It is officially Fall

I dread Fall every year, then when it comes I remember why I love it. This is such a wonderful, cozy time of year. It is the perfect time to sit in front of the fire listening to knitting podcasts, and working on my latest WIP.

So what is the latest WIP?

Well one is nearly finished. Once I find my elusive darning needle it will be DONE! Introducing, my very first sweater:

I am so happy with how it is turning out, considering that I did not use a pattern. I just used some tips from EZ. I love that lady.

I am working on a sock as well, because it is portable. I really have NO desire to work on it though. I am just not in the mood to work on this sock. It is a beautiful little sock, but not what I want to be doing.

AND I am working on a baby blanket for the baby. This has been on my needles for while, but I set it aside because I really needed the sweater. Now the sweater is officially off of the needles I am back down to the two projects that I allow myself. I have a pretty firm two object rule.

Which I think I may break to start another sweater.

The charmed life I lead.

Today is a good day. A really good day. I slept last night, thanks to the little man only waking to nurse twice. My head barely hurts. And the scale looked pretty good. I have other reasons to be pretty darn happy, and that is the happenings on the farm. I have not posted too much about the happenings on the farm, but I can't imagine anyone not wanting to read this.

We have some new kids.
Meet Kushka, who looked like this when he arrived:

And now he looks like this:

He is a gentleman. That really is the only way to describe him. We rather adore him and the sweet humming noises he makes. Plus, Alpaca fiber is my favorite. Happy times all around.

We also got an amazing girl named Kandy.

She is Polly's sister, and they look a lot alike. Kandy is darker in color. They are both such well behaved, sweet goats. I think my favorite part is that she is like her sister in her love for my baby. <3 <3 <3 She gives about 4 cups a milking, and Polly is giving about 3 cups. Fresh, raw goats milk is just yummy, but we also us it for many other things, like:

Making amazing butter. And

soap. this is a dye free, scent free oatmeal soap. We have played with the recipe and each has been wonderful.
Then I tried my hand at:

Felting. I love felted soap, but I really am not a huge fan of felting. I don't like the feeling of the wool felting in my hands. It just feels wrong. I am hoping that I can convince my felting friend Beth that she needs to start felting soap.
Also new on the farm, just yesterday:

We are so thrilled to have her. She is a little old lady, and she

loves our little old man. We are hoping that she is the perfect addition to the farm.
We purchased a horse in June. He is a 5 year old qtr horse. He has not worked out well at all for us. He is mean to the old man, and has no respect for the humans. I traded him for this sweet old lady, and I am really hoping that things work out. The other horse has caused a lot of lost sleep, and stress.
And one more new on the farm:

The boy of interest. He is a great kid, and he and my daughter have become great friends. He has made her transition back into "public" school a lot of fun. I am so happy that she is choosing good friends. I think every parent worries about their teen. We worry about the choices they will make, if they will be lonely, or will they make the right friends. I am proud of this kid. She is such a blessing.

And just for fun:

We went to the Fair with the in laws. Blackmail. Brand, spanking new blackmail.

Is it really to much to ask??

A sweater. How can a sweater mock me so?

Sweaters I have cast on: 43
Sweaters complete: 0

You see the score. It is no secret that the sweater wins. 43 to 0 is kind of a dead give away, no?

But here I am, more than a foot into another sweater. The wool is lovely, the pattern is lovely (of course, it is from my head), and I have no plans to frog.

I will let you know how the frogging goes.

I will also post a blog about how you can be as optimistic as me some day.

Actually, the odds are that I won't do either.

Today I am a mom

and if I am honest, I am 30 seconds from being the mother to one less. I have a two year old, and she is, well, two. I have to watch little Miss like a hawk watches a fluffy bunny. If she is silent I know she is getting into something that ought not to be gotten into. She is a destroyer, and makes the terminator look rather tame.

