Of certain things we shall not speak...

Namely the mossy cowl I was making for my sister that #3 got his sneaky sticky little toddler handses into whilst I was making lunch. It's very bad. So bad I had to stuff it's lovely laceweight alpaca/mohair/silk self back in it's bag and bury it because I simply cannot bear to attack it with scissors at this time. It's that bad.

My head temporarily exploded and said sneaky toddler was put in the protective custody of his crib until I could gather all the pieces and work superglue magic putting it all back together again...where he mercifully fell asleep.

So whilst softly singing "lalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalalala" and rocking back and forth I have wound up a lovely ball of rainbow sea wool to make this whilst I try no to think of the bag at the bottom of the pile behind the living room chair.

Yes Virginia, it's THAT BAD.

Loom Stalker...that's me!

Oh for joy of having new toys! Have spent spare minutes today Googling loomy things. Oh for joy:

eLoomNation has fabo vintage Weave-It .pdfs...and other great info on little looms in general. Love them.

Then there's the Buxton Brooks website. How great is a company founded after finding loomy gold in your grandmother's attic??? Literally found Weave-Its and decided they were too good to be extinct, so now they make Weavettes. Love them.

Weavies in MN!!! Oh for quilt-like joy!!!

StitchDiva Studios of course has wonderful hairpin lace tutorials and patterns. DROOL.

Going for "Maltese Crochet" landed me serious vintage fabulousness at Iva Rose Vintage Reproductions

Oh now I have so very many more projects dancing in my head...oh for serious joy!

Thoughts on a more self-centered holiday

There's a definitely trend and pace to the holiday season for me. I give and give and give and do and do and do for everyone around me. Baking treats and giving the perfect gift makes me inordinately happy. I always, always, always plan way too much and spend the 2 weeks before Christmas crashing into the brick wall of reality. I sleep less. I crab. I grouch. I wear myself waaaaaaaay too thin trying to do about 5 million more things than would be possible even for Martha.

...and usually end up sick and miserable.

So this year I have approached the holidays with a deliberately conscious train of thought: Do less. Say No. Think me.

I know, I know...so not "in the spirit of the season", but frankly that drat spirit was trying to kill me. This is working so much better.

I said no to cookie exchange craziness. I chucked a half-made blanket for #1 out of the queue entirely weeks ago in lieu of some fortuitously stashed Playmobil. Same for the spiral hat for #2. Fortuitously stashed trains fill that void. (yes, I am now seeing the beauty of buying on clearance throughout the year even if we don't need it right now. this toy stash thing is gold.) I took time out from baking last week to make my sinus stuffed self this:

I have decided that my sister will love random drops of hand knit socks and me-crocheted cowl throughout the next few frigid months. She's getting a coupon that states such.

I told the big boy that it of course didn't matter if the LR and DR were half painted throughout the season...our friends will love us anyway. (and frankly expect our home to be peppered with half-finished projects....I suspect we're a morale booster.) So, I didn't yell. I didn't badger. I didn't leave paintbrushes laying about will-nilly for him to find and feel guilty about.

...and he got it finished. All by himself.

And when in the vintage shop unexpectedly open yesterday morning, fruitlessly scoping for a candy dish like my grandmother's to give my sister I bought myself this:
Yes, my fingers are twitching to play...but that just has to wait a few more days. I can handle it. I can wait.

Yep, this holiday season is lookin' good. I'm one happy momma.

The Wall Street Journal?!?!?!?

Oh but seriously.

Sock Wars journalistic cred here.

...and yes, am sick again.

...and a bit of mindless fun

My Peculiar Aristocratic Title is: Lady Madame Dawn the Precocious of Throcking by Hampton Get your Peculiar Aristocratic Title

Pictures and treats and goodies oh my!

Swap goodies! Butt dance of joy for the love of day brightening swap goodies! And I'm nice enough to share with you. I know, store the adulation for later, I'm just that way. :)

This actually came last week...no make that before Thanksgiving? Oye. Week o' sick kid and I can't remember anything! Anyway, it be my L&V MB Winter Warmer Swap loot from Tikabelle of Dye Trying. SWOON! She dyed yarn just for ME!!!! And sent me her favorite novel and teas! Squeeeeeeeeal! Tikabelle rocks the swappiness! Thanks and kisses and hugs! (no pictures of the package I sent off to the UK...sorry, but I was in a frenzy to get it out. They are getsing sunshiny bright Tofutsies, some of MY fave teas, the holiday and winter IK issues and some chocolate yummies. shhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.)


