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.

And summer it is!

I am loving summer. I love having the extra kids around. I love the freedom of being able to play outside, and do school in the front yard, and having all of the bright new flowers and grass around as eye candy. I love the fresh new begining of Earth starting it's course all over again. AND I love the new projects that I get to try with this new found energy that "normal" people would put to spring cleaning and getting into shape for bathing suits. In my oh so humble opinion my time is better spent stalking Cookie A and trying exciting things like her "Monkey" sock pattern. You know why???

When winter comes my monkey socks will keep my feet warm.. and "normal" people will gain back weight, and mess up the house. See?? I am a step ahead.

Is this what they mean when they say "Grow a pair"??

So when knitting takes over your life it is bound by law to continue on to other fiber addictions. I am pleased to say that I have a new one to keep my knitting addiction company.


My balls.... of roving.


My bottom Whorl drop spindle.


My first finished product.

Spudknit (otherwise known as my 1:00 Wed friend) and I went to a Fiber fest on Saturday. I was so overwhelmed with joy and excitement! Everything was a blur of color. It was like a feast for the senses. Touch, smell, sight. I seriously felt like it was the happiest place on Earth. So much for Disney land, that is where I want to go when I die.

Did I think I would get out of there without a new habit? NOOO.. But I went anyway. I went home after a short lesson on drop spindling. Spudknit went to the library and learned more, then shared her knowledge with me once again.

I began spindling. Then I washed my product in hot water and set it out to dry. I could hardly wait for it to dry, and as soon as it was I dyed it.... with Crystal light... HEY, you CAN do anything with fiber. This fiber is not only beautiful, it is zero calories. I am now happily knitting it into a beautiful headband.

AND as always.. the socks:


My husbands "business" socks. I have no idea how one could do business in something so soft and heavenly. I would not be able to concentrate on a rigid task such as work.



My "gay pride" *giggle* socks. I thought they looked like a tropical fish, but as I knit the product was not what I was expecting. They took me a bit to love, but as soon as I put them on my feet.... Well you know how love works.

The beast has been slayed!!!!

I fought, I cried, I threw many fits, and then I FINISHED! This Afghan has nearly been the death of me the last several days. I had to keep going, I knew I did... but it was so very, very hard. I think the knit goblins kept coming in and violently ripping out and hour or two of my hard work and then nicely replacing the needles so that there was no proof. My children were also against me. They still believe that they need to be feed even when I am knitting. Can you believe that?? The nerve.. BUT in the end I won. Well except for the loverly dropped stitch you can clearly see in the picture. At first I said "You are KIDDING me.. then I said.. That gives it character so I simply can't try to pick it up. That would just be wrong.


And here is one that I just love in the same pattern. Though I will never work with acrylic again unless forced.

AND in some of the best news EVER.. my son, the child of my loins. One of the three most amazing things I have ever made has decided to knit. I am so proud. I taught him yesterday and he has spent many a minute working on it. With his extremely short attention span this is saying something. I also taught him to crochet because the two needles were hard for him to keep a hold of. (note to die hard knitters: I do not condone this behaviour, but if he can gain a love for yarn.. well you see) I could not be more proud than I am. If he told me he was running for president or going to be a Doctor it would not compare to this.

OUch! My heart hurts.

Some days are hard. This has been one of them. I have that elusive baby on my brain. I wish I could see the plan laid out in front of me so that I could just get over it already. I hate the ache I feel in my chest, and I hate the tears that seem to find their way down my cheeks daily right now.

BUT
I have my knitting! I love how busy it can keep me. I finished a couple more pairs of socks. I went on a trip and hit a bunch of yarn stores and made some lovely purchases. All in all a very successful trip if I do say so myself. I will post pics of some of my current projects and spoils from both my shopping, and my Knitpick order in a bit.

I read A LOT. I love to read. I think i am going to start talking about my books here. A one sided discussion. Nothing crazy about discussing books to ones self, no? I am about to start Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged". I am also reading A Yarn Harlot book that I borrowed from the 1:00 Wed friend that has become SO much more than just a 1:00 Wed friend. It seems that she and I click and it is so awesome to have a dear friend that gets my addiction.. or got me addicted. Either way...

OK, now for pictures....

My first attempt at baby socks.

The finished Cable "Be Mine" socks. They were so much fun!

The socks I made my son to match the socks posted below that I made for my other son.

Some of what I purchased on my shopping trip. I had great control.. Notice the SOME part... BUT that there is Malabrigo lace!!!!! I am pretty darn excited. The red is sock yarn that is to die for.
AND last but not least:

My latest Knit Pick order. I got a couple of each of those. I did not post pics of my last order. The perfect man has asked me to use the yarn I have before purchasing any more.. I agreed.. but then I found that the wash cloth yarn is on sale at a local store... He will understand. I know he will!