A great autumn day

Today we had the best day. We got up early (well, relatively speaking for a Sunday morning), picked up my dad, and headed north to Horseshoe Bend to the Thunder Mountain Line for a trip to the pumpkin patch. There was a little nip in the air as we got on the train. We made our way through the dining and snack bar cars, and found our seat. It was a short ride, maybe 20 or 30 minutes one way. But it was pretty neat. We followed the Payette river to the pumpkin patch in Montour, ID. Here's C and her Boppa checking out the scenery.

Once we got there, C got to pick out her pumpkin. She picked out Jack's too, because, well, he didn't really have much of a preference. Here she is with the winner.

Here I am with the 2 best kids in the whole world. Seriously. Don't even try and dispute this fact, folks.
And then we got back on and headed back to the station. Jack has just started to suck his thumb in earnest. But the whole hand seemed like a good idea this time. However, he might be in for a bit of a surprise if he chomps down too hard...his first tooth broke through today!!

Later this week...knitting. Yes, knitting. Hard to believe, given this blog's name is "Knitting on Call". It feels like there's been a lot more "call" than "knitting" in my life lately, but I hope to rectify that soon.

25 days already?

Yup...it's been awhile. I've been reading all your posts out there, but can't seem to ever find the time to sit down and actually WRITE something. So it's midnight. Everyone's asleep but me. I have nothing to keep me from this. Well, the camera is out in the car, and I'm not going to go out to get it, so no pics tonight. Let's see...in the past 25 days since my last post, I've made 2 trips to St. Louis and had a stint where I worked a grueling 11 days straight. There's been some, though very little, knitting. This is the first weekend that I've been home and not working since the end of September. I had high hopes of sleeping late, but my body seems to wake up at 6:00 these days, regardless. I did manage to fall back to sleep for a bit, but it wasn't what I had planned.

This morning we went to the farmers' market in Nampa. Earlier in the year, I made it almost every Saturday morning. Somehow, we slacked off over the past 2 months, which is too bad. I enjoy going, and at least looking at all the booths, if not actually purchasing anything. I imagine myself someday having a booth at a farmers' market, silly dream that it is. Today was the last day, and there weren't many vendors there. It was a little windy and blustery, but still pleasant. We did manage to score some great potatoes and homemade bread and jam. Plus a couple of little artichokes. They're on the menu for tomorrow night.

After we were done at the market, we headed to the Flying M for breakfast. I had apple cider and a pecan roll. There is nothing better than hot apple cider on a cold fall day, if you ask me. On the way back to the car, we stopped at the LYS, which is now expanding and including fabric as well. OH MY GOD...that is one beautiful space! It just further cements my goals of becoming a master seamstress as well as spinner/knitter.

Tomorrow should be a fun day. G, my dad, the kids, and I are headed up to Horseshoe Bend to catch the Thunder Mountain Line to the pumpkin patch. Catie is so incredibly obsessed with trains right now, that I'm anticipating she might explode with glee over this. Jack...well, he's getting more and more fun by the minute. He's getting more of a personality and sense of humor every day. He's definitely more of a clown than his sister every was. Sometimes my heart feels like it's going to explode, I love these kids so much.

Finally, the OFF haul.

So it's been a good 9 days since we've been home. OFFF was great. Unfortunately, I was there before I realized my camera's batteries had died, and I wasn't about to leave to go buy new ones. So at this point, I have no pictures from the actual event. I did take some pictures with my mom and sister's cameras, but I don't have those yet. Needless to say, the critters were cute. Seriously. Now I want Shetland sheep. There was lots of great stuff to buy, as evidenced below:

First stop...the Blue Moon booth. Where I snatched up 5 skeins of STR in various colorways. That and a few patterns. From there I bought a couple of shawl patterns from another booth.

We headed into the next building, where I bought a couple of books




And a rug hooking kit from Little House Rugs. I've tried this rug hooking thing over the past couple of days. I'm no good at it yet.

And speaking of a learning curve, I bought this
from Woodland Woolworks. I've been trying to master the spindle thing. As long as the yarn doesn't break, I do okay. But as soon as I have to join in new wool, I'm in serious trouble. But it's fun. And somewhat more portable that the wheel.

