Hiatus

With all of the craziness happening in the 4-6 weeks my blogging here will be sporadic. We’re busy right now getting ready for a garage sale. Most of what’s being sold are the kids’ baby clothes – it was hard to put price stickers on some of those teeny tiny clothes. *sniff*

We’re officially out of Potsdam on July 15th so that means once this garage sale is done we will be in mega packing mode.

Here’s a shot of Jonah and Nadia on Jonah’s 4th birthday having a “birthday hug.”

Nadia in a pirate kerchief amidst the everyday mess of our house.

Fiber Update Overload

I have a bunch of Finished Objects (FOs) to share with y’all. Some have been gifts, so I haven’t been able to share until recently.

First up is the top down seamless kimono sweater that I made for Nadia. The yarn is a bamboo/alpaca blend that is super soft with a lovely drape and sheen. I still need to block it BUT I don’t think I’m going to bother. She doesn’t like to wear it and I’m not too keen on the kimono aspect of it. The ties bug us both and I need to sew buttons.

This isn’t a garment that she needs in Florida and I just don’t feel that it’s good enough to gift to someone else. So I think I’m going to frog it and make a sleeveless dress for her instead. For my first sweater ever it wasn’t nearly as hard as I thought it would be.

You’ll notice on the sweater there is a felted flower pin. I made that for my grandmother for her 81st birthday.

Up next are my very FIRST pair of two-up, two-at-a-time, magic loops socks. This was a fun and challenging pattern. I’m not sure how I feel about the yarn – it’s Happy Feet which is not as expensive as some sock yarn, however, if I were to become one of those knitters who knits a lot of socks I think I’ll need to find a nicer base yarn for my projects. These were for my mom for Mother’s Day.

More on the sock front – I made these for my sister (pattern from a sock book that I can’t recall the name of right now) for her birthday and I got them out to her just a day or two late. Yarn was kettle-dyed Essential yarn from knitpicks and it was nice but (there it is again) I think some fancier sock yarn will be needed for future socks.
The toes aren’t crooked – I just put them on twisted when I was trying to snap a quick pic.

Currently in progress (UFO – haha) is a Spider-Man hat for Jonah. The kid is obsessed with Spider-Man. He’s getting nothing from us but Spider-Man stuff this year and I think he’ll be in little boy heaven.

In regards to spinning fiber, I’ve been a busy, busy bee. I had a brief flirtation with a Hitchhiker Wheel that I bought via craigslist. I thought it would be perfect for me. It’s portable, easy to store and many people have said that they can make anything from bulky to laceweight on it. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t the wheel for me.

I think that if you have some experience with spinning and you have a good, solid wheel at home, then the Hitchhiker is a great travel wheel. But since this was going to be my ONLY wheel and because it does have so many “quirks” that one needs to adjust to, it just wasn’t the time for me to own this wheel. I sold it a few days later on Ravelry. So long, Hitchhiker, I hardly knew ye.

I was spinning some lovely BFL combed top from Knit Knackers up in Ottawa. It’s all finished now and as soon as I’m done knitting up Father’s Day socks I’m going to knit myself a pair of socks with this yarn.

I had a great time spinning a fabulous BFL batt from my friend, Marilla. No photo right now but it’s an aqua green color with sparkles and super soft smooshiness. That was spun with the idea of socks too – maybe yoga socks.

Right now I’m spinning up a soft and light grey batt of BFL and mystery fiber (I think it’s Corriedale) for Peter’s Father’s Day socks. One skein has been washed and finished and the second skein is waiting to be rinsed and dried. Photos coming soon!

The wonderful person who is loaning me her Ashford Traditional just brought her Majacraft Suzie over yesterday so I could play. This is a swanky, lovely wheel and I thought that if I tried this one, then all other wheels wouldn’t be good enough for me which would be super bad for my wallet.

