Faster Than A Speeding Bullet...

More powerful than a locomotive...

Able to leap tall buildings in a single bound....

Yes, it's...me...with my new biggerfastermorebetter RAM.

ZOOM!!

For me and my system, it really made a difference, but it was not straight forward. I am so glad I enlisted Wonderful Guy's help. There was some disemboweling of my little Slimline (read: stuffed and piled upon piles of stuff inside there) I had been 'inside there' once before with the help of the 'fellow from India' but I couldn't remember how it all came apart. Anyway, I was glad Wonderful Guy was along for the ride.

The little bars snapped into place. I plugged everything back in. We fired this puppy up, and it all worked like magic. I just love it when a plan comes together!

ZOOM! That was me booting up Photoshop Elements!

ZIP! That was me uploading photos!

WHOOSH! That was me doing everything else that Vista seemed to drag her slow (but oh so very pretty) feet to get done.

And now, thanks to the Speedy New System and other powers that I am beholden to, I present my first yellow squash!

And also, this pretty little thing. With our load of mulch this year, I have been pulling these 'weeds' as they germinated, secretly cursing the landscape company. This one hid until it bloomed, when I noticed it. I should have let them ALL grow, I think!

Happy Labor Day weekend, everyone.

Over 600 miles!

As of today. That's how far I have biked this summer...so far. Riding's not done yet, either! How far will she go? Any bets?

Also...on, then off, the Needles of Iron this week!

1. An iPod Pocket - first hand felted, and not being completely satisfied with the resulting effect, felted in the washing machine. Ecksssssselent! When dry, a button hole to be cut and button to be added, and Fini!
2. While felting the above, I felted the TomTom Pocket of handspun. It was biggish. Not now. Lookin' good!
3. Two 4-Corners Dishclothes with their matching Tribbles. The dishcloth hoard was down to ONE!
4. Two Stocking Stuffers #1 are completely completed, and another half knitted, all out of handspun.
5. One Stocking Stuffer #2 is completely completed and another started.
6. Two skeins of alpaca off the wheel, with twist set, totaling another 450 yards each. Which brings the total to six skeins of very nice stuff. I teased/carded another 'bunch' (technical term-mine) and am ready to start spinning again.

I have chosen yarn (out of the stash) and patterns (off the internet) for a couple of other projects as well. Staying busy, keeping the boredom at bay, working on Christmas (can it be?), and waiting for the inspiration for that next big project to knock me for a loop!

And just in case...I received bigger faster more better memory for my computer yesterday. Last night I backed up. Tonight I install. If you don't hear from me again...well, you'll know why!

Reflected Back

While I discovered this a long time ago, and have known this for ages, only recently have I begun to truly understand the truth of what irritates me in others is usually something about myself with which I am uncomfortable, and reflected back to me in some manner. Rather than try to figure out why that person does what they do (what I spent a great deal of my life doing), I am better served trying to learn what that person is in my life to teach me.

I think mostly my lessons revolve around acceptance of others, and loving them right where they are. It’s very strange how often I have believed others should behave as I thought they ought.

Perhaps not so strange. I remember something my mother (whom I loved dearly and respected in most ways) would say, generally after some little confrontation of a sort with someone who didn’t perform as my mother believed they ought.

“I just gave them something to think about!”

Like they had lived their entire lives in the dark, and suddenly, the light shown, and they saw things clearly! Slap me in the middle of the forehead, and thank you for opening my eyes.

Sometimes I sorely need to point out what others are doing that is obviously making the world an uncomfortable place to be. Well, maybe just the space around me. I want to tell them the sound of their voice is giving me an earache. I need to tell them their need to rearrange the chairs is that struggle for control they are still working on (and maybe not so successfully). I want to make a snappy retort to the one that seems to KNOW IT ALL (and clearly doesn’t)!

It’s not about them. It’s all about me. My control needs, my knowing it all, and the sound of my voice, and the list can, and does, go on.

I wonder whose ‘lessons of life’ I am?

It Just Might Be...

...a pumpkin.

This bloom has a distinctively different look to it than all the other blooms on the acreage of plant that is my pumpkin. I might just have a jack-o-lantern of my own growing.