This morning I had an appointment. I got to go without my children. I hate to say that I look forward to my MRI appointments, but I do. A little quiet time. A bit of a nap. The perfect way to spend an hour. This morning was one such morning. I got the children up, and ready for the day. I dressed them, and fed them waffles. I even took a picture of little Miss in her quirky outfit, and promptly posted it on facebook. "Isn't she brilliant?"

(This is actually the second picture I took, and is not as good as the first, but the floor was so filthy in the first that I couldn't post it.)

So after our morning I kiss each precious child good bye, and head out the door. I know instantly that i am in trouble. Little Miss has gotten her shoes, and is trying to follow me out the door. I explain to her that i can't take her this time but that I will be home soon. I am pretty sure that this is when, through her mass of screaming a tears, she makes a plan. A plan of revenge and severe punishment.

I was gone for one hour and forty minutes. I came home to find:

1. My hand spun yarn in shambles, utterly destroyed. She has taken the low blow and gone directly for the heart. Touche. You win.

2. She has opened the box of diapers, pulled out 14 and urinated in each and every one. Every. Single. One.

3. She got into my make up. The evidence? Mascara everywhere.

4. She went into the babies room, which is where we keep all of her clothing and toys, because she has this nasty habit of dumping them all into a not so tidy pile when she wants revenge. Check. Everything dumped.

I discovered all of this with in ten minutes of walking in the door. I am not sure where else her path of destruction leads, and I am almost too afraid to search.

I calmly fed the little doll spaghetti-o's for lunch, and put her down for a nap. A nice long nap I hope.

I knit a sock

I know, that in itself is not shocking. What is shocking is that I knit it while waiting with my good friend Shawna for a mechanic to "just really quickly fix a sensor. It should only take a second" in Shawna's vehicle.

Now I can understand why the non-knitter would be entirely displeased with a several hour wait, when they were told it would take about two minutes. That is why I love knitting. That and about 400 other reasons. I had the best time sitting, knitting, and visiting with Shawna. I hate to admit it, but it was pretty close to my dream afternoon. My darling teen daughter kept the kids home while we went, so there were no short people to chase. It was a lovely outing. I broke out the Harmony's and the Zauberball and had the time of my life. I finished most of the leg while waiting.

Then Shawna and I had an excellent lunch, where I continued to knit.

Then tonight I went to a Fiber Arts guild meeting, where I did not knit. I carded some wool that I have been processing. . After the meeting I stopped at Starbucks for a Venti. Which was lovely too. And free. Yes, they gave it to me free. I love me some Starbucks. I love free Starbucks even more. This Starbucks was purely medicinal though. I am fighting a nasty cold. At least that is what I am telling my husband. Purely medicinal. I should go get another.

So all in all, today was a good day.

All I want for my birthday is

a crib.

Those are the words that my husband has been saying. Of course he doesn't really mean that is all he wants, but it is at the top of his list. Apparently he is ready for our sweet, cuddly baby to give his own room a try. The baby is (only) 15 months. I figure we still have awhile before we need to purchase a crib. I say we save the money to get one of the other items on his little list. Maybe the nice basketball shoes? The TV? The blue ray player?

Anything you want for your birthday honey. As long as it makes me equally happy. Because I am generous and giving like that.

Good thing we still have over a month to decide.

PS In all fairness I really am fine with buying my husband a crib, even if it is only so that I can say that I bought my husband a crib for his birthday. I am also fine with having the baby start the night in his own bed, then moving to ours when he wakes. I think we are both in agreement with this. Now there shall be no flaming.

I socked the Summit

and it was 4 days of fiber high inducing goodness. I can't say enough about this event, but I will say a lot.

I had a class on sock darning. It was exactly what I needed to save all of the hand knit goodness that has been stashed in the bottom of my sock drawer for far to long, not because of the unsightly holes, but because I have feared that I would cause more damage to the precious little guys.