Things were going smoothly until I tried to change the drive band to a different ratio. Now the drive band keeps slipping and it’s making me a bit crazy. Maybe she and I have just gotten off on the wrong foot? I have a few more weeks to practice and to see if I can get things to even out. 5oz of fiber should about do it, right?

And finally, my latest project was a nuno felted scarf. Nuno felting is when you felt fiber to a open weave fabric. It was quite a bit of fun but I think the scarf I had made it more difficult than it needed to be. Apparently, silk gauze is the best fabric for this and I think my scarf was organza – much more difficult to felt fiber to. I’ll try to needle felt the parts that didn’t completely attach and see if that helps.

Because the fulling causes the scarf itself to shrink, I don’t think that this will end up being something that anyone can wear. It is quite lovely, however, as a small table runner.

I have 3 rolls of 220 film that are judging me severely for not having yet developed them. It’s on my list to do this week. Hopefully I’ll have some more b/w film photos coming up soon. Yay for you if you managed to make it this far!

The Future’s So Bright

They gotta wear shades.

The kids practicing for Florida early one morning.

Nadia in a cute dress.

Btw, I’m sorry about the “related” videos on Nadia’s most recent walking video. I have tried changing the title and adding specifc tags to get rid of the icky ones that come up but stupid youtube is still showing nasty vids after her video is over with. Next time I’ll be more specific. I really wish there was a different video uploading site that was more private (but still free).

Florida, Here We Come!

We had two weeks of interminable limbo and then hooray! Peter has a new job. We’ll be moving this summer down to DeLand, Florida because Peter got a job at Stetson University. We are sooooo excited to be moving down to warm weather and the beach!

Here are two of my special people on a lovely day up here in Potsdam – our warmest day yet at 85 degrees.

Nadia found her tummy.

She also thinks that the sweater I made for her belongs on her head.

She Walks!

Nadia has been taking a few steps here and there on her own for about a week. But every time I manage to get to my video camera, she plops back down and begins to crawl. Today I finally got her in action!

On The Road Again

We had some shocking and dismaying news today. Peter did not get the job at SUNY Potsdam for the 2009-2010 school year. That means that we will be moving again but as of yet we don’t know where. We could use everyone’s prayers and good wishes for a quick and easy job search; our 3rd year of searching in a row. Although I’m not thrilled at the idea of packing and moving again to a yet unknown location, I do hope that the next place has more options for me and my business and more things for us to do with small children.

This Saturday, my new 40d arrived in the mail. Since then, I’ve taken enough photos to fill up both my 2Gb and 1Gb card. Yikes! I hope I’ve narrowed it down enough to be bearable, however, this post will still be very photo-heavy. The camera is really very nice. The shutter has a great “ker-thunk!” to it that I would love to have in my 35mm film camera. The images are way sharper than my 300d but in the end, film is my one true love. Due to our upcoming move, I may have to sell this camera and it will be hard to part with.

Again, as always, I don’t know what the color on these is actually like since our laptop has a strong blue cast to it.

I really wish this one was film…digital b/w just isn’t the same.

Three Going On Thirteen

Jonah has had quite the attitude lately. He’s mouthy, he yells and he’s disobedient. He used to be so pliable and easy going. I thought all that brouhaha about the terrible two’s was an old wives tale. But I guess he’s making up for lost time. I had him in more time-outs yesterday than I think he’s had in his entire life. It’s the throwing himself out on the floor while weeping and screaming that really gets to me and I think ugh! How will I ever deal with a teenager?! I like to joke that when the kids hit 13, we’ll ship them up to their grandparents since they’ve gone through this once already and it should be a breeze for them. Hahaha!

Here’s the Drama Queen himself, in all of his silliness. Looks harmless, doesn’t he?

If one child is being difficult, then the other should be extra easy just to lighten the load, right? No, Nadia doesn’t subscribe to that philosophy. In fact, it’s my belief that she’s even more high-maintenance than Jonah was at this age. However, she also seems to have a larger vocabulary than Jonah did at age one. I’m going to bore you and make a list of all the words Nadia says. I’m a truly horrible scrapbooker (thank goodness for my mother-in-law and her wonderful scrapbooking talents) and I don’t take the time to write in baby books. This blog is the only record of things that they have done. Let’s hope the Internet doesn’t break!