No yellow squash, but I am enjoying the blooms. I look at it this way. I buy many plants just to enjoy their blooms. It may be that way with this one for this year!

And another zucchini. I have been picking mine about six inches in length, or less. Two plants have produced just the right amount for Wonderful Guy and myself, for salads, or like this weekend, sauteed with some 'shrooms to go with spaghetti.

Thank you all for you compliments and suggestions concerning the Miss Muffett in Blue. The back opening is already V-shaped with 3 buttons and loops.

My 'faux-steeking' extended below the buttons. After all was said and done, I did some crochet-type looping thing around the edges to give it a finish where I did my stitch-and-cut. Not perfect-looking like it was before, but perfect didn't fit, now, did it?

Lest I be too prideful...

...I count on life keeping me humble.

On the other hand, I think I can call myself a Knitter.


Behold, the Grandbebe Girl in all her Gloriousness. (No comments, please, other than to agree with this!) Also, she is wearing Miss Muffett in Blue, knitted with all sorts of love by her Grandmama. Also knitted with too small of a neck for the family of giant noggins, which would be our family.

See how humble? The dress would not go over the head. Not no way. Not no how.


(On the other hand, maybe a Knitter would have remembered she always knits hats larger than large for this family of the large craniums.)

I put down the dress, and Youngest Daughter, Grandbebe Girl, and I took a walk in the back yard, chatted a bit, checked out the flowers, the veggies, and such. (Oh, my mind was really into the conversation, let me tell you...)

Then I went to the sewing machine. (See, I am a Sewer, too!) I stitched with eentsy tee tiny stitches down the center back, and up about an inch.

Then I cut my knitting. (Apparently I am a Cutter, too.)


Yes, I did. I cut my knitting.

Miss Muffett then slid over Grandbebe Girl's head smoothly, and fit the rest of her perfectly. I will finish the cut edge....somehow...as appropriate for a Knitter to know to do. I am seriously at the point that if it all comes apart, I will use my extra yarn and reknit the bodice. Seriously. I will hunt down additional yarn if necessary.


I promised the newly and differently finished garment to Youngest Daughter later, and elicited a promise that it be worn at least four times. I think it will hold together that long. And I will feel my effort somehow justified.

Out of the Garden

...and onto the table...

I'm so proud!

In other news...

I rode to work (and home) EVERYDAY this week.

I am looking at my queue on Ravelry furiously for inspiration. (Must. Start. Something...) I have some good ideas now, and for yarn from the stash, too. In running around today, I stopped in at an LYS south of here, and saw some ymmy stuff indeed. I bought nothing! So frugal she is. And also looking toward a Labor Day Sale at the LYS closer to home, but that is beside the point.

On the way home, and still open (how fortuitous), was the Friends of the Library used bookstore. I stopped in as my reading choices are getting perilously low. (Yes, perilously!) I picked up four paperbacks for $4.27. That will hold me over until the big blow-out sale the FOL has at the mall the first of October. Hopefully...

On the Needles of Iron

A dishcloth, people, and that is it. I kid you not. Oh, I know that little WIP bar shows a stocking stuffer 40% done, but that means 2 of 5 is complete, and I haven’t started another yet. I started some socks for the Grandbebe, but the yarn (Maizy by CPY) and the sock pattern (Emily by Melissa Morgan-Oates) didn’t get along. Frogged! Completely frogged. I decided I would never get through 2 socks with the war that was going to be.

So yeah. No knitting going on here since the stunning personal accomplishment that is the Grandbebe Girl’s Miss Muffett. By the by, Grandbebe Girl is coming over maybe this weekend for the receiving of said article, and appropriate modeling with photo opportunities!

I have been contemplating another shawl. I have been thinking of a sweater for Wonderful Guy. I am wondering about another pair of socks. Maybe now would be a good time to start on the grocery bags I was thinking would make good stocking stuffers…

I have been spinning, though. Same baby alpaca, which I am convinced may very well go on FOREVER! On the positive side, this previous bit that I teased and carded has spun very easily. I think I might be getting the knack of those mad skilz. Just maybe. I have just about filled the second bobbin of single ply, then will be ready for some more double plying. Seeing the resulting skeins help with the feeling of accomplishment. That’s important for me with an ongoing task such as this. It will be very much fun, indeed, when this alpaca is done to move to some VM-free, colorful roving!