We also hit the zoo while in Portland, as well as the obligatory stop at Powell's bookstore. I can't even begin to tell you how much I'm in love with that store. It's probably good that its 400 miles away. Otherwise the checkbook would be in even more trouble than it already is.

But hey, we bought a scratch off lottery ticket tonight. And we won...$1. SWEET!

I've Been Chastised.

Tonight I went to my spinning guild. I haven't been there for a couple of months. Okay, maybe 3 months. At any rate, Carrie was there, taking pics for her blog. I made the comment that I haven't posted in awhile. Since September 3rd, as I was informed. At least someone out there cares. I know there are a few of you out there who still check on me from time to time. Thanks for putting up with my sporadic posts. But as I pointed out a few weeks ago...no apologies anymore.

It's been a busy fiber month. Saturday the 8th, I went to the Wool Growers day in the foothills in Boise. Usually this was held at a local winery, and was a fiber festival of sorts. This year the focus was much more on education. I showed up with my wheel and was directed to the children's booth. I bet nearly 200 kids took my Rosie for a spin. I was too busy to even take a picture. Thank goodness Kim was there.

This past Saturday was our local Indian Creek Festival. The spinning guild set up at the local museum, and we spun the day away. It was a gorgeous day for spinning. Here's Pamela and Pauline showing off their talents:
I also recently finished my modular scarf. Well, mostly finished. I still need to weave in the ends and block it. But apparently C decided she needed to model it one day. This picture just cracks me up every time I look at it. It's like she's striking a pose or something.

This weekend we're headed to Portland for the Oregon Flock and Fiber Festival. Yup, it's a good fiber month. If only EVERY month could be this way. Every day, for that matter. Eventually....

A Productive Weekend

I love 3 day weekends. Because, well, it's a 3 day weekend, folks. But then you go back to work and it's a short workweek too. Sort of a double bonus. Oh, the mind games I play to get through my week sometimes.

It was a great weekend. I finished a pair of socks on Friday night. Monkey socks in Glacier Teal from Mountain Colors.On Saturday, G took the kids for a couple of hours so I could work on trying to get the house organized and do laundry. So I started a load of clothes and tackled the dining room. In our house we have a little nook under a window where I keep my yarn and such. It's about 8 feet by 2 feet. Full of yarn and fiber and JUNK. I got pretty much all the yarn entered into Ravelry. I'm embarrassed at how much sock yarn I have. Probably enough for 20 pairs of socks. If not more. At any rate, it took 3 days, but finally, it's all organized. May I present to you "Wool Corner".

In the bottom bin is fiber. The second bin is generic yarn...worsted, lace, etc. The 3rd bin is all sock yarn. The top bin is notions, like needles, tape measures, and stitch markers. To complete the scene is Rosie and all her spinning paraphenalia.

The next project is to build a window seat for the nook. With more storage space. Because we don't have enough bookshelves.

I was on call on Sunday, but it was a pretty quiet night. Got some more laundry and such done. Monday my parents came over for dinner and we played a game of pinochle. Catie helped frost the cake.
Jack is about to start crawling. He gets up on his hands and knees and rocks back and forth. Plus he army crawls. He's 6 freaking months old. But it makes him tired.
This is actually from last weekend, when we went to Yakima to see G's mom and stepdad. But I haven't had a chance to post it yet. Ain't he just the sweetest thing?

Enjoy the short work week!

No going back now.

Well, after weeks of perseverating, I've done it. I've booked this. Just G and me. No kids. They're staying with Auntie Karlyn and Uncle James in Seattle. Holy Crap! Lots of knitting for me. Lots of Alaska for George. I'm so excited!! And it's only what, 9 months away?

In other news, I'm sure you've all heard the Larry Craig news. Eewww. Makes me a bit embarrassed to be an Idahoan. And in reality, being an Idahoan has nothing to do with it. Well, except that we've voted him back into office over the past 25 years. But the creep factor is unbelievable. I don't give a crap if you're gay. Or if you've every been gay. Just don't lie about it and make all sorts of blanket anti-gay statements. The whole bathroom stall, foot tapping, and worst of all, throwing your business card in the arresting officer's face and flaunting that you're a senator? That's beyond inexcusable, if you ask me. It's taking hypocrisy and the abuse of power to a whole new repulsive level. Resign already, Larry.