At age one, Nadia says: hi, bye, mama, dada, night-night, more, mine, this, eye, book, uh-oh, wow – she also puts words together, usually “Hi Dada” or “Bye Dada.”

She signs: milk, more, sleep, please and plays peek-a-boo. When you ask her what a dog says, she barks. For a duck, she quacks. I’m sure I’ve forgotten a few. As I remember them I’ll edit this post and add them on.

She’s really close to walking on her own. She loves it when someone holds her hands and helps her run around the house and gets ticked when we stop. She’s a climber, too (unlike Jonah). She can climb up our very steep stairs (with someone following closely behind) and has already fallen down them (just a couple) and given herself a big bump on the head.

She eats everything. Fruit, veggies, fuzz. LOL. I call her my dustbuster because if there’s a piece of fluff on the floor (all of that spinning fiber and yarn around), she’ll pick it up and eat it. I’m surprised she hasn’t pooped out a sweater yet. Heh. Speaking of sweaters, I’m about 80% done with my first baby sweater for Nadia – a seamless kimono wrap sweater. I have one sleeve left, the tie and then blocking. Maybe I’ll have some FO photos next week!

Our perfect princess giving me her best “watch out world, here I come” look.

All four of these images are digital (GASP!!!). I’ve been thinking lately about getting a better DSLR since my 300d is broken (but marginally useable). I like the bigger files (compared to our digital point and shoot) and sometimes it’s just easier to go straight from CF card to computer without all of that film scanning in between. Our CPA was kind to us and we got a nice tax refund so that was the push for me to upgrade to a Canon 40d. It should be here sometime next week. Be prepared for photo overload!

If the color is wonky, there are two reasons. One, I’m a b/w shooter so color spaces confuse and irritate me; two, the color on our laptop has a decidedly blue cast and so I never know if the color adjustments I make look any good. We’re still looking into getting some sort of desktop and with any luck, we’ll have a decision made soon.

Spin Crazy

A wonderful friend of a friend loaned me her Ashford Traditional spinning wheel on Monday and I’ve been avoiding laundry, dishes, all cleaning and cooking in favor of spinning yarn. Poor Jonah and Nadia can only look at the wheel, not touch. Surprisingly, Nadia listens when I tell her no if she gets too close to the wheel. At least, she hasn’t broken anything yet.

Here’s the lovely wheel and a bobbin 2/3rd full of a soft and silky merino/mohair blend. I am have sooooo much fun! I don’t even have time to post on facebook, that’s how focused I am on this wheel. Sounds serious, eh?

I’m looking into buying a new DSLR (yay tax refund!) so I can start doing headshots up here at Crane. So I thought I’d take out my 300D again, even though the autofocus is broken and it gives me a double image. I like our digital point and shoot but the files on a DSLR, even my old-technology one, are so much better. Obviously, the optics are better and the sensor is bigger but I always forget that until I pick it back up again.

Anyway, here’s Nadia at naptime today.

Fresh M.I.L.K.

After coming home from knitting group last night, I opened an email from the Fresh M.I.L.K. competition telling me that I was one of 150 finalists and that as a finalist, I had won $500! How cool is that? I’ve been in quite the photography funk lately so this is such an awesome boost up!

This is the photo I submitted – it’s of my friend Carry and her daughter Cate when she was 3 weeks old. It will be published in a book, along with a short bio and headshot of me. I could hardly sleep last night and I’m still floating on air today!

Cowboy Junkies

Jonah got a cowboy hat as a present for Nadia’s birthday and they both looked so cute wearing it. Jonah even did a cowboy pose completely on his own.

I often have to wake Nadia up from her afternoon nap so we can go get Jonah from preschool. This does not make her happy.

And one of Jonah giving me a brief moment of stillness.