Now dear readers, you don't know cause I haven't told you...I was flaked on in another swap. At least it appears that way. Perhaps life got rough. Things do happen, but I cannot know of them or be all understanding or patient if I am not told of them. If I am told "things are on their way, then oops, not, but they're on their way now...or I mean now...or actually someone else was supposed to mail that, I'll check on it and get back to you"...well, when it's that I am not so nice. But I try to hold it in. I ask polite questions....and I alert the authorities...who in this case were on top of things. SO on top of things in fact that just when I lost all hope, I found a surprise package on my doorstep today:

So I get to kick off a spooktacular holiday season after all!!! I shall go on record as saying Wierdlings is the bestest, bestest swap coordinator ever, ever, ever. She should get lots and lots and lots of cookies and bonus karmic points for making others happy when she has been sad. Here's what I found inside:

EEEEEEEEEEEE! Not one but TWO sock yarns! Front and center you have Lana Grossa Meilenweit Bosco, color 3512...browns with bits of oranges and golds. YUM. Hiding behind be 2 hanks of Gypsy Girl Creations superwash fingering weight in Trick-or-Treat. Double YUM. And dominating them both is my new Ugz pet...Ozy/Sloan the conflicted space monster. Now I just have to find somewhere to keep him out of all the grubby little hands around here...he's MINE.

...and SWOON! Handmade Stitch markers with awesome beads...and 2 Imps Ears of (drum roll please...) BLACK PHOENIX ALCHEMY LAB!!! Siren and Dance of Death. I am in love. Even the little bag they were snuggling in smells warmly wonderful.

And various other sundry spooky things. Plastic spider rings. Pumpkin Peeps. Stickers and notepads and TATOOS!
The hub will be so very confused later!

And white Fimo...me thinks snow ghosts be in order. :)

...and as if that isn't enough for one day, my Interweave Crochet Winter came too.

Whee-hee, I'm all bright and shiny inside!

Excuses, excuses, excuses....

I won't bore you with them, because they are indeed b.o.r.i.n.g. It's been too long...yada yada...won't happen again...yada yada...dust bunnies running amok...yada, yada

I'm snuggled up in my fave humongo sweatshirt and have a cup o' tea to hand, so let's get down to it, shall we?

1) It's December in Minnesota and finally we have snow before Christmas again! Winter Storm Warning Weekend! Big fat fluffy flakes for days if we're lucky.



2) It's December and I have 4 handmade gifts finished already...personal record, and I l.o.v.e. them all.

The Mermaid Scarf in The Natural Dye Studio's BIFL for the Kindergarten Teacher extraordinaire:
This yarn is fabulous beyond my ability to use words to describe it. Got it in a swap and oh my oh my oh my am I wanting more, more, more! (and drat it all, but they're in the UK!) Not sure on some of the details, like colorway or weight as they weren't given me, but as it's a 2-ply I believe it's their DK.

The Boteh ever popular crocheted scarf of the moment for First Grade Teacher fabulosa in Lorna's Laces Shepard Sock Lakeview colorway:
The Round Ripple (pattern out of my head as it went) for #3 in Fantasy Naturale cotton fantasticness:

...if I can get it away from the old dog:

Fiber Trends' Alpine Boots for #3 as well, felted in Lamb's Pride with anonymous furry trim:

3) Trips to the in-laws just got a LOT sweeter...new yarnshop (River Boutique) in town less than 5 mintues from their house, coffee shop directly across the street and I totally scored over Thanksgiving:
Boo Peep's Not Just for Socks yarn in Black Cherry. Yum.

4) ...and the ultimate score...are you sitting, cause you so should be sitting for this one...sadly my sock club LYS is going out of business (Clickity Sticks & Yarns in Minneapolis...but they still shall be on the web!)...but I found these rummaging the closeout this morning:
Yep, that be handspun. $11 a hank. The tan is 100% alpaca, a bit over 100m. RK Fiber Designs. The other silver alpaca plied with natural black merino, again a titch over 100m. Southern Style Spinner (aka Jill Lundgren). SWOON. Also nabbed some 40" size 4 Addi Turbo's for $7...I kid you not. DOUBLE SWOON.

