just a little bit longer.

I had been nursing Jude, and we'd fallen asleep. Luke had been on the other side of Jude. I woke to the feeling of tiny hands pushing at my breast and the sound of a determined baby.

I open my eyes to discover that Luke has woken up and decided it was his turn to nurse again. He pulled himself up and over Jude, smooshing Jude's head out of the way and was trying to get latched on. No regard for his brother...he saw exposed food source and went for it.

So yeah. Exactly like that. Puppies.

Hi there

I used to blog a lot. And I loved it. I'd post mostly about my knitting, showing off new yarns and swap packages and finished objects and chatting about my works in progress. Then along came Ravelry and the need to show off my knitting sort of fell away.

I had been toying with the idea of restarting my blog for a long time now. But talking about my projects and yarns seemed repetitive after sharing them on rav and occasionally on twitter. We started a home schooling journey in the last couple years and blogging about that on a knitting blog didn't seem right either. Other aspects of my life didn't really fit either.

So here we are, a fresh start for my blogging voice. There will be knitting content. There will be home schooling chatter. There will be stories about my kids and my husband and my life in general. I might get political (but I'll keep that to a minimum). I hope I'll be funny and interesting enough to keep you reading.

I can't promise that I'll post often. I have lots of ideas of posts I'd like to write but...I've also got 5 kids, two of those are babies and I'm home schooling the three older ones. I've got an awesome group of friends. I've got an amazing husband. I have all this yarn that needs to be knitted into things and fibre that needs to be spun into yarn so it can be knitted. Dudes...I am really busy. So posts might only ever get written in my head. Hell, this might be the only one that ever gets published. Who knows what will happen? I'm hoping to post regularly and maybe I can make it a habit.

I'm still working on how the blog will look. My husband is working on some artwork for the header, I'm tweaking the colours and the look. So don't be surprised if it looks different every time you pop by for the next little while.

With all that said...let's get started.