Knit for Brains

Stuck in a Rut

I am in a rut.  In knitting and in life, nothing much seems to be getting accomplished despite my best intentions.  Clapoteeny is getting nowhere fast.  I need to finish something.  I need a sense of completion!  I think I am going to put Clapoteeny aside, fix the mistake in Fiona's tank top and finish that.  Scarf season seems to be going, although I will be ending up with a lovely cool (as opposed to frigid) weather scarf, I will end up with it in August at this point when I finish Clapoteeny.  I hope I don't eat my words in another huge storm or while I scrape a thick layer of frost off the car.  Anyway, the tank top will be more seasonally appropriate and Fiona really wants to wear it soon, and I will finish something, finally.

I do have flora pictures today, but I left the camera in the car which David has taken for an oil change.  The indicator lights and oil percent messages were getting dire.  I think if I had gone much further without an oil change the car would have been reduced to kicking me hard in the shins while I was driving, or worse yet, hiding my driving knitting (well, the knitting I take in the car for when David is driving.  We don't have enough stop lights around anymore to make stop-light-knitting worth while)!

Rain Day

Well, I think that everyone has around here, at least, has heard about the flooding thanks to the Nor-Easter of '07.  I had never dealt with flooding other than in our basement back in Brooklyn.  But over the weekend we had bridges out, and a central road completely covered.  David said you couldn't even tell that there was a road there at all.  The kids had 2 days off from school during which I went nuts.  At least over snow days the kids could go play in the snow.  During Rain days you can't really send them anywhere.  Plus, the second Rain Day was a day the school didn't have to give so, I don't know what is going to happen.  One nice thing that happened was that I got to take Emmett and Fiona for riding lessons.  Of course what is usually a 15 minute drive was 30-35 minutes during which we drove through several towns.  We got some amazing views of swollen rivers with trees that are usually with plenty of space on the bank, now fully in the river.  Fiona saw a tree with a tree house in it, pretty far out in the river.
And in the interim Maeve turned 3!  She got a bouquet of balloons that made her so happy:

She was almost as happy about the balloons as she was when we found out that Fiona and Emmett were going to stay home on her birthday.
Not much knitting lately, really.  A bit of work was done on Clapoteeny last night only to realize that I had gotten turned around and started knitting in the wrong direction so all the work that was done while watching "Taken" on DVD, had to be undone, while still watching "Taken".  It's a good thing that the episodes are long and we have an 8 second rewind button.

It's April isn't it?

Snowing.  It was snowing today.  It is April and it was snowing.  We were expecting a huge storm of heavy rain and high wind.  We got snow:
At the time this was taken I had gone outside so David could get a picture of the snow and the scarf.  Because of time constraints, I didn't bother to put on a regular pair of pants or shoes.  I think this is what accounts for the slightly maniacal look.  That's what you get for running outside in cotton pajama bottoms and slip on shoes in the cold and slushy snow of April.  But here is the Fun With Yarn scarf.  I am beginning to think that I may have brought on this crazy weather.  I misplaced the scarf in the chilly, found it in the lovely weather, finished in the lovely weather.  But then, sad I could not wear it, the Knitting Faeries felt my sorrow and decided, under cover of global warming, to send a bit of scarf weather.

And here are some photos of some not so wild wild life:

Over Spring Break I took the kids to the Butterfly Show at the American Museum of Natural History.  I always love this exhibit at the museum.

This is a beautiful moth.  Now, when I think of moths, more often than not it leads to heart palpitations and images of holes and chewed-through yarn.  I don't know what kind of moth this is, but it is gorgeous.

This is an Owl Faced butterfly (or something like that) because it looks like a...can you guess...an owl!

The Blue Morpho, one of my true favorites.

And here's a Blue Morpho that landed on Fiona's hat and stayed there for ages.

And a close up of Fiona's not so little visitor.

Here is David with Ambrose, my little hedgehog.  Ambrose is finally starting to come out of his ball when we're around.  He's such a cutie.

And here he is close up.  I love his little nose and little black eyes.  His feet are adorable and he walks with a sweet little waddle.  I was actually beginning to think he'd never like us.  But he likes us!  He really likes us!

No Pithy Title

About five weeks ago when we were in Brooklyn I went to Stitch Therapy in the hopes of getting some Noro Silk Mountain to make Ladama from Cornelia Tuttle Hamilton's Eternal Noro.  She didn't have any and we thought I could use Berroco Ultra Alpaca instead.  I picked out two colors, green and purple, that I liked when I put them.  I could not, however, get the gauge.  I remember talking to Maxine (I think that's her name.  My memory on this particular fact seems to be geographically dependent.  I remember in the shop then I am sure of what it is.) about three strands, but I didn't buy enough for three, so having left it for too long, I am at a loss as to what I was meant to do.  I fiddled around for a while until I decided that I really didn't like what I was getting.  From the picture, the yarn looks nubbly, and nubbly the alpaca isn't.  When I was cleaning up in the basement, organizing my stash on lovely new shelves from The Container store, I spied some...nubbly yarn!  I don't remember who gave it to me, and I could not think of what to do with it because I didn't like the way it knit up in anything.  Now, it has a purpose, maybe.

I finished the Fun With Yarn scarf.  Pictures will follow, but I have gotten many compliments, always a nice thing, and I think I am the only one I know who is happy we ended up with a cold snap.  I've been wearing it almost every day.  It is so soft and lovely!

We have been downloading a lot of music recently, most of it heard for the first time by us on a program Maeve loves called Jack's Big Music Show on Noggin.

Belated Friday

Before David told me that the temperature is about to drop drastically I had started to wash all of our winter outerwear in preparation for storage.  I was looking at the washing instructions  which were in hieroglyphics.  I know I have seen what these pictures mean, but who remembers?  So, I Googled.  I thought there may be others who would like this info.

Now for some fun stuff.  These are from my little garden.  We were showing the pictures to someone and one of the kids said "These are from mom's garden.  it's the most beautiful garden."  This made me so happy.  Not only am I so happy that the bulbs are blooming, my kids think my little patch is beautiful and that is just the best thing.

And this is how sunny it's been here.  It's great!

Clopteeny is coming along.  I have reached the 12th repeat of the pattern and it just ain't long enough.  So, on I go.  And on and on.  I am going to love it when I am done, and I will love when I am done!  No camera so no pictures..  Maybe soon.

FOUND!!!

I found my knitting!  If I had a working camera I would take a picture of my lovely, lovely yarn.  I will suffice with the old picture:

It was in with the umbrellas, by the front door which we hardly ever use.  The weather has gotten so nice that I have decided it is safe to wash and store all of the heavy winter gear.  I moved one of the kids' coats and looking down, there it was.  Happy, happy, happy!

Belated Flora and Fauna Friday coming soon.  We were away and my pictures and internet connection were on different computers.