Sugar Bunny Boulevard

It's Wednesday Again!

Thanks for the Congratulations to Katie!  She will love reading the comments when she returns to Planet Earth after having so much fun with her friends.

I have always been reluctant to have more than one guest at a time stay over with the kids (as in - I have never allowed it!) because of the typical fears.  Noise.  Staying up late.  Noise.  Eating us out of house and home.  Noise.  Making messes.  Noise.  You know how it is. 

Thank goodness I can honestly say that this group of girls really amazed me with their polite and respectful behavior.  I will enjoy having them visit again any time!  This morning when everyone got up I made sure they sat together on the porch with the babies before they started going home.  I know that every one of them has their photos plastered all over "MySpace" so I wasn't overly concerned with permission from parents to post their photos.  One of these girls didn't stay the night but came over early this morning!

Daily Square Report:

Yay!  We got 31 squares today!  Wait, am I adding correctly?.... 12 + 29... NO!  OH MY GOODNESS.... we got 41 squares today!  From just four people!  Hip Hip Hooray!  Anybody who thinks I'm working hard on this project just needs to look around.  I have been so amazed and overwhelmed by the outpouring of support and effort for this project by SO MANY PEOPLE!  That brings our count to somewhere around 146!  Very close to that.  Actually a few more because I've just been tossing my own squares into the gigantic sack o' squares.  Have you ever seen those enormous 20 gallon ZipLock Bags?  Emeline could stand up in one of these and I could zip it shut!  Not demonstrating this for obvious reasons.  But you know what I'm saying - they're huge.  I've filled half of one of those big ZipLocks.  Whew.  We're getting squares now y'all.  We're getting squares!!  Today's squares were received from the following:

Holly - Papillion, NE
Elizabeth - Sacramento, CA
Barbara - Miami, FL
Ann - Madison, CT (2nd package!)

Sometimes I know when I've gotten a second package from a certain individual, but now that I'm starting to get a lot of packages I might lose track!  Please forgive me if I don't realize that you've sent packages before! 

A few people have emailed with cries of desperation when they realized they might not have been measuring correctly as they made their squares!  At first I thought, Oh no!  But then I realized, Gosh, quite a few people have done this!  They measured their squares on the diagonal at 8".  Umm... that will give us about a 6" square y'all.  But, as I have said many times before on this here blog..... DO NOT DESPAIR!!!  I assured the people who emailed about their measuring woes and confessions that we WILL use every square!  And you know what?  We could make some really adorable child or crib size afghans with those 6" squares, don't you think?

Today when I opened today's package from Ann Nyberg, Knitting Newscaster Extraordinare, I let out a big "Awwwww!" and had an instant brain storm when I saw her lovely 12" square with a heart design knit into it.  Look at what a sweet child size afghan it will make with some of the 6" squares I have received around it.

Can you see Ann's heart?  Oh, red is so difficult to photograph.  How about in black and white?

I'm loving each and every square that comes in!  Keep 'em coming!  I'll be starting to seam the first full size afghan soon!  Maybe your square will be in it!!

Our Grandy (Jeff's Dad) is about the same.  They have scheduled hip surgery for Friday at noon.  One problem has been keeping his blood oxygenated well enough... I think because of taking him off the blood thinners?  He has so many medical and health complications that surgery is very risky.  Please continue to think of him and send all the prayers and healing vibes you can.  :)

With end-of-year kid craziness and afghan craziness and writing up the Group Hug crochet pattern I have let my bloglines get a little behind over the past few days.  I'm REALLY trying hard to answer every email and comment and question about the afghan project as they come in so please bear with me if you're looking for a response.  If you have a question about something else maybe you can disguise it as an afghan question and get a quicker response.  hehe

Everybody take care and OHHHHHHHHH I wanted to say that if you have any questions or comments about the Group Hug crochet square pattern please let me know!  I'm going to try to get the pdf made but with LOST on tonight and all.... mmm... I'm not sure when I'll get to it!  Probably by the end of the week.  :)

Have a nice Wednesday!

