Garden Song

A lovely little pick me up:


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D3FkaN0HQgs

Garden Planning

I spent the morning planning my garden and ordering seeds for this year. I am so very excited and I want to play out in the dirt and sunshine. Unfortunately, this is what my garden looks like at the moment.


A couple of days ago it felt like spring and then we had another snow storm.

My poor little gnomes.



They had to huddle together to stay warm.




I am so antsy to plant my spring crop. Just a few more weeks, hopefully...

Rebirth

There is a restlessness inside of me, a stirring. It makes me uncomfortable and hopeful all at once. I feel like my tulip and daffodil shoots, struggling to break through the ground; reaching up to the light, being reborn.

All of the pictures I have been taking have been with my little point and shoot digital camera. It is a Fujifilm FinePix A500. It has been a loyal friend but I am ready for more.

My father was a photographer. He taught me all about lighting and composition and feeling the art of photography. He bought me my first SLR when I was twelve. It was a Minolta XG-M that he picked up at a pawn shop in Portland. I loved that camera and we spent a lot of wonderful time taking pictures. When I was fourteen he brought a Minolta X-700 home for me from the same pawn shop. My first couple years of High School I spent in the dark room. Photography was my passion and I loved the dark room and the magic I worked inside of it. I belonged.

My father died the middle of my junior year and so did my interest in photography. It hurt too damn much. During my senior year I took another photography class and I enjoyed it but the passion was lost, buried like my dad.

Over the years I have taken loads of pictures of my babies. All of them have been with point and shoot cameras. I have basically just been recording events and milestones.

Last fall I participated in a fantastic online writing/photography class from Persisting Stars. I fell in love again with taking pictures. Next week I will be starting the Unravelling course. It is another online photography/writing class. My little digital camera will suffice, but I want more. I want to create, not just document. I pulled out my old Minolta's and they do not work. The XG-M is just dead and my X-700's shutter will not release. It is locked up. I will be sending it out this weekend to be repaired and I am giddy with the thought of actually creating beauty with photography again.

I feel the passion once more.

Winter Wednesday Challenge #1

We are getting back into the swing of things with our Nature Study. Our first activity of the new year was the Winter Wednesday Challenge #1. We went out into our backyard and looked at how the color of things differed in winter. The white of the snow really allowed us to see the contrast.

Happy Birthday my bug!

Jack is 12 today. I cannot believe my first born is so old. He loves hunting with his dad and playing video games. He is so patient and sweet with Hannah and he always asks if I need anything. I am enjoying him immensely!

Poor Nutkins

I tried, really I did. The nutkin sock is just not progressing. Every time I try to work on it I just get frustrated and I want to banish my children to their room. I cannot concentrate on the pattern when I have children constantly talking to me and climbing in my lap and needing me to put the knitting down for a minute to help them with something. I do not want to be frustrated with my little ones. They will only need me so much for a short time.

I adore the yarn so I think I am going to RIP it and them just knit plain stockinette socks with it. I will save more difficult socks for when the children are older. I am ok with this. :)

Weekend knitting

John is elk hunting today and he needed an orange beanie so I whipped this hat up. I knit almost the entire thing on Saturday. I only had a few rows to finish it up but my hands were aching so I went to bed and finished it up on Sunday.


pattern: LTK Pumpkin Hat
yarn: Lion Brand
colorway: Orange
needles: US 4 & 6
modifications: I did not knit the green stem on top.

And-

My Very Own Shiny Sock Club (MVOSSC) November 2009

I totally stole the yarn and pattern idea from the Yarn Harlot. Nutkin socks and Dream in Color Starry yarn. My colorway is November Muse.

Finally!

I have finally finished the socks I started for myself forever ago. I love them and am so happy to actually have knit a pair for me!


pattern: Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Pattern
yarn: Socks That Rock Lightweight
colorway: Rainforest Jasper
needles: US 2

My Very Own Shiny Sock Club (MVOSSC)

I love the idea of sock clubs. The new yarn and pattern all put together just for you. I have never joined one though because I have very definite ideas about what yarn fibers and colorways and patterns I love. I only knit plain socks. I have knit one pair of ribbed socks for Krull and the rest have all been simply stockinette socks. I adore stockinette socks. While there are a few here and there that catch my fancy, I find most patterned socks unappealing.

In an effort to capture the joy of sock clubs for my self and to broaden my knitting horizons, I have decided to make my very own shiny sock club. Each month (or two or three) I will choose a yarn (either from my stash or somewhere else) and a pattern (or not, some may end up plain) and knit. I am very excited about this! I have already chosen the pattern and yarn for November and will start as soon as the yarn arrives. It is absolutely beautiful and I cannot wait for it to appear in my mail box!

Curtains

I made these curtains for the children's room. They were inspired by The Handkerchief Curtains in Handmade Home by Amanda Blake Soule. I bought this fabric 6.5 years ago to make a ragged quilt but it never happened. The curtain is a tan flannel and the patches are cotton. I love them and so do the little ones! This is a picture of the little window in their room. There is also a much bigger window that has two of these panels hanging on it.