I watched as the fastest knitter was found. The fastest! I dreamed that it could be me. It can't, because I am not so fast, but I will be practicing for next sock summit. FIFTY-SEVEN stitches per minute. You hear that? That is some fast knitting.

I watched as fleece became foot wear. They had the dear sheep right there watching as their beloved wool became something to keep humans warm, instead of something that kept them warm in the middle of summer, and held all of their little droppings a bit too close to home.

I drooled over several different vendors. I am proud, or maybe ashamed actually, to say that I stuck to my budget. I wanted to buy every little thing in White Lies Design. Really bad. I also wanted a set of Signature needles. Really, really bad. I stuck to my guns though. No peer pressure was going to take me out.

I plan to order off of their websites now that I am home and can say that I made it through sock summit on a budget.

I went on a tour of Lantern Moon. It wasn't really part of Sock Summit, but it is all rolled into one perfect little fiber high package for me. I set up a dealership, and will now be rolling in all that is good and kind at Lantern Moon. I am proud to say that I am a dealer. A dealer of the good stuff.

We found out that we can still party like it is 1989 at the 1980's sock hop. Can, not should. And I can still hula hoop. Again, Can, not should. I am telling myself that it is talent, and not just very large hips.



My handsome date for the evening. He will probably disown me for this in a few years.



I met Lucy Neatby. OH MY GOSH! She is crazy amazing. And she has a rooster purse named Earnest. What isn't to love???

I also met THE Yarn Harlot. THE very one that I have been stalking and dreaming of for ages. AND we talked about breasts. I think that means we are like **THIS** now.

But the best part? That part that still makes my heart race, and makes me feel a little dizzy??

I MET THE GENIUS THAT IS COOKIE A!!!! I met her FACE to FACE! I touched her hand. (If I didn't have two toddlers I totally would never wash my hands again) I spoke to her OUT LOUD!! Granted, I did not make sense to myself let alone those not living in my head, but still... I totally met Cookie A. I have pictures. And a book. A book that says my name. In Cookie A's hand writing. I have it right here. Right here in this very room.

So now let's talk about the ugly. It is called the Rodeway Inn. We were going to stay with a friend, but at the last minute we decided to book a hotel on line. Not something I suggest when there are about 8,000 people coming to the same city for the same thing. We were rather surprised when we got such an awesome deal on out hotel. $240 for 5 nights. How fabulous! And it was. In theory. Reality? Not so great. We pulled up to the hotel, and before we could notice how incredibly frightening the hotel itself was the strip joint in the parking lot reached out and slapped us. Really? A strip joint? Maybe, just maybe I won't have to stick to such a tight budget at sock summit. YAY! So we checked in. Why? Not sure. Thirty minutes later we checked out. Yes, it was THAT bad. No locks on the doors. No sprinklers over head. Something large and black in the bathtub. Hair in the sink. Smoke so thick it hurt to breathe. The final straw?? An over-whelming smell of human body odor in one corner of the room. No thanks, I think we will camp out under the stars.


So we got lucky. Not at the strip joint, no. We got lucky after calling about ten other hotels. I spoke to a man who became my hero at "Yes, we actually have one room. It is the honeymoon suite, but better than nothing." Yes. Much better than nothing. We checked into our lovely Jacuzzi Suite room. It was oh so very nice. I smelled no dead bodies. The doors locked. There was nothing dead in the bath tub. This was home. Or home for the next week anyway. All went well until Jeannette went to make up the sofa bed. It was 11:00 PM by now. We are old people, so this is very late. We were dog tired (what does that even mean??) and as the couch cushions were tossed to the floor, and our bodies were ready to hit the beds we see a glimmer. A bright glimmer. What is that? Well let me tell you. Drugs. Am I kidding? No, no I am not. A pipe, a thing of Meth, and a lighter. Awesome. Another way to blow off that Sock Summit budget. If only we were not good, up-standing citizens. And if we didn't have my 15 month old staying in the room with us. And as stated above, if we weren't old. Ahhh, to be young and stupid again. Honestly, we were laughing so hard at how great our luck had been that evening that I did not even think to get our room free. Curse my sense of humor.
But here are pictures for your enjoyment. Or education.
Yes, at first we thought it was something else you just might find in a honeymoon suite...