I have some varied colors of Paton's Classic Wool. Maybe this would be good for learning entrelac. Or maybe colorwork?

Somebody give me a direction to go!

The Comfortable Familiar

It serves many purposes in my life, some good and some not so healthy for me.

Before I recognized my tendencies to rest in the familiar, I could stay in my nest regardless of the suffering. What I knew was way more comfortable than risking the unknown, in spite of the pain. And that was why, I believe, I remained in my previous relationship white-knuckled, way past the end. It’s what I knew.

I could go back to my hometown, and think to myself, ‘I could come back here and retire!’ I use to do that. For me, most of the things I remember of my hometown were blown away with the tornado last year. The point stands, though, for any who have moved away from an area after being raised there for a length of time. Fond memories breed the comfortable familiar. In spite of the wind, and the heat, and the cold.

I often go with what I know. I stay where I am. I do things like I saw them done.

Which is okay for me. As long as I know that is what I am doing. As long as I know that is my tendency, and that sometimes I need to do push myself to do something else.

If I am aware of what I do, then I can choose to do differently.

It has been a great challenge for me to break out of my comfort zone, and meet some of the challenges I feel I need to risk. Some have proved to be exceedingly simple, except in my own mind. (I can make great hurdles out of customer service phone calls and other situations that call for dealing with strangers.) Others have proved to be more taxing. (I updated my resume last night. The future continues to seem shaky at my place of employment. I feel like one of the string quartet on the Titanic.)

I would like others to take up the slack and fix it all for me. (Hey, Wonderful Guy, why don’t you call HP about my computer?) I love the feeling of being where I know the ins and outs where I am. (I shop at the same grocery store week in and week out, and ride my bike the same way every day!)

But when I break out and stretch and reach, it is always a learning experience. Every time. And what a feeling of accomplishment when I rise to the challenge!

Unfortunately, a successfully made call to customer service isn’t understood as quite the challenge by most people, so my victories sometimes are often silently acclaimed. That’s okay. I know what I’ve done, and that is what’s most important.

Random Firings

I've been riding my bike again, and frantically now. I saw school buses today! How long can I stretch it out this year?

He's right there in the center....

I caught this guy just as I got home today after work. I threw down my gear and grabbed the camera. Not a great shot, but evidence of the hummer loving my blooms. In other news, the local squirrel hoodlums have broken the little flower thingeys on the hummingbird feeders, and in the resulting nectared-up frenzy, threw the other seed feeders down on the ground in further efforts to wreak havoc and/or go after the birdseed. Wonderful Guy has put all his mad engineering skilz to the task to outwit the wily little critters. Hummers don't seem to mind the nectar feeders are there, being organic and all.

We bought plane tickets to Philly for next month. I get to see Eldest Daughter's new digs.

I have been officially awarded this 'ravatar bouquet' and medal from the head of the International Ravelympic Committee, Adonis Dionysius, for finishing the Miss Muffett dress for Team Colorado in Baby Dressage. I am being serious, y'all!

Serious as a heart attack!

Now that the pressure is off, I am back to spinning alpaca (when will it end????) and working on another pair of sox for the Grandbebe Girl. And another Calorimetry. And another dishcloth. I enjoyed the bebe dress so much, I want to find something different to knit, too.

And for something completely different, I want to start on some quilted ornaments for Christmas presents.

But that will wait until the first killing frost. For now, I am going to enjoy this....

and this....

and this....

and this...

while it lasts.

Q is for...

...Quilting.


When news of the impending arrival of Grandbebe Girl reached the ears Dearest Sister and myself, we set out to create a gift for the dear bebe that would show our great love and tender care, be of proper substance and usefulness, and most importantly, something we could do....sort of ...well.

Artists we are not. Trust funds....not our style...unfortunately.

Simple crafty types, collectors, and ebay buyers? You betcha'!

Dearest Sister loves her some vintage fabric and feedsacks. She also has become educated in the history, and the identification of the patterns and colors of vintage fabrics. She has found much of that at estated sales, auctions, out of the way antiques shops, and on ebay. Sometimes I feed her habit when I stumble across something, and she always seems appreciative, but I really don't know if I find anything of import....except a few weeks ago I did find some feedsacks and a child's hankie at a garage sale for only fifty cents! She really really thought that was cool. I was so proud!