Group Hug is Ready

It's been a long and wild and crazy and great day here at the Bunny Hutch!

This morning bright and early was Katie's 8th Grade Promotion.  Some towns make a big deal about this, some don't.  When I was in 8th grade it was no big deal.  We went home on the last day of school.  These days they make a much bigger deal about it and the kids dress up and they send invitations to their 8th Grade Promotion.

It's tough to be in the right place at the right time to get a great stage picture at these things!

I did get a few good pictures after the big event was over.  :)

Then somehow a sleepover was planned.  Girls schemed.  They walked to each others houses.  They called on cell phones and sent a lot of text messages.  We have five nearly-high-school-girls in the den watching a movie.... and the house is getting a little quieter.

The babies have been in hog Heaven all day with all the attention from the big girls.  heh

And all the while we had girls in and out the door and up and down the stairs, I worked on finishing the blocks and pattern for the Group Hug for Greensburg square.  I'll get a link on the sidebar but for now you can CLICK HERE for the pattern.  I'll also be putting a link on that page for a printable pdf but at the moment I'm just ready for bed. 

There was NO Afghan Mail at the church today!  After all that mail yesterday I guess the mail carrier deserved a rest.  hehe  I'll leave you with some pictures of the new squares I added to the count today.  Have a great rest of your week.  :)

Wednesday Catch-Up

Hi everybody!  I've been quiet on my blog this year.  Not intentionally, really.  Mostly because I've been pretty busy with kids.  Trying to knit more.  I actually have a tiny little not-very-important pattern I'm designing with the hopes of submitting it to Knitty for the Fall '07 Issue.  They probably won't want it. (trying hard not to think too positive so if they say "are you kidding?" I won't be too disappointed)  So I've been gabbing less and thinking more.  And reading.  It's really tuff to keep up with so many blogs and feel like I'm the kind of friend I want to be by reading and commenting.  I'm generally not very brief when I leave comments (surely to the distaste of some), so it takes a lot of my time.

I'm really trying hard to do my very best to keep up with my wish to do as much charity knitting as much as I can during 40 Days For Others.  A few posts ago I showed several skeins (total of 100g) of brownish yarn that I had spun with the intent of using it for a Dulaan project of some kind.  Well I decided to make an Avalanche Vest with it.  But it wasn't thick enough to produce the kind of dense fabric called for in the pattern.  I was afraid I would run out if I just doubled it, so I started adding yarn to carry along with the homespun.  Just scrap stuff from here and there.  Unraveling swatches.  Using up bits of left overs from projects, adding in some of the recycled cashmere sweater, etc. 

This morning I finished up the button band.  It's the first time I've knit on a button band so this was a learning experience and I wasn't about to go forward without giving it a wash.  It's true that blocking covers a multitude of sins because it was looking pretty bad after I cast off.  I still need to do the ribbing around the armholes and then I'll wash it again.