Other things I learned?
Portlanders do it differently. Go green!


Stephanie Pearl Mcphee is a nerd. I love her just a little more now.



Oh, and Walgreens still carries blue eye liner, and very blue eye shadow. (See 80's pictures above for proof) I also lost my knitting necklace there, so if anyone happens to go into a really scary Walgreens with no decent street entrance and finds it, please return it ASAP. It is missed dearly. Enough that I may have to go buy another one tomorrow.

All in all though? I give it 10 stars. Only because I can't legally give it 11.

The shop, and the Etsy shop

We are officially up and running. The Etsy shop has lots of listings, and the store holds all of the goods. I sold an Icelandic fleece out of the shop.. Our first sale. We are really just working on putting it together still. It will be June, after fiber fair, before we get in full swing, but so far so good. If you consider few sales good. It makes me happy though.





We have a new lamb. After a long, very hard delivery Mary had a little lamb. It actually looks like a cow. I am waiting to see if it moo's or baa's.



We have had birthdays, birthdays, and more birthdays. My sweet baby turned 1. My adorable Cubby turned 6, my Tigger turned 9.. and I turned.. well never mind.

My current knitting...
I am back in a sock mode. I am a sock knitting fool. I have a pair listed on Etsy. I have another pair on the needles, and about 6,000 pair planned. I have so many projects planned. If I was smart I would organize my list on Ravelry. But alas, I can't stick to a schedule because I seem to get distr.. oh, Shiny!

Plus it would take away from knitting time. Who would chose organization over knitting?

Did I speak to soon?

No, really! I swear it. I am back.. just not always. I was so excited to be blogging again. THIS was my time. Until the little guy got sick with RSV and spent 9 days in the hospital. After he got out of the hospital we took off to Washington to see my amazing family. Man, I love those guys. THEN we came home at which point the little guy decided that 9 days in the hospital was not enough attention, so he touched the fireplace and ended up with nasty burns on the tips of his fingers. *sigh* Then he caught a cold. With a rash. And snot. A lot of snot. That brings us to today. Of course that is just one child. Did I mention we have four more? I am tired. And blessed.

In other news, in my "spare" time... I decided to take the leap. I have opened a yarn store. Almost. My BFF (Hi Jeannette) and I have had a dream, and a goal. We said that in Jan of 2016 we WOULD open a yarn store. We have an Etsy store, and that was our jumping point. Turns out, it was a bit more springy for me than we knew. My FIL found a store front to rent, and we were off. I have not actually done anything yet, unless taking pictures of the shop and buying baskets counts, but I have good intentions. Some furniture, some shelving.. oh, and some product.. and we are well on our way. It will be small, and by appointment since I do not have 12 hours a day to devote to fiber, darn it. It will be fabulous just the same.

Fiber fair, oh how I love to hate thee

You have turned my BFF into a stress case. You have brought us to our knees. Yet, we look forward to you, and not just to you being over. I have spent the last couple of days trying to find someone to cater our event. I have no idea how many to expect. All we want is a "sack lunch". I have called many places. I have been told to call back by many places. Many, many places. I have been told "Yes, I am the person you need to talk to about catering" then "oh wait, I actually do not know anything" several times. It is not at all frustrating to hear "We have .... but I have no idea how much it costs. Gee, thank you for being so helpful. I love it when things are made easy. I am just glad that I am not my BFF. She is an intelligent woman, so I was really surprised when she said that she would be in change of things this year. I doubted her intelligence for pretty close to the first time ever. "Really? Are you kidding? I thought you were smart!" Though she has done a splendid job, she is nuts. I can see the stress eating away at her flesh. Hang in there, crazy lady.

