Two Black Sheep

Hommage

Ava is right, I lost my knitting mojo.  Or maybe my ability to blog about it.  I actually have a number of FOs to share, but they're the only things I haven't taken a photo of.  How is that possible?  I've falling in love with my camera.  I tote her everywhere.  I get giddy while editing pictures.  But knit photographs?!  That's absurd, Lola!  I'm still plugging along on Feather-Weight cardigan.  I'm on the first sleeve & my goal is to have it completed before my trip to NYC.  Yep, my job is sending me somewhere fun for once.  Not that I'm bashing Plainfield, IN or anything. . . 

I finally got around to buying a food mill.  Why did I wait so long?  I hate buying jarred applesauce because it is so easy to make.  A food mill makes it even easier.  I think that if I trusted Gus with a knife, he could make enough applesauce to feed our family all winter.  With applesauce under my belt, I gave tomato sauce a whirl.  I used the Fast Tomato Sauce recipe from "How to Cook Everything Vegetarian".  Not thrilled with the recipe, but more than happy with the ease of it!  I need to track down a good sauce recipe.  Any recipes, please share!

It's Halloween time in our house.  This year, SK has a partner.  Gus begged him to let him help decorate.  Skipped his nap because he was afraid that Daddy would start without him.  Here are some phrases that I'm hearing from the kitchen:

"Mommy should take a picture of this scary guy."

"A dead rat & a spider!!"

"Mommy shouldn't come out here.  It's too scary for her."

"This guy is a bad guy because he has body parts in a bucket"

Maybe Leather Face should go away until the boys are older.  I keep asking Gus what he wants to be this year & I get a different answer each day.  I counted on this so we're not making a costume until the last second.  I'm sure this is why our mother hates Halloween.   But Tuck is a different story.  He's still at the age where I can control most of his actions.  This year is the first year that I'm making a costume.  I have no good reason why I haven't in the past, but this year will be different.  Here's a hint. 

I'm not a fan of textures, but I thought it was appropriate.  There's a big piece missing, but the boys are good in the fabric store for about 30 minutes.  Not wanting to press it, I decided search my stash.

I'm off again for the road.  Quite frankly, I'm sick of her ass.

L

First Train Home

You know, Lola, sometimes I really hate it when you are right. This is one of those moments where I finally gave in and admitted that my sister did, in fact, know best. For the past three or four days, I have been agonizing - we're talking hand wringing, "the sky is falling", what the hell am I going to do agonizing - over what to knit for my Aran knitting class this weekend, and I've come up with nothing. Nothing. Hell, last night, I spent most of Knit Night working with Joanne trying to set up my own Aran a la EZ and still I was not happy with the results.

But . . . after talking to Lola today, I finally took her advice. "What about A Fine Fleece? There were some pretty nice Aran knits in there." Ummm . . . a book. A knitting book. A knitting book I've looked at for quite a while. A knitting book I've looked at for quite a while and always put down. Why? Why did I always put it down? Probably from the boxy look of the sweaters, their general lack of shaping, the necklines. You name it - I probably took umbrage with it. However, I bought it at Borders today. Know what? It still has tons of sweaters with boxy construction and is lacking all sorts of waist shaping . . . but I can make it work. The lovely Arans more than made up for it.

1. The Man of Aran Cottage., 2. (0379) Artiga de Lin, La Vall d'Aran, 3. aran scarf, 4. 224_Aran Islands (Ireland)

Lola has apparently lost her knitting mojo; I, on the other hand, have lost my photography mojo, hence the lame Flickr mosaic. I plan on taking an SLR photography class at our local vocational school, so I am hoping that it might reinvigorate me. Any suggestions for Lola?

The Flyer has the flu - not the flu - and has been home for the past three days. Whatever it is, it's knocked him on his ass. Hopefully he gets over it soon since someone (and I'm not going to say who, but he currently has the flu) turns 40 in a few days . . . which means I have some birthday planning to do.

Ava

All Day and All Night

We're busy getting our Fall started the only way we know how: Camping!  SK is obsessed with making Play Lists.  I'm nutty about finding campfire knits.  I never like to take something that will suck in the campfire smell.  This rules out big projects that I won't finish within two weeks after the tent has been stored.  I usually bring socks, but  I wanted something else this year.  When the Girls were visiting, I picked up Hat Heads.  This has been the first knit book that has gotten me really excited!  I can't remember the last time I bought a knit book.  I've been bored by recent pages.  I'm not sure what this book did to excite me.  It's full of simple beanie styled hats.  How difficult is that?  But I like the concept of knitting for friends.  Hats are a quick knit & there's nothing better for an uninterested Knitter.  So I promised the Girls hats.

I'm using Rowan Felted Tweed for both hats.  And true to form, this hat is completed!  Charted knits fly off my needles.  Watching the pattern form keeps me knitting when I should be sleeping.  I need to stop at the yarn store & grab another ball for the second hat.  With the second hat, I'm going to knit a little longer hat.  If that looks & fits better, I'll rip out this one and add some length.

Happy Labor Day!

Lola

p.s. Felted Tweed might become my favorite yarn.  Watch out Cascade.

New Round

School was back in full swing yesterday for me and for the girls. Granted, I was done with my day by the time that Veronica began her classes, but I'm pretty sure that we survived the first day (and there seems to be a ton of "first day" posts on Facebook). It was an interesting day for me at school because we have two new teachers on our team, I have a new room mate (who is one of the new teachers), one of my best friends is in a different building, and the girls are off on their own new adventure. All of that would seem to cause some type of commotion, but the day was pretty much "hitch" free. Sure, there were some minor issues but nothing that can't be solved relatively easily. By the time I got home from school yesterday, I was so knackered that the 20-minute "power nap" - that means the nap I intended to take was rudely interrupted by my neighbors shooting paint guns and I work up - was greatly needed. There must have been twenty or thirty families waiting at various bus stops to pick up their elementary kids . . . odd that I won't have that "luxury" anymore.

Dropping the girls off at school was technically easy as Temple appears to have this down to a science, but emotionally it was challenging. Some how we fit everything into the car (still unsure how that happened other than to say that I must have raised exceptional packers) and were down to Philly by 8:30 AM, unloaded by 8:50 AM, and pretty much unpacked by 10:30 AM. After a trip to Walmart, Super Fresh, and Best Buy, the Flyer and I were ready to head home . . . by ourselves. I did fine until I made it to the parking lot and then there was a lot of looking up to avert the tears and deep exhalations. Tears? Of course . . . but not as many as I had planned. Maybe it was good that I had planned for the worst because it didn't happen. I think Lola put it best: this was our job - getting the girls to this point in their lives - and we did our job. We aren't going to retire, but our job description has changed dramatically. We can't be there 24/7 to make sure that things are getting done properly, but we can hope. We can't tell the girls what they ought to do, but we can dream. Hopes and dreams . . . that's all we have.

Knitting? Not a lot getting done, but I did finish a Christmas stocking the other day . . . I just have to take photos. My photos are really getting me down lately. I just can't seem to get "the" photo that I need. Our local vocational school offers adult education classes, one of which is in photography with SLRs . . . thinking I might need to sign up for a class.

Ava