Also, Dearest Sister has been honing her embroidery knowledge, and collecting some eclectic pattern transfers, so when the brainstorming began of whatever shall we do that will last through the ages, showing our devotion and leaving a legacy to the new bebe, we arrived at a melding of our skills.


She contributed materials. (Vintage fabric, red and white. See, down deep, we are very non-traditional. Free thinkers of an aging hippie varietal, as it were...)

I came up with a pattern. (Simple, but sweet, and most importantly, doable without headache over long distances. Dearest Sister and I live in different states.)

Dearest Sister embroideried her part with redwork with a nursery rhyme theme.

I cut and pieced the nine-patches, and pieced all of it together, edged it, and quilted it.

I pieced by machine.

I quilted by hand. This is no crib quilt. It is of a suitable size for a junior bed, so will last Grandbebe for several years....hopefully.


The piecing was done by Christmas. The quilting was done by end of February? Mid-March? I can't remember, but before Grandbebe Girl arrived April 4th, of that I am sure.

It was interesting remembering all the nursery rhymes. And we remembered almost all of them. We had to look a couple of them up. Like Little Johnny Stout. Some nursery rhymes are truly bizarre!

Ravelympic Update, Day 8

(maybe?)


Well, the Miss Muffett in Blue....she is finie, and when done with this post, I will 'lightly block the picot hem', and officially cross the Baby Dressage Finish Line.

Observe the picot edging hem...

However, I could not wait. As I was finishing up the bodice, it was looking mighty tiny. I called the Grandbebe Girl's Mama last night when I was finished binding off, and asked if we might pop in. We tried it on, and it fit perfectly. Now. The original plan was to give it as a Christmas gift. Instead, Grandbebe Girl will be wearing through the fall!

See, twisted rib makes for very tiny looking...

I swatched for gauged, and 'gauged' that I would be best served to needle it down a size. Doing that might have worked if I wasn't dealing with a growing, living human being. I do believe she has put out some growthy spurts in the last few weeks. See, not my fault! Whatever, I am relieved she will get a few wearings out of it without A) reknitting, or, B) finding someone smaller who looks good in blue. C) is not an option. I would not, at this point, donate it for someone else to find it at a thrift store and wonder at the story behind it. D) holding on to it for the next Grandbebe Girl.

See! My new mad crochet skilz!

Other interesting events from last night. I popped into JoAnn's. Sugar 'n Cream is on sale this weekend for a better than usual price, and, well, what can I say? Old tapes play, and when that stuff is on sale, I. Must. Buy. While picking out a few balls of that, I ended up chatting with another Sugar 'n Cream buyer. She knits mostly dishclothes, but crochets, and we chatted about my needing to crochet around the neck and back opening of the newly finished dress. See, I don't crochet, except for button hole loops, and this was going to be a learning experience for me. Then I happened upon another knitter in the button aisle, with a portion of a handknit vest, made of yarn she had spun! She had just learn to spin, just bought a Kromski, and is expecting her own Grandbebe Girl in two weeks!

Lace panel insert (technical term....)

Summary for Miss Muffett:

This was not a difficult knit at all. Picot edging was only 8 rows to begin with. The lace panel insert is only 7 stitches wide, and a 4 row repeat. The rest of the skirt is all knitting. (Perfect for Olympic swimming watching!) The twisted rib of the sleeves and bodice requires a bit of attention but not really too much. Raglan decreases are just like sock toes. The only tricky part was getting the sleeves and the body on the same needles. The first row or two was a little tricky, because of the tight quarters around the armholes, and probably due to my inexperience in such things. After I adjusted, it went swimmingly. I even worked the crochet without the expertise of others, relying only on my Knitter's Companion, by Vicki Square.

AND! I promise faithfully, from now on, from the bottom of my heart (and on my copy 'The Opinionated Knitter' by EZ) that I will always always always knit for gauge when preparing to knit wearable garments that will need to fit living breathing human beings....

Some Blooming Things...

