Checking in

This is my oldest on his way to the jazz band concert.


The concert was amazing. His group had only been playing together since February and still were quite impressive. It was especially cool to watch the kids improvising for their solos and seeing them get into the music.

Now we are preparing for recital-palooza. Tomorrow, Little Miss appears as a Ladybug in a ballet performance of "Snow White," and both Little Miss and her older brother are playing in a piano recital on Sunday. My mom is here to see it all and we're really happy to have her. I will try to post some photos later.

There are still some great skeins left from this week's BBF update, both miniskeins and llama-shetland lace, and some great wild multis in Superwash Merino Classic:

Rubik's cube

Pac-Man Fever

I'm also very pleased with the JumboSox skeins: 600-yd skeins of Superwash Merino Classic, so that if you like making kneesocks or want to be sure you've got enough for a shawlette, you're covered. (I also think thirty bucks is quite a nice price, especially if you use the free shipping code on the home page!)

Hungry like the Wolf

All You Zombies

Otherwise, not much going on. I've got some more book reviews in coming weeks, but right now is when the knitting world starts to hunker down to get ready for fall and early winter publications, so there's lots of knitting and writing and swatching going on here.

P.S. Don't forget to toddle on over to Mindy's blog to wish her a happy, goat-y birthday!

Happy birthday, Elvis!

The big 1-1 -- and may you have many, many more!

It's official

My oldest kid is a knitter.

I had tried to teach him a few times in the past, but this summer, one of his day camps featured classes in Fiber Arts. He learned how to knit and purl, and used some of my leftover yarn to practice. I was shocked by how quickly he became comfortable with the motion and by how even his stitches are. He whizzed through a washcloth (see how diabolical I am? extra incentive to actually use the washcloth while bathing), not even batting an eyelash at the garter stitch edging, and started a hat:



This is some yarn I dyed and he asked if he could use it. The hat is nearly ready for the decreases and I have no doubt he'll manage those easily. I'm trying to convince him to go halvies with me on a sweater for him: I'll do the front and back if he does the sleeves...

Look who learned to knit!

Nope, not Charcoal.

I couldn't be prouder.



P.S. Extra points for anyone who can guess what yarn it is. . .

Double Digits

Yesterday, we celebrated my oldest kid's tenth birthday. Holy crap. I remember when he looked like this


and this



and even smaller except that my scanner won't play nice with the new and improved computer guts so I can't show you photos of the charming, nearly-9-pounds-at-two-weeks-early, pumpkin-headed, wouldn't-sleep-for-more-than-twenty-minutes- at-a-time-until-he-was-9-months-old, wanted-to-eat-every-minute infant that the OB had to get help yanking out of my stomach, he was so big and wedged in there when they decided to do a C-section after hours and hours of pushing. (At least I'm not bitter.)

Now he looks like this. (Sigh.)



He's a special kid and I'm proud of him.