Real. Live. Knitting.

Where does the weekend go? Before I know it, it's Sunday night and I'm doing laundry for Monday morning. Time flies. It was a pretty good weekend. Saturday morning Jack and I met Kim for coffee and knitting. Jack was fascinated with Kim's bright red toenails. And Kim gave me a really cute felted bag as a b-day present (thanks, Kim!!) From there, we headed to my parents' house to hang out. I got a fair bit done on my sock (Monkey). You girls are right...it IS a fun pattern.

Catie spent the night, so we headed back this am for breakfast and to pick her up. I used my mom's washer to felt this:


It's the Marsupial Tote from the Stitch N Bitch book.

Funny thing about both these projects--they're both Christmas presents. Unfortunately, they're not because I'm so far ahead for this year. Oh no. They're from 2005 for the socks and 2006 for the bag. Just a wee bit late. But at least I'm getting them done.

If only there were more hours in a day. Or I could live on less sleep. Like 4 hours. Then I could get everything done I wanted to and still have time to hug on my babies. I'm considering cutting back on my work hours in a few months, but until then, do you think I could get one of those time traveling things like Hermione had in one of the HP books? I think it was the 3rd one. Then I could be in 2 places at once. If only...

Why do I always apologize?

Well, it's been a month since my last post. I always apologize and vow to do better. Then I post a bit more frequently for a week or two, then it's back to sporadic posts. I'm not going to apologize or feel badly. I've been busy. 2 kids. Working 70 hours a week (or more). A trip to North Idaho for a wedding. Time to drop that Catholic guilt thing. (If only I really could.)

But there has been knitting. Some spinning. And even a little sewing. I've been doing more reading too. I have a tendency to read non-fiction. I'm happy to report that in the past month, I've read 2 fiction books. And a couple of non-fiction. I've read the obligatory Harry Potter, but I read this too. A nice piece of fluff for a Saturday night.

Sunday G took the kids and I got to have an afternoon to myself. I think it's the first time since Jack was born that I haven't been at work or with one kid or the other for more than an hour. I met Kim, Margene, and Judy for coffee at the Flying M in Nampa. I started a new modular scarf, and tonight I started a new pair of socks.

The camera battery is dead, and we're out of AA batteries, so you'll have to make do with some kiddie pics that are already downloaded.

Here's Catie and her cousin Hannah at the wedding reception
And Jack sitting on daddy's lap just before the wedding. Hard to believe he's almost 6 months old.

I finally got my Mystery Stole started on Friday night. Oh..the saga. I had Friday afternoon off. So I went to the craft store to get beads. I picked out some very pretty ivory beads. Then rushed anxiously home to get started. I busted out the crochet hook I bought last week, just for thi purpose. Unfortunately, the hook was 13 cm long...not size 13. It's a size 12. The hook wouldn't go through the beads. So I decided to go ahead without beads. I got a few rows into it, then fell asleep. We went to Joann's yersterday, but they didn't have a size 13 hook, so I'm resigned to the no bead look. If I waited until my next day off to get a smaller hook, who knows when I'd get any more done? Here we have a whopping 35 rows of the stole.

I'm definitely not one of those people who has the clue finished within a day or two of it coming out. But eventually...

And in food news, this is our local meal of the week.
Tortillas: local tortilla factory in town
Eggs: bought at the farmers market in Nampa from a farmer that lives here in Caldwell
Veggies and potatoes: from various booths at the market.

Thank god for the Nampa Farmers' Market. I go basically every single week, and we load up on goodies. We have this little routine...walk partway through, then stop and have a lemon/blueberry scone, then carry on. I tend to frequent and support the same few booths each week. I hope that the Caldwell Farmers' Market will eventually take off and become as successful as the one down the road, but it's on Wednesday nights from 4-7. Right now it's way too hot to be an especially pleasant experience.

And now, Jack's happy with daddy. Catie's in bed. I best be getting to knitting.

