Mother Trucker

My new ride.

His name is Pedro.

I'm madly in love with him.

Night and Day

 

We went to the Wild Center on Saturday just to meet these sweet little baby skunks.

 

They are Night and Day and are about 5 months old.

 

Too cute when they hop around trying to catch crickets.

Ugly Duckling

Beautiful Swan

Darcie is taking Culinary Arts this year and created this amazing cream puff in class yesterday. Nice of her to take a photo of it to share before eating it. I have heard talk of whipping up a gaggle for home this weekend. Fingers crossed.

So Sad

Our dear sweet Buttercup the Butterfly passed away last night. The littlest princess and I placed her gently in a beautiful box then she and her father headed out to the back yard to bury her.

Sad and heavy hearts here still today.

Progress

Now that I'm finished with the miles of ribbing the Sockhead Hat is moving right along. I love it more with every stitch that I knit.

You and Me

Going golfin' in the dark...

We took the littlest princess for a little dinner and a little play time last night. The Comfort Inn in Plattsburgh has this great little Fun Zone with glow in the dark mini golf, mini bowling, and an arcade.

If you eat at the Perkins restaurant that's attached to the hotel you get free passes to either the golfing, bowling, or water park. Oh yeah, did I mention the water park with slides and splash pools??? SO much fun! If you live nearby it's totally worth checking out!

Guernsey Wrap

It's ready for its closeup.

I'm going to have to check the finished measurements but I think it's around 88" long and 15" wide.

I wish it was for me. Sadly, it will be leaving soon to live with it's rightful owner. I'm sure she'll love it and take great care of it though. And besides, the pleasure of knitting it was all mine.

Pattern: Guernsey Wrap by Jared Flood
Yarn: Spirited Fibers in Sangria

Worth. Every. Penny.

Hey Look

It's a hat!

Because this is a knitting blog. ;-)

Pattern: Sockhead Hat by Kelly McClure

Yarn: Madelinetosh Tosh Merino Light in Magnolia Leaf

And now...

for the rest of the story...

So Buttercup has completely stolen our hearts and we're hell bent on keeping her alive.

Mickey, on the other hand, has different plans for her. Please picture this 19 pound beast squished in the aquarium, and I do mean the ENTIRE beast, with our dear Buttercup partially dangling out of his mouth. It was horrifying. Although not as horrifying as the sound of him spitting her out. And yes, it made an audible sound.

Now on top of the bum wing she also has a bum leg which makes her a little lopsided. But she's still alive. And still eating. And pooping. So we're still loving her and hoping she has a nice normal life span. Which appears to be 9 months. And yes, we've made sure to remove her from Mickey's reach to help her achieve that life span.

Meet Buttercup

She's the newest member of the family and currently resides in our empty 10 gallon aquarium we normally use for sick fish.

My aunt brought her to us as a caterpillar who had just hung but hadn't gone to chrysalis yet.

Once her chrysalis turned black we couldn't wait to meet her. Days passed before she finally emerged with a bum wing which made flying impossible for her.

What to do with this beautiful butterfly? All choices seemed to suck. Leave her outside to starve or be eaten by another critter? Nope. Place her under a quick, heavy stomp? Hell no! Bring her inside and love her? Absolutely!

It's been over 2 weeks now and she's still going strong despite her brief encounter with the cat. I'll tell you about that tomorrow.

And just in case you're wondering what butterflies like to eat, well, Buttercup seems to love Buddy Fruits and water.

In Bloom

While looking for patterns for Halos of Hope I came across In Bloom. I thought it had great potential as a chemo hat and I'm hoping I was right because I've already whipped up two of them and I desperately want to crochet some more!

Bald is Beautiful

But this hat on a bald head is going to be beautiful too!

This is Molly by Erin Ruth. Knit by me, of course. I'm using the new Spirited Fibers yarn we got in at the store. It's luscious. Seriously. And the stitch definition...whoa baby!

And what's up with the bald talk? Sue is taking me along to Stitches East this year! (I know!!! How crazy lucky am I???) Halos of Hope will be there collecting hats and donations for their amazing cause. Go read about them and tell me you wouldn't want to get involved. What an awesome thing to do! So we're knitting hats and collecting hats at the store to take along to Stitches East with us. We're even having some fun little events at the store to help the cause. The first one is tomorrow night and you can get involved too!

If you're local, drop in anytime between 6pm-9pm to work on a hat (or donate any you've already knit) and chat with us. The wonderful Rene from Cuppa Joe will be providing some light munchies and we'll be providing a 10% discount on any Spirited Fibers purchase you make. We'll also be drawing for 1 of 3 $10 Adirondack Yarns gift certificates! We'll also be accepting $10 donations for Halos of Hope tomorrow night. All donations received will go to SHAVE Benjamin of XRX. Read more below for the details.