So that brings you up to speed , kind of anyway. Lots of projects remain in hopper. Lots of frantic Decemberish things to do. Stay tuned, with a little luck I'll be back soon.

uh, so I'm supposed to be at yoga.

...and I'm obviously not.

So what AM I doing?

Eating Reese's peanut butter cups with caramel from my super secret stash and drinking Harvest Moon Pumpkin Ale from Blue Moon Brewing Company. Mmmmmmmmmmm.

yeah, though i walk through the valley of death...

...still you get a post.

Quite appropriately, my warrior days came to a close yesterday, amidst all the Halloween hoopla. The socks fit perfectly, though I'm dying to know what the yarn is. Look, they even match the fireplace:

Nothing like camo for the home front.

They came with a new little friend too.

All in all, I'm pretty pleased. There were only 33 of an initial 164 left alive in active duty when I went down. Took 2 of them out myself. Not bad for a crocheter, eh?

And one bit of gratuitous family cuteness. Yes, we like pumpkins.

Off to recoup....let the dust bunny battles begin!

Something wicked my way comes???

Yep, the end may be nigh. My latest SockWars assassin informs me of that fact...but is she bluffing? We shall see.

To Kathy in SB I say:

By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.
Open, locks,
Whomever knocks!

(my favorite lines by the 3 witches in Macbeth by Mr. William Shakespeare)

Covering some not so pleasant territory.

This isn't going to be the usual light-hearted post. I ask that you stick with me. Wade through this and see where it lands you.

1) Do you know Jacob Wetterling?

If you're not from Minnesota you very well may not. Neither do I, but it seems as if I have known of him for my entire life...and I left the porch light on for him last night. I meant to post about this yesterday so you could too, but it's never too late, right?

This is Jacob, or at least the Jacob I have known for the last 18 years:






You see, 11 year old Jacob was abducted 18 years ago from a rural road in Saint Joseph Minnesota.

"On the evening of October 22, 1989, Jacob, his brother Trevor, and friend Aaron rode their bikes to a local convenience store to pick up a movie and snack. On the way back home, a man wearing a mask and carrying a gun stopped the boys. The gunman told the boys to throw their bikes into a nearby ditch and lay face down on the ground. He then asked each of the boys their age. After the boys responded, he instructed Trevor to run into the woods and told him not to look back or he would shoot him. Next, the gunman turned Aaron over, looked into his face, and told him to run into woods without looking back or he would shoot him. As Trevor and Aaron were running away, they glanced back to see the gunman grab Jacob's arm. When Aaron and Trevor reached the wooded area they turned around again and the gunman and Jacob were gone." (The italicized passage comes from The Jacob Wetterling Story on the JWF website)

He has never been found. Neither has his abductor.

His mother never gives up hope of either. She has become a tireless advocate. A quiet yet persistent voice for children and families that cannot speak for themselves. Through founding the Jacob Wetterling Foundation she has created a vehicle of support and endless resource so that families may never find themselves without an advocate in their time of ultimate crisis.

"It is the belief of the Jacob Wetterling Foundation that with every missing child case, someone out there knows something. We also believe that when our communities stand together on behalf of children, we give courage to those individuals to step forward and do the right thing and tell someone. It is our hope that as families have had to step forward because of these horrible crimes, the individuals who know something will step forward out of their own darkness and share their information with law enforcement to bring our children home." (again, from the JWF website)

Stories of this nature should give us all nightmares. None of us should be able to rest while horrors such as this happen. We should all be working tirelessly to find these children and their tormentors.

It's not in your face every day, so it's so easy to forget.

It hasn't happened to you, or your neighbor or your family so it's easy to not dwell on it. It's easy to think "oh, that poor family", have a moment of heartache and get on with things.

But what if it wasn't? What if was in your face? What if there was a picture of a missing child in the corner of every crime show on TV? What if every newscast started with the story of a missing child? What if every magazine and newspaper gave one ad space over to publicizing details of these stories? What if more of the media did what Oprah Winfrey did last year and spent a fraction of their air time targeting child predators?