I've ridden to work three days this week. I've ridden home two of those days. Yes, I wimped out one day and called Wonderful Guy, who lovingly and faithfully fetched me. It looked rainy and blowey!

But I digress.

Riding has given me the opportunity to notice the change that happens in Northern Colorado in mid-August. Suddenly, and I mean, almost from one day to the next, there is a shift, and the shadows in the morning are different. Summer has started to wind down, and I panic.

Not yet!

Instantly, the lackadaisical attitude toward the yard and my growing friends that had crept in during the hot days of July evaporates. I realize my warm days are more precious and far fewer, and the evil first frost that will snuff the life from my tomatoes is mere weeks away. (Snow is forecast in the high country tonight. I kid you not.)

So I spent some time enjoying the yard yesterday.

My, my! Joe Pye!


Just your common Tiger Lilies.


Nasturtiums I grew from seeds. Yes I did!


Chamomile.

A view of the stone bench from the chamomile's perspective.

The flower in the banner is giant blue lobelia.

Ravelympic update:
Sleeves are done!
Waist is done!
Sleeves are attached to dress!
Knitting on bodice has begun with raglan decreases (which are just like toe decreases for socks)!

(She might be knitting faster than the Phelps swims!)

Exactly How Small of a World Is It?

Last night, Wonderful Guy and I took his twice removed father's cousin (or some such) who has just returned to the area from a brief sojourn out of state, to dinner. While she is looking for work and a place to live, she is staying with friends. When we took her home, she wanted us to come in. Said friends wanted to meet us. I was thinking more about home, Olympics, shower, knitting, but whatever.

As we pulled up, she opened the garage door, and there were two motorcycles. I knew there were common interests right off. Likely this wasn't going to be a quick hey and we're outta here.

Little did I know.

Seems that Mr. Friend and Wonderful Guy were twins separated at birth when it comes to their motorbike history.

Mrs. Friend says to me, as the motorcycle conversation took off, 'Well, you might as well come on over here and sit down...' Conversation commenced about similar trips taken, and stays at the same National Parks, when somehow, and I do not even remember how, but Mrs. Friend says...

"...his parents lived in Kansas in a small town that was hit by a tornado..."

"GET OUT!!! Not Greensburg?! That's my hometown."

Yes, it seems that Mr. Friend's dad bought the dental practice from the tooth guy that left traumatized me about dental work to this day.

We don't seem to have mutual acquaintances, but we sure do know the same places. Or places that were.

Cuz was kind of stunned, I believe. The stories about the tornado, family histories, acquaintances, and familiar places sort of left her in the dust.

But what are the chances that she would be living with people that know where my people come from?

Ravelympic Update, Day 3

...or is it four? Or does it matter? I think not.


I reached ten inches on the skirt of Miss Muffett in Blue last evening. Since I was waiting on the the response from Wisest Sister to The Needle Emergency, and could not continue with the waist and bodice, I started the sleeves.



Behold! Ten inches of skirt and the lace panel insert. Insert will lie in front off center of the finished garment. (See the little gold safety pin, I mean, stitch marker? That's center back.)


The Needle Emergency was resolved today, thanks to Wisest Sister and her post haste ways. I received 2 (yes 2!) size 5 - 24" circular needles with which to continue on my Ravelympics entry for the Baby Dressage event for Team Colorado. Many thanks and great accolades of praise for once again yanking my buns out of the oven in the nick of time, Wisest Sister.


Wisest Sister maintains the needle cache of several ancestors. Well, at least that of our mother and maybe her sisters. One of our aunts was known for going for the new-fangled. I will bet (and I could be wrong here) that this set of circs was Aunt Annie's.


See the hinges.



I am going to use the other, more conventional set. I am betting, since we do not see these for sale by the hundreds, someone figured out, back in the day, that there were some inherent problems with this engineering. I do not want to re-figure those issues out in the middle of this project. Oh, she is the wise one, she is!

Why Does She Think...

...this is going to work?

My washed alpaca, waiting for teasing, carding, and spinning...NOT a cat bed.

And for something completely different (yet not so much, since still fiber related!), Ravelympics progress from yesterday.

Behold! The Miss Muffett picot hem and lace panel.

And because I misread the supplies and instructions, I am now in a position where I must find a set of size 5 24"circs, rather than being completely set for just knitting beginning to end.