A Perfect Sunday/One Local Summer

What a great day. I was on call last night, and busy until midnight. Then things settled down, and I got some sleep. This morning we got up and went out to breakfast, went for a drive in the new car, then went to Ste. Chapelle for their Jazz at the Winery. We got there early, so were able to get great seats in the shade. As we listened to some blues, I was able to knit my swatch for the Mystery Stole. Then I read a bit. After we got home, I was tickled to find my invite to Ravelry. I'll have to somehow find a way to keep from spending ALL NIGHT on this site. I have no clean clothes for work tomorrow, plus I need to work on a project for the residents. I need to find some self-discipline.

I also am desperately behind in my posts for One Local Summer. This is our meal from a few days ago.

Roasted red potatoes and onions, a salad and fixin's, all from the farmers market in Nampa. I must admit, the chicken isn't local. Unfortunately, the same day I signed up OLS, we discovered our freezer in the garage had lost power, and we lost all of our meat. This is some chicken we've had in the freezer in the house that we needed to use up. But the pesto on it is from our local Coop. It's a start. We need to find a source for local beef/chicken. I'll keep working on that.

And now...the dilemma...laundry or Ravelry. HMMMMM....

G's Lucky Day

7-7-07. The day thousands of couples want to get married, as they'll have good luck and long and happy marriages. Well, today is the day G turns 38. So in honor of his birthday, we went to the yarn store. We walked out with $110 worth of yarn, none of it earmarked for him. See...isn't he lucky? His comment as he carried the bag out of the store was "YAY. Happy Birthday to Me!"

I felt guilty.

So I bought him this:


Just to qualify this...we've been contemplating buying a new car for a few months. And we'd done a fair bit of internet research and pretty much knew what we wanted. It's a Ford Edge. We bought it off the showroom floor. I've heard about this before, but never knew anyone to do it. Weird, huh? But this car is sweet...and now Catie and Jack's car seats won't be right next to each other. And we won't have to say things like, "Catie, get your finger out of your brother's mouth. Quit poking him in the eye." At least until they're older. Hopefully by then, he'll be big enough to fight back.

Back to the knitting, though. I have to admit to being a joiner. After I told myself I wasn't going to do any more knitalongs. I signed up for the Mystery Stole 3 after reading about it on Stephanie's blog. Me and about 2 billion other knitters. Including the girl at the counter at the yarn shop where I bought the yarn today. Misti Alpaca laceweight, in ivory. I'm on call tonight, but I'm hoping to get my swatch done in the next 24 hours. I'd like to use the beads as well, so I need to find a place to get those as well. But we'll start with the swatch and go from there.

But for now...we're loving that new car smell.

A New(ish) Look...Sans photos

I decided it was time to clean up the blog. Get rid of some of the outdated links/buttons on the sidebar. Maybe change the template and color scheme. Well, I deleted a bunch of stuff. On purpose at first. Then some other stuff that wasn't on purpose. So now I've been trying to put some stuff back on. So please bear with me as I try to jazz this thing up a bit over the next few days/weeks.

I'm also late for my One Local Summer post from week 1. Along those deleting lines, we had a moment at our house Saturday night. I had started to post about our local meal, and couldn't find the pictures anywhere. Just before that, G had deleted a bunch of pics from the camera. Something about too full or too slow or something. But alas...no pictures of the meal. And even worse than that, no pictures of Catie's birthday party.

G: "I thought you saved them."
Me: "No, I thought YOU saved them".

I'm happy to report, that as of midnight last night, the pictures are back. The local meal. Catie's birthday. Old pics from months ago. All of them. We had to download some free software and buy a $20 card to read our camera's memory card. But it worked...we somehow recovered our accidentally deleted pictures. Best damn $20 we've spent in a long time. Thank goodness for Best Buy.

So, that's about all for now. I'm going to try and learn how to spice this site up a bit. Any tips?

2 years ago today...

Here's what the first day of summer means at our house:

2005:
2006:

And now 2007:
We'll have a party on Saturday at Grammy and Boppa's house. But today's the big day...

Happy Birthday Catie!

Am I being fickle?