Would we find more of them? I would hope we would.

Would we press our politicians into more proactive legislation to protect our children? I would hope we would.

Feel it now? Wondering what you can do?

Visit The Jacob Wetterling Foundation. Read up on their efforts. READ THE SAFETY TIPS. Visit their Resources page and go find out about missing children in your area. Put them on your blog. Put them on your car. Put their case anywhere someone might chance across it and have that one flash moment of insight that can bring them home or bring them justice.

We're not helpless. We can help. But we have to act.

OK. That's on the homefront. Venturing much further afield...

2) Darfur. Brian Steidle. The Devil Came on Horseback.

Listening to MPR on the way home from errands today I chanced into an interview with Brian Steidle. I literally sat in my car, in the garage, passing fish crackers to the toddler, riveted by his words.

How did I not know about this man? I know I must have seen his pictures. We've all seen the pictures. I have a feeling I'm not the only one that really wishes they could make the pictures go away. They are so hard to face.

Brian Steidle is a former Marine infantry officer who served after his retirement as an unarmed observer in Darfur in 2004. His photographs and experience in Darfur were revealed in a series of op-eds by Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times.

But hearing Brian's story from his own lips this morning, (and you can too, through the link here) I simply can't be quiet.

We all know it's happening. There is genocide going on in Sudan. It's irrefutable. Why aren't we yelling?

Well, now I am.

Buy Brian's book, The Devil Came on Horseback. Buy several. Read it. Pass it on.

See the movie. If you're in the Twin Cities, The Human Rights Center is sponsoring a free screening TOMORROW, October 24 at 7 pm at the U of MN law School. Find info here. Brian Steidle will be there. He's in town as the Keynote Speaker for the UN Rally on Darfur at the Minneapolis Convention Center. Details on that also available in the previous link.

Follow this link and read Nicholas Kristof's Secret Genocide Archive.

Look at the pictures. It's the least you can do to honor them, these people so far away in so many ways, but oh my gosh they are us. That baby with the bullet hole in her back, she's just like mine, like yours, like the baby down the street, in the supermarket, out playing in the leaves. And she has a bullet hole in her back.

Do it.

I know you don't want to. I don't want to. It's unpleasant and horrifying and everything that's beyond horrifying. And we're letting it happen.

We need to start yelling and keep it up until someone listens.

The Knitting Cook rides again!

She's back, she's back! After a much deserved 6 month maternity leave, Faith is back in the pod-osphere! Yarn, recipes, projects, books reviews...

Go, now...download, download!

8 veeeeeery random things

Drat! Tagged by Karla (aka Crocheting Chemist) at the worst possible moment...no time, no time, so here are 8 extremely random things. Enjoy.

The Rules:Once tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you. Then post the rules before your list, and list 8 random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to 8 other people, visit their sites, and leave a comment letting them know they’ve been tagged.

1) I'll be staying here tomorrow night...ALL ALONE. (or if I'm lucky, with the boy, but that's not looking likely as #3 is still not sleeping and he has guilt about dropping that on his parents.)

2) One of my great-grandfathers was a bootlegger during prohibition...and at some point lost a hand in a "hunting accident". Uh huh, sure he did. Can you say mafia?

3) My favorite ice cream is the Salted Caramel from Izzy's. Mexican Chocolate is a close second. If Single waffle cone of the caramel with the chocolate izzy scoop = heaven.

4) I have cat stalkers. Cats = evil carriers of allergens that are strangely attracted to me despite my best efforts to give off strong anti-cat energy waves. Seriously, the neighbor's cats sit outside the window and stare at me with their laser beam cat eyes even. I get hives just looking at them. *shudder*

5) My grandmother's beef soup is THE BEST...and I can make it perfecto.

6) I usually don't wear socks yet am now knitting them compulsively...for myself.

7) I love Sci Fi.

8) I have a strange love of Little Debbie Oatmeal Cream Pies. They are nothing but chemicals with more chemicals, yet I love them.

There. Now run off and play Bubbo, Spinnerin, Nuttnbunny, Robin, Mama O, NotScarlett, Red Sea School Mistress, and Belle.