Will I need them before Tuesday?

Should I buy them today, since the LYSes are closed on Sunday and Monday?

Will Wisest Sister have a set that she can mail to me?

Stay tuned!

PS I am very please with how the project is going, by the way.

Ravelympics

The idea is that…starting at the opening ceremonies, and ending with the closing ceremonies, I will cast on, knit, then cast off….something.

My team: Team Colorado (of course!)
My event: Baby Dressage
My goal: Miss Muffett for Grandbebe Girl
My yarn: Linie 12 Clip, an Egyptian cotton in a lovely shade of royal-ish blue.

Now the rules say no casting on before opening ceremonies, Beijing time, which was 6AM today, in the Rockies. It is safe to say that Miss Muffett wasn't on the Needles of Iron at that time! I did start the casting on shortly after 7AM, just because I thought, I can cast on a few with my coffee and Matt Lauer!

(You know what? Meredith Viera had on the same dress as she did yesterday! I think they must have taped today's Today yesterday! Yes I do, and that would make Today actually Yesterday, and that just might breach the space time continuum and then where would we be and just what were they thinking? Like I would be the only one to notice that lovely dress of bright aqua-turquoise....because I am thinking that was the color.)

I must cast off by 10AM on the 24th. That is Saturday morning, so that will help.

In other news...

I picked, and we ate, on a salad my little zukes last night, along with a garden grown tomato. Ymmy!

Another week of teetering on the brink at work. It's scary that I am getting so good at this, and that normal for me is now so very very weird! I sure hope I am learning what I need to be learning in all this.

I fully intend to start riding the bike to work next week. Again. July was a very off month with all the trips, vacation planning, and visitors. Feeling a desperate need for more regular exercise, both mentally, physically, and emotionally. Where I am feeling a need, nothing for it but doing something about it!

And, everybody? Thanks for checking in and reading this little effort of mine. I appreciate it. Really, I do!

Tomato Update

I was so set to share my homegrown tomatoes with Dearest Sister. We had ONE! The rest just sat on the vine, refusing stubbornly to ripen one whit.

Stupid tomatoes. (Not really. I take that back. I love my tomatoes. Please don't tell them I said that.)

Dearest Sister and I did share the one, each of us having a delicious BLT, when everyone else was out and about, and it was very yummy, indeed. We didn’t share with anyone else. I made homemade chocolate chip cookies, and homemade ice cream, and we had fresh corn on the cob while everyone was here, and…and…and…we don’t have to share my one tomato if no one else is around! Gosh.

Monday, the day Dearest Sister left? I picked two. Go figure.

I have 2 little finger sized zuchinnis that I will probably pick this week-end. I also have had some beautiful pumpkin blooms, and a wonderful vine, but no fruit there, or on the yellow squash plant. Might get some, might not.

I spent a good deal of time outside in the yard on Tuesday, deadheading and weeding. That felt very good. July was busy, and some things had gone a little wild. At least a portion of the yard is back in control. My intent was to continue around the beds last night, but darn it, we had rain! It was the first real moisture we have had in about 30 days, so I put up with it. I might get some work outside done today.

Or not.

P is for ….

...Passages. The passage of time…rites of passage…all of that.


Eldest Daughter with Grandma

This week Eldest Daughter turns thirty. A rite of passage for her, and it marks the passage of time for me.

How is it that I can be old enough to have a 30-year-old daughter? I am under no illusion, nor do I feel like I am still in my twenties, nor do I have any desire for that age again. Really I don’t! But I see the sixties on the horizon, and WTF! No matter how I paint it, people in their sixties have always been old people….at least until now.

Eldest Daughter and me, just a few days old

Back to Eldest Daughter. It is a special day for her, and it was a special day for me when she came into my life…3 decades ago. I think back to how my mothering instincts kicked in immediately the moment she arrived. Like a switch…one moment there’s me, all laid back about stuff, taking it as it comes (except for that labor part)…the next minute I might have killed another human being that threatened that little baby girl.

Eldest Daughter has grown up to be a person I would enjoy being around, be friends with, even if I wasn’t her mother. She and I share the same vocation, in the same industry, which is very interesting. We really understand each other’s work.