This morning I took my kids to a local play gym. I was able to feel better about myself by watching one mother with her daughter that looked to be close to three years old. The child continually took off her clothing and ran nude through the play place. We are not talking down to a diaper, but completely commando. It really felt like home to me. Baby girl has been changing her clothes 30 times a day for months now. I am always saying "Where are your pants?? PUT ON YOUR PANTS!" I say that phrase so many times a day that I fear it will be the youngest babies first sentence. It was good to see that I am not alone. Thank you random nude child. You made my day.

Let's talk about two.

Two days in a row. Oh yeah! I am on fire now!

But let's talk about the two I know you all want to hear about. The two babies we have acquired since my last round of posting.

Baby Noah was an eye opener for us. We suffered 12 miscarriages, and I lost my right tube to an ectopic pregnancy. My left ovary, being non-functioning, left us little hope of having more children. We knew our family was not complete, and baby Noah gave us the kick in the pants that we needed to get our home study done, and start that long march down the road to adoption. Little did we know that it would be a short stroll instead. Apparently our baby had already been born and was waiting for us to get our bums in gear so she could be home at last. Only three weeks after starting our home study we had a beautiful baby girl placed with us. That was June 10th, 2009, and she was 6 months one day old. She was SO chubby!! She had been exposed to a lot, and had a hard little life, but with in a short time you would not have been able to guess. It has been nearly two years and she is all giggles and mischief. Never has there been a busier child I believe. OR maybe she seems busy because a short 8 weeks after our baby girl was placed with us our little boy decided he was ready to come also. We were pregnant! What is that you say? You know someone that this has happened to? Well it seems that this happens a lot. I hear it EVERY. SINGLE. TIME. I explain to someone why our babies are so close in age. Let me explain why this is. It is NOT because I stopped stressing so was finally able to get pregnant. May I point out that I had been pregnant 11 times in two years. Stressing about getting pregnant was not a problem. Is it because I finally relaxed so that my body could carry a baby?? NO. No, it indeed was not. I am fairly confident that my stress did not contribute to my bodies lack of ability to carry a living baby inside of me for more than a few months. I believe I just needed to provide the vessel to allow some spirits to receive the bodies they needed so that they could return back to a greater work. heaven is a busy place. So what I do believe is that my little girl simply needed to join our family before my little boy could. They were meant to come in this order. The Tasmanian Princess was meant to be the OLDER sister to prince grins-a-lot. And that folks is my final answer.

I am back!

No really. I swear! I know I was slightly back before, but now I mean it. For realz. You see, what happened was that I lost my password. I actually knew my password, but blogger apparently didn't because each time I carefully entered my password it would stubbornly tell me I was wrong. It was worse than my teen daughter. I can recover my password you say? Well yes, but I actually got very busy with fiber. And moving. Oh, and becoming a mother to five, instead of three. That, and I did not know that I could recover it, but I hate admitting that there is something I don't know.

Now let's talk about the important stuff. My mini farm. I have been a little obsessive about house hunting, when in fact we were not actually looking to move. Well you know what happens when you house hunt? Bet you do. You sometimes find houses. In fact you sometimes find the most perfect house EVER! And then you sometimes convince your husband that he really does love you enough to move away from his comfort zone, and everything he could ever want, to your dream that is based on your hobby or "obsession" as some might call it. So sometimes you put your house on the market, move to your dream home, buy chickens, sheep, goats, angora rabbits, and horses and then spend every second of everyday living in complete bliss. Even if you sometimes already actually owned the horses by the way.

So now I look out my back window (by the way I have 76 windows to stare out) into my own little piece of heaven. There are trees enough to appear like a forest. And there are sheep staring back. THIS is the life.

Oh, and I mentioned that going from three kids to five thing. I will fill you in on that next.