Snotty baby of doooooooooom

Lookie, lookie, all kitchnered and ready to roll...

Send your condolences to dear Darcy/Aeauna won't you? Her sockish death is imminent.

que up Darth Vader's theme music if you please...

To the question...shall I finish today, or be finished myself?

My assassin hasn't revealed themselves as yet, so we'll see. Here's where I'm starting this morning:

....I've been flanked.

It has begun.

I am not at all as in love with the yarn in pattern, but I have to say it does have a rather cammo-militia feel to it. No longer happy-joy-joy walk through fall in the upper midwest.

Oh yeah, and apparently my target hates brown.

Just perfect.

And I'm knitting my hands off, yet the baby's still sick (the diversionary attack to my very exposed mama flank), we're all going on minimal sleep and not only have some participants thrown the pattern to the wind and done the foot in STOCKINETTE, some people have their socks done already. Seriously.

Awash in goo...

It's official, cold and flu season has hit.

Yep, the baby has turned into one huge goo factory and is generously spreading the wealth...to my hair, my shirt, my glasses, every relatively stationary surface in the house...OK, and the dogs too. They're not so stationary...or then again, at 10 and 11 maybe they are. Poor patient pups, they'll endure anything for a pat.

Send the disinfectant. Roll out the emergen-C. It's going to be a loooooooong winter.

Mammogram, schmammogram...

OK, went for my first annual last night...prepared to wince appropriately.

He-llo. Big relief.

After breast-feeding 3 kiddos, that was NOTHING.

Let-down for the first few weeks...PAIN. (for me at least...fast and furious and curl my toes OUCHIE)

Nursing through a plugged duct...PAIN.

Flesh-rending baby bite...PAIN.

Mammogram...not so much. My favorite thing ever, nope. But I'll take that over a pelvic any day.

Locked and Loaded.

Yipes!

It's only days away now. Artillery specs were posted last week. The rest should all e-arrive on Saturday.

I've spent a goodly portion of this past week swatching and re-swatching my stash yarns to see if any would work. Alas, no. While I have some DK weight sock yarns, none gave me the requisite 25 st/in in anything resembling a nice, cohesive fabric. All were loosey-goosey and not at all war-worthy. The organizer used Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino...but ugh, just not me. BORING.

So, off to the LYS today, where loverly, purple hair bearing Abbey shook her head over the too loose swatches and immediately pointed me to the answer. Lana Grossa Cool Wool 2000. 100 % non-felting buttery merino...in the most fabulous fall colorway ever:

Swatched up perfecto too. Bang on stitch and row gauge. Fabulously sproingy. Lovin' it. And then I looked up and out the window:

...and all the colors in the yarn were there, right there. I almost fell over. Sometimes things just click.

deep thoughts

OK, I usually don't delve this deeply here, but my brain's been whirling since I threw the feminism thing out the other day, which became hurricane force winds after reading all of the very thought provoking comments.

I have to say, my definition of feminism is constantly evolving.

I think, if asked to express it, before I had children I would have given a pretty pat answer. Equality with men. Equal opportunity. Equal pay. The power driven point of view.

Since I've had kids and made the decision to stay home with them, at least for a bit, those views have definitely been altered. I've run smack into the mommy wars and was shocked to find myself under fire. I'm constantly wondering why women, instead of finding ways to support each other in their choices, constantly find ways to undercut and undermine. So much judgment flying around on so very many topics. I have to say, being told over and over again that I am not only letting down previous generations of women, my daughter and myself by staying home has been the most alienating of all. If being a card-carrying feminist means I have to be in the boardroom seeing my kids an hour a day, hiring out the care of hearth and home...not interested. You might be, and good for you. That model works for some. It doesn't for me.

However, I don't see things in such monochromatic strokes.

Shouldn't the heart of feminism rather be finding power and worth in whatever roles women choose to hold?

Is it really all about taking over "the old boy's club"? Isn't part of the equation also bringing worth to nurturing?

Should every woman have to strive to be a CEO, shatter the glass ceiling to prove herself worthy? Shouldn't we rather be bringing attention to the value and power women carry within themselves in any role, be it news anchor or gardener or mother?

It's a complex issue, and I don't pretend to have the answers...I'd just like to expand the list of questions.