Eldest Daughter and me, 2 weeks old

We also share interests in some of the same hobbies, like knitting and scrap booking/card making. Don’t tell, but I let her use my Ravelry logon to look around. She says it is like ‘peaking in the closet at Christmas time’ (the closet being where I hid the presents when the girls were little)! And now she and her SO have bought a place with a couple of gardening plots. She is excited to get some iris planted this fall.

And funny! She cracks me up all the time. But sometimes she bosses me around. Impertinent young miss! So now I guess she is getting to be an impertinent older person?

If only Eldest Daughter didn’t live so far away, way back on the east coast. I have had the opportunity to visit a few times since she has been there, and she makes it back here, when she can. I am so fortunate we have that sort of relationship where we really enjoy being with each other, doing things together, sharing conversations on a deep level.

I feel a lot of guilt for not having done parenting as well as I might have. A lot. But I look at my relationships with my kids, and realize that maybe, just maybe, I didn’t do it all wrong.

Our First Hummingbirds…

…showed up last night.

A couple years ago, Wonderful Guy, who is only slightly less enchanted with hummingbirds than with me, thought we needed a hummingbird feeder to add to the collection of bird feeders we already have around the yard. We found a nice one, researching the best way to do the food and migratory habits, etc.

I also have planted several perennials that are known to attract hummingbirds over the years. We usually have a few pairs each year, and they are so much fun to watch. The last couple of years, we have even seen them rest on the tomato cages. Still, and unmoving, for several minutes at a time. Very remarkable.

Unfortunately, and much to Wonderful Guy’s chagrin, the hummers like my plants more than the feeder! Apparently, our hummer pairs are of the organic persuasion.

I think Wonderful Guy feels a bit insulted by it all.

Six States Sox - Parting Shots

As I posted here, I finished the last of Dearest Sister's birthday gift a mere 30 minutes before she arrived for her visit, last Wednesday. Maybe less!

Oh, knitting furiously, I was.

I tweaked them just a bit after her arrival, reweaving an end, and working a wonky gap at the gusset. Nothing too big. And I dare say, she was impressed just a bit! She modeled them for a shot both for blogland and my Ravelry page.

And I realized they are really Seven States Sox. We traveled through the southwest corner of Nebraska on our way to Kansas last month, so these sox were knitted on in Colorado, Nebraska, Kansas, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Montana.

Amazingly well traveled for mere hand knitted socks!

Crystal Palace Silk (2 skeins)

Hedera Socks from Knitty, Spring 2006 (made larger)

And now Dearest Sister has gone back home, with her socks, and I am locally sisterless once more....(heavy sigh).

Such a Hit...

...we were! Dearest Sister with Dung Beetle, the Isetta, and me with Betsy, the Flying Lendrum. Wonderful and Galaxie, the Guys were there, too, of course!

The car show was held at Heritage Square, which is a mini-amusement park, so there were many families that were there for other purposes. Theses micro cars are so cutey-wootie, they can't help but catch one's attention. Betsy and the baby alpaca got alot of attention, too, especially by young boys of the 4-7 age range, interestingly. They seem fascinated by the mechanism of how the contraption of a spinning wheel works.

There were many Princesses there as well. Apparently Snow White was making an appearance and several girls were dressed likewise to see her. Of course, young princesses are attentive to spinning wheels, too, if only to not prick their fingers on spindles, thusly being caused to fall asleep for a hundred years. Dangerous stuff, that.

Me? Not a worry so much. Not so much princess material here! Ask Dearest Sister....she will be sure to tell you all the facts!

P.S. One enters the Isetta from the front, and this Isetta was trailered to the car show. Top speed is about 35 mph. Not ready for interstate driving! And Elvis had one when he was in Germany in the service. He gave it to his manager.

Look at us...

We are having too much fun!

This is Dearest Sister and myself in her Isetta (aka the Dung Beetle). She and Galaxie Guy are here for the vintage micro car show in Golden Saturday. This evening, we took her Isetta around the neighborhood for a practice spin.

It brings a smile to everyone's face! Literally!! There's nothing for it but smiling when one sees this little guy come tooling around the corner.

Come see us tomorrow if you are in the neighborhood. Heritage Square in Golden!