Moths!

Horrific little buggers! I have been seeing a few moths here and there the last month in our house but I just thought they were coming in from outside because someone is always leaving the door open. Last week I found a couple of wormy things in a ball of my yarn and went berserk. I looked through everything else I have and never saw anything even remotely suspicious. Still though... I had Toby throw away the infested ball and then I managed to stuff a third of my stash in the freezer. I have been rotating stash through and haven't found any evidence of bugs. I didn't realize I had so much yarn. It is a beautiful thing.

Use of creative space

One of the assignments this week in the class I am taking is Creative Space. I had a lot of fun with this one. I enjoyed making use of creative space. Instead of just laying my knitting on my bed and snapping a shot to make a record of my knitting I really thought about things. Autumn is my very favorite season and I wanted to incorporate the season with my warm woolens. We have this tremendously colorful climbing plant all around our front door. The wind was blowing something fierce and I was afraid that the picture wouldn't turn out well but it did and I adore it!

These socks are for John. He wore them duck hunting on Thursday and loves them so!


pattern: Yarn Harlot's Basic Sock Recipe
yarn: Patons Classic Wool
colorway: Dark Grey Mix
needles: US 7

Self Portrait

These are my comfort books, my old friends. I know them and they know me. The yarn is my favorite (that I haven't knit up yet) at the moment.

I am taking a fabulous photography/writing e-course from Persisting Stars. Th course is Persisting Stars ~ Yes! http://www.persistingstars.com/e-courses/

Autumn smiles

"Delicious autumn! My very soul is wedded to it, and if I were a bird I would fly about the earth
seeking the successive autumns."
- George Eliot

Happy Birthday my Autumn girl!

Christy turns ten today. I cannot believe how much she has grown. She is beautiful. She is passionate about life. Christy loves to read and knit and write and study herbs and laugh. She is so much like me but with an infinite amount of joy. She still loves to play with dolls and takes such good care of her little brother and sister. Christy wants to be a Healer or Midwife when she is grown. She wants lost of children and she wants to homeschool them. She is an amazing girl who I am extremely privileged to raise.

Happy Birthday baby!

Thursday knitting

We usually take the children out on Thursday's but with Toby sick and all we ended up staying home. I knit and alternated between being The Loving, Cuddling Mama and being The Mean Mama. Toby would rather lay on the couch and die than drink when he is sick. He has been running a fever (all gone now) and I just couldn't let him get dehydrated. This means I had to stay on him about drinking water. I have actually been The Mean Mama for several days but he is alive and on the mend and actually drinking water without me nagging him.

These socks are for John. The totally amazing thing is that I cast on this sock yesterday and got this much knit in only a couple of hours. That is what happens when you use worsted weight yarn and size 7 needles. LOL!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #10 Picnic

Last week we took the children out to Cedar Valley where John grew up. We had a picnic up at the rodeo grounds. John spent many, many days and nights here playing with his friends. After our sandwiches were finished we hiked a little more than a mile up behind the rodeo grounds. It was so peaceful! The scrub oak was beginning to change colors and the little ones had so much fun!

Outdoor Hour Challenge #3

Two weeks ago we took the children up to Strawberry Reservoir to the visitors center. The kokanee salmon were spawning and we wanted the children to get a chance to see them. Kokanee salmon are fresh water salmon and silver when they are young. When the salmon are mature and ready to spawn they turn red and green. We went up on a Thursday and it was cold! The wind was blowing and there was a slight skiff of snow. Luckily for us that meant that nobody else was up there. We really do not like crowds. We knew we it was pretty late in the season but apparently it was the last day. The Fish and Game wardens were up there and one of them came over and started telling us all about what they were doing and how the fish were faring. It was so much fun! We asked all kinds of questions and had a blast. Thank you to the lovely Fish and Game department.

It was absolutely beautiful up there! I took a bunch of terrific pictures:






















Jack's picture of the salmon:


Christy's picture of the salmon:


Toby's picture of the salmon:


Hannah's picture of the river and salmon:

Happy Birthday Muffin Man!

My little Tobias turns six today. My beautiful boy, my muffin man. Tobias is a sensitive soul. He loves to garden and be outside. He loves blocks and can spend hours building things. Toby loves trains and hiking and digging in the dirt. Toby has requested my homemade mac and cheese, and rolls for his birthday dinner.

Yesterday he started feeling sick and fell asleep in my bed late afternoon. I checked on him a few times as he was sleeping and realized he was running a fever. Poor little guy. Our elderberry glycerin is finished so Toby had the honor of being the first to try it out. He loved it and the other children were very excited to see what it tastes like (raisons, in case you were wondering). He slept well and is feeling a lot better today. Still a bit bright eyed and flushed, but better.