The dark brown stripe in the middle of the vest is an interesting fiber that I spun - it's Buffalo!  Back when I received the stroller and package of luxury spinning fibers from a friend, there was.... lemme see... I think 16oz of buffalo fiber in there too.  I thought I'd save this for a special project but then again... when I started examining my fiber stash I thought maybe I would spin it for a Dulaan hat or something.  Well people - this is not really the type of fiber we're used to.  heh  First off, it's dark brown.  A lovely dark chocolate brown with slight variations in color.  Second, there is a variety of fiber types within this batch of buffalo fiber.  A label on the outside of the package says "felting fiber".  That would be as opposed to spinning fiber, I guess.  It has pretty much no odor, but doesn't really seem to be clean.  I don't know anything about it or how it was handled or processed before I got it and I know nothing of how they collect this fiber.  There is a lot of just loose dirt in the fiber, and some amount of VM (vegetable matter = leaves, twigs, grass, etc).  I've read on Cassie's blog about how Icelandic wool has different types of hair, like guard hairs, etc.  This seems to be the same way.  There are some very long thick straightish (no crimp) hairs combined with fuzzy stuff.  When I started spinning I thought "I'm not going to take a lot of time trying to make this *nice*... it's just for a Dulaan hat - rustic is just fine."  It didn't take me long to get out the carders and try carding through these lumps of fuzzy stuff.  You can't spin clumpy fuzz.  My family has gotten very accustomed to seeing me spinning at virtually any time and in pretty much any place throughout the house - generally kitchen or living room.  I am often seen up stairs or setting the dining table or fixing dinner with a spindle under my arm and a length of wool thrown over my shoulder.  I was carding clumps of this fiber at the kitchen table making quite a mess with the dirt that was falling out - it's not matted clumps of dirt - just like loose sandy stuff that's somehow mixed into the fiber and falls out easily.  So I'm in the kitchen spinning this buffalo fiber and trying to get my husband to care that I'm spinning something like freagin BUFFALO fiber.  In our kitchen.  I don't know why my fascination about this does not impress my husband and children.  Jeff passes through the kitchen and I remark that this is very difficult to spin.  He doesn't really seem to care.  Thank Heaven for the knit blogging and spinning community that will express some kind of interest in the spinning and knitting that I do!  heh  The longer non-crimpy hairs are like SPRINGS.  You can put a hard spin on the spindle and that stuff wants to stay pretty straight and gives you a back twist that you don't expect!!  The single never did break due to back twist but still... it's something quite remarkable to me.  Overall, I would have to say the combined fibers make it really difficult to spin.  Imagine the hair from your shower drain (dark brown hair) mixed with taupe colored dryer lint.  Yes.  That's what this fiber is like.  Once I drew this conclusion I was somewhat nauseated about continuing to spin.  I decided to stop and let the fiber sit on the spindle for a few days so it might be easier to ply.  I had put my face to the spindle and felt the prickle of those springy straight hairs and thought "felting fiber is right... I don't know if I could torture a frozen child in Mongolia with this stuff."  I was ready to begin the Avalanche Vest and thought I could use the buffalo yarn as a stripe around the middle so I plied it.  Hm.  Sure did ply nicely.  And I washed it.  Amazing how there was *no dirt* in the wash water.  I guess it all fell out when I carded??  And then it was done.  Dried.  And... amazingly soft.  AMAZINGLY SOFT.

The brown stripe of buffalo fiber is softer than the entire rest of the whole sweater.  It's really amazing.  And I love that it's included in this vest.  And I have no pictures of the fiber after I spun it into yarn because I thought it would be so awful.  But of course now I have to overcome the nausea and just spin it because it's crazy soft.  Then I'll take pictures - 'kay?

On to other things I love.... like my children.  Specifically today, my daughter Katie.  Today's brag is about Katie.  My dear daughter recently entered the science fair in our county and out of 75 kids won first place for her project.  First.  With a cool big blue brag-worthy ribbon!  Two actually!  I thought it was pretty cool after yelling at her for leaving her experiment mess all over the bathroom and poster making mess all over the living room and dining room.  *sigh*  First place project still doesn't mean that she doesn't have to clean up after herself!  I felt a little bad when I found out that she got first place ... but still ... I've gotta be the mom. 

When she didn't know I was taking the picture yet:

The pose she really wanted to do:

In other news:

• Spring is coming - or at least we think it is.  Some bulbs are coming up... let's hope Mother Nature isn't faking us out.
• Babies are cute - and growing.
• I really am coming forth with dyed fiber and yarn soon - it's soaking - I'm just crazy busy with the kids.  Spring Break is in a few weeks and they'll be at their dad's... and I'll probably be clean out of yarn by then.  Guess I'll have to knit, huh?  heh
• Current sock project is nearly 50% finished (STR in Fire on the Mountain - Wendy's F&F toe-up pattern).  The STR skein I received from Carole claims that it's STR Medium.  So does that mean that Light is laceweight??  I thought their medium was sport weight.  This is not - it's definitely fingering weight.  The skein is/was 155g.  Okay, I know all the blah blah about how the old put-up wasn't enough yardage, but OMG, these are going to be long socks and I've just barely used 55g for the first sock.  Anyway, still loving the yarn even though I'm having to get used to the colors every time I get it out.  Emeline called it clown yarn or something like that. heh  The colorway reminds me of when we did experiments in 8th grade science, burning different minerals to see what color the flames were.