Don't live nearby but still want to be part of the fun? You can make a donation to Halos of Hope AND vote to have one of the great guys from Stitches East shaved right on the market floor. How much fun will that be? Just email your receipt (Adirondack_Yarns at roadrunner dot com) to be entered for a chance at the gift certificates. Each $10 will get your name thrown in the hat. Please vote to shave Benjamin, won't you??? We're also extending the 10% discount on Spirited Fibers to include all phone or web orders for tomorrow, September 15, 2012.

Phew! I guess this long blog silence has left me with lots to say! LOL

Not a Cloud in Sight

I know it's not a Saturday sky but it was too beautiful not to share.

Happy New Year

I decided just before the first of the year that I was going to devote a lot more time to blogging this year. Then Darcie got sick and landed in the hospital for a couple weeks and that plan went straight down the shitter. Darcie has been home for almost 2 weeks now and she's doing incredible. So much so that I've even started knitting again. Last night was my first time back to knit night at the LYS in almost a month and it felt so good to get back to what passes for normal in these parts.

I knit myself these awesome Arc Mittens from the 2011 Interweave Knits Accessories magazine.

Complete and total love. The pattern calls for a single strand of Bulky Lamb's Pride but I chose to use 2 strands of worsted instead. So. Warm. I want a pair in every color of the rainbow now. Of course the next mittens on my list are Cloisonee by the Harlot. So many color combinations dancing through my head. What's the next project in your queue?

Road Trip

Ok, maybe it wasn't an honest-to-goodness road trip, but we did throw the girls in the van a couple weeks ago to go get some new summer clothes and groceries in Plattsburgh. We pulled in shortly after noon and stopped at the traffice light on the main drag. Dailaesse started bouncing around in the back of the van, excitedly screaming for us to look at the cute little doggy in the car next to us. Bran was driving and I was knitting. The car was on Bran's side. He turned and looked and his face got beet red. He told Dailaesse it wasn't a dog and asked her to please look forward. I had no idea what was going on so like an idiot, I looked over too. Bran was right, it wasn't a cute little doggy in the car next to us. It was a young guy in a sporty yellow car with a blond laying in his lap. Dear Lord.

The light FINALLY turned green and we continued on down the road to Sam's Club. We pulled in and the girls hopped out of the van. This is what was in the car a couple spots over from us...

It was an interesting day.

Pink Elephants on Parade

This is Baby Elephant Vest from IK. It will be for Dailaesse. Hopefully for this summer.

Family

This year Dailaesse asked to go back to school. After the horrid experience we had at our Catholic school the only other option was public school. We got her all registered and I asked the principal if I could volunteer on the playground or something so I could be there to check in with her every day. That ended up landing me a paid position on the playground ground every day with the Kindergarten and 5th grade classes. Let me give you an example of how entertaining this has been...

Just before Easter break I was walking the Kindergarten class down to lunch. They were all excited about their upcoming vacations.

Kid 1: I'm going to Disney!

Me: How exciting! That's awesome!

Kid 1: Yeah. But I have to go on a plane. I've never been on one. I'm a little nervous.

Me: There's nothing to it. It's just like sitting in your living room chair.

Kid 2: I'm going to Washington D.C. for vacation.

Me: That will be lots of fun!

Kid 2: Yeah.

Me: Will you drive or fly?

Kid 2: Fly. We never drive.

Me: You should talk to Kid 1 and tell him what it's like so he won't be so nervous. Have you been to Washington before?

Kid 2: Yeah. We go lots.

Me: Do you have family there?

Kid 2: No. My grandpa and grandma live there.

Sunday Squares

We started a KAL at the store for the Great American Aran Afghan squares. We were originally going to meet the first Sunday of each month but we've been having so much fun that it's turned in to a weekly gig. Here are my pre-blocked squares so far:


Ann Strong

Suzanne Atkinson

Hanna Burns

Julie H. Levy

Georgia Vincent


I'll have to beg you to forgive the crappy cell phone pics. They really are much more gorgeous IRL. :-)


Today I worked a couple rows on the newest I have OTN. I can't wait to show that one as a finished square as it will complete my first row. One of the ladies at the store started working on the cable border and brought that in with her today. I wasn't so sure that I would use that border but seeing it today is making me re-think that.

Pardon Me...

While I blow the dust off this blog...

I'll be back tomorrow with knitting news.

Promise.