I have a new love interest. Yes...I'm contemplating cheating on knitting and spinning with a few hobby. Here's a hint:
Lately I've been enamored with sewing. Or at least the idea of sewing. Granted, I haven't actually SEWN anything yet, but I went shopping today. I went to the local quilt shop here in Caldwell. Cindy's Quilt Shop. What beautiful fabric and colors. I was overwhelmed. Kind of like the first time I went into a yarn store. I walked around for probably 30 minutes before I decided on these 2 fabrics.

I bought a yard of each fabric, and think I'll start with a tote bag. Way back in the day, I took home-ec in 4-H, and I had a brief stint with quilting a few years ago, but it's been awhile since I've even taken the sewing machine out of the case. I am on this kick where I want to make the kids' clothes. Yeah. Right between my 12 hour days and 14 hour call nights.

Basically, what this is coming down to is I think I want a lifestyle change. I love my job most days, but I would love being home with my kids more. I want to be home to fix them lunch and dinner and bake cookies with them. There's no way I could quit working, but I would love to scale back and be a "homemaker/mom" type. 8 or 10 years ago, I would have died if I could hear myself saying this. And now my priorities have shifted more than I ever though possible. Mommy guilt? Reminiscing for the the "good ol' days" when I was a kid? I don't know. I just know that I wish things could be different right now. Any advice from working moms out there?

Since I finished the socks last week, I didn't cast on anything for several days. I finally decided on one of the hand towels from Mason Dixon Knitting. It's in white Euroflax yarn. I'm a whopping 10 rows of so into it...not enough for a decent picture. It called for size 5 needles. I had some Addi Turbo Lace needles sitting around that I hadn't used yet. Dang, those things are sharp!! I definitely need to find a good lace project to put them to use.

I've been spinning more lately. I've been spinning up some Targhee wool that was dyed by Mountain Colors. I bought it last summer when we were in Montana. I've only had it on the wheel for 10 months. Sheesh. I'm horrible, aren't I?

And in kid news, Jack is now over 14 pounds. At 3 months old. He's 27 inches long. Well over the 100th percentile for length. The problem is that he's now over the recommended maximum length for our car seat. So we're gonna have to go fork out some bucks for a new convertible car seat. Check him out...doesn't he look so serious?










We went to a wedding Friday night. Here's the pair of them all dressed up and ready to go:


and here's Catie looking up the church steps. It's her movie star look, I think.




Doesn't it make you sick how crazy proud I am of my kids?

Belated yarn purchases

I think I go through blogging spurts. Obviously this is a spurt, as there's an unprecedented 2 posts in 2 days. I never got around to posting pics from vacation...So 6 weeks ago, right before I went back to work, we went to Portland and the Oregon Coast. We spent several days in Depoe Bay, a little town between Lincoln City and Newport. One day, we went shopping in Lincoln City. G went to the kite and toy shop, and I went to
Nestucca Bay Yarns across the street. When I'm on vacation, I try to buy stuff I can't find at home. So I bought several skeins of 2 ply from Imperial Stock Ranch, in Kingfisher Blue.

My plan is to make the Neck Down Jacket from Knitting Pure and Simple. Yes, yet another pattern from them. I swear I'm going to branch out, but I keep coming back to their patterns. Simple and easy to follow directions.

The same day, we also visited Yarn for all Seasons in Newport. There, I picked up a couple of skeins of Socks that Rock in Downpour.

Vacation was wonderful, and I hated to come home. My sister and her little boy came from Portland to spend a few days at the beach with us. Here are Catie and Danny enjoying the weather and the beach.
















Next trip, we're pondering it being a "grown-up only" trip, and leaving the kids at home to stay here. But which room to choose from??

Time flies. I think it hasn't been too long since I posted, and I look back and it's been 3 weeks. I just finished a week from hell. We rotate a week at a time working in the hospital, and it was my week. My first since coming back from maternity leave. Lots and lots of patients and admissions every day. I'd come home and my mind would be racing for a couple of hours. So I'd try and knit (when the kids cooperated), just to try and settle down.

Goldfinger was sheared this week. Unfortunately, I was at work, and so couldn't get any pictures during the process. But since it's over 90 degrees, this week, I'm sure he appreciates the haircut. I'll get some pictures of him with his new haircut soon.

But I DO have pictures to show. I actually finished something. For real!! There hasn't been a lot of serious knitting time since Jack came along. But here we have it:


Vital stats:
Pattern: Bed Socks from Knitting Vintage Socks
Yarn: Socks that Rock in Red Rock Canyon (lightweight)
Needles: Size 2

It was a fun and easy pattern, once I looked up a better way to knit 3 together. Trying to actually knit 3 together was killing my hands, and I seriously thought about giving up on the pattern. I googled "knit 3 together". I can't find the link now, but basically you knit two together, slip it back to the left needle, lift the 2nd stitch on the left needle over the one you just slid back, then slip the stitch back onto your right needle.

And in other news, Jack is getting more and more fun. The smiling and giggling and cooing is just too damn cute for words. Well, except maybe these words:

I found this shirt on etsy and HAD to buy it. I actually bought 2 of them...one black and one white. Makes me smile every time I see it on him. Both because it's funny and because I'm proud of nursing him into one chunky healthy boy.

Happy Mother's Day!

This is my second mother's day as a mom. Last year I got pearl earrings. This year, we loaded up the truck, rented a 2-horse trailer, and headed north to Yakima, WA. Catie thought she'd try and drive. Unfortunately, she couldn't quite reach the pedals, so G was forced to drive. And I was forced to knit. The horror.

Anyway, Yakima is where G's mom and step dad live. And their friend Diane, with her herd of...

ALPACAS!

Yes...we have entered the world of alpaca farmers. Diane made us an offer we couldn't refuse. We'd never get a deal like this again. So without further ado, meet the boys.

First we have "Handsome"
And then "Goldfinger"
And "Thunder Bear"
And last, but not least, "Imperial Gold"
Here they all are in the trailer before we took off.

We all survived the trip home in one piece. The alpacas are settling into the pasture nicely tonight. The sheep are a little freaked out, but they'll survive. I think G and I are more freaked, though. We've been thinking about doing this for a year or more, and now that we've gone and bought them, I'm nervous. Noy true buyers' remorse. Just nervous about the unknown. There'll be a steep learning curve, but it'll be worth it. Just think of all that lucsious fiber.

Happy Mother's Day (what's left of it) to all you moms out there.

Brief updates

It's been about a month since I've posted. Sorry, but life intervenes.

I've been back to work for just over a week. Blech. It sure is hard leaving Catie and Jack every morning, but we're incredibly fortunate that G can stay home with them and be Mr. Mom. I think he probably has to do more adjusting than anyone. Work is going well, and he brings Jack every day at lunch so I can nurse him. So I still get to see the kids quite a bit.

We had a great time at the coast 3 weeks ago. We went to the Newport Aquarium, had fun on the beach, and bought some great yarn. I'll try and post some pics over the next week.

This weekend, I have this afternoon off. So we're headed to visit G's mom and stepdad in Yakima, WA. But that's not all we're doing. Check back on Sunday/Monday for the full update. Lets just say...the sheep will have some company in the pasture. Kim and Heidi know, but noone else does. Hmmm....

More kiddie pics

I haven't been knitting much at all. But tomorrow we're headed out on vacation, first to G's mom and stepdad's in Yakima, WA, then to the Oregon coast and Portland. G drives and I knit. It's quite the arrangement we have worked out. So I wound up some new STR to start a new pair of socks on the road tomorrow. I've lined up a couple of stores to hit while we're at the coast. Plus we'll head to Powells (the best bookstore EVER...I swear). I'm really looking forward to this trip.

But in (sort of) knitting-related news, Catie has "learned" to knit. It basically consists of her sticking needles into the ball of yarn, but it was too damned cute to not take pictures.

And in Jack news, he's continuing to eat . And eat. We're now up to just over 11 pounds.

Doesn't look like he's missed too many meals, eh? If only he would figure out he ought to eat more during daylight hours, and use those night time hours to let mom and dad get some sleep. He's still a little backwards of the sleep schedule, but we're getting there. That's what I'm telling myself anyway.