Everybody have a GREAT WEEK!  I hope your weather is pleasant.... and if it's not (like you poor frozen New York and New England people), I'm sending warm thoughts your way.  xoxox

Catching Up In Photos

We're busy.  All the time.  Not as busy as some people but still.... busy enough for us.  Having the babies adds a degree of difficulty for sure.

Mommy:  You know what I'm doing.  Knitting and spinning.  Thinking about charity stuff - doing some of it.  Easily distracted by the knitting and spinning.  Creating more new projects than I'm finishing.  More yarn coming in than coming off the needles = stash accumulation.  Imagine that.  heh  Thinking about the Estes Park Wool Market coming up in mid-June.  Oh my gosh that's not as far away as you think it is!  YAY!  This is 100g of wool I spun for the Dulaan knitting I want to do.  The more I think about it, the more I believe I should combine it with some stash yarn to make a little pullover or something.  It's hard to know what they need the most.  Of course the longer I think about it the less chance it'll become something this YEAR.

Daddy:  Working a LOT.  Trying to spend as many evenings at home as possible but of course it's never enough for us - we like having him with us.  The babies abuse him horribly - demanding that he hold them both while watching their favorite Elvis and Wiggles videos on youtube.  Emeline is often heard barking out orders like, "DADDY - PLAY!!" and gesturing toward the closet where her favorite blocks and legos are located.  Lila Pearl just screams DADDY DADDY DADDY until he picks her up.  Oh the torture. 

Benny:  Just finished up the season of Freshman Basketball.  Didn't play as much as he would like but they had a winning season and he states that he made a lot of new friends and learned a lot.  Still making awesome grades with what seems like minimal effort.  He's been planning to go out for the golf team but really hasn't played golf before.  Considering the level of competition and number of kids going out for golf, he might switch to baseball.  He's in a "woods" class this semester and brought home his first project last week:  a cutting board.  This thing is HEAVY!!!

Katie:  Making new friends at school.  Making good grades at school.  Still in full "self portrait mode" with the camera.  I'm constantly finding more and more pictures of her taken from the end of her own arm.  ha  Does an amazing job of making new friends yet maintaining her individuality and self esteem.  I like this girl a lot.  Still the manager of the 8th grade girls basketball team (was advised by the doctor not to play because of her broken arm in the fall).  Trying to learn how to budget her telephone air time wisely.

Suzannah:  Ditto pretty much everything that I said about Katie except for the cell phone because she doesn't have one yet!  Stuck in the middle between two older siblings who get to do *everything* and two babies who get to do nothing.  She went with me to the Knitting Meetup in Wichita on Saturday morning and took her own knitting.  Maybe I should be showing a picture of that - but we'll wait until she has a finished object.  She's currently brainstorming about what her next project will be (what she will think of as her first REAL project) and what kind of yarn to use.  I told her she could pick ANYTHING as her first "real" project and we'll find a pattern suitable for her experience level.  Any suggestions out there??  Like I said - she's pretty much a small version of Katie, so here's Suzannah's self portrait.

Emeline:  Talking Talking Talking!!!  Just finished seven weeks of swimming lessons - she loved it!  Just started seven weeks of "Nastics" - she loves it!  So far all she wants to do is run around the gym jumping but eventually the newness will wear off and maybe she'll slow down to jumping in place.  hehe  Favorite toys right now are blocks and legos and books but the biggest surprise has been how much she loves the plastic backpack full of pretend McDonald's food hat she got from Katie for Christmas.  I think this was $5 at Wal Mart and gets a LOT of play time.  She also loves to play with the backpack and.... Sorry Daddy.... gotta show this picture.  The first time she put on the backpack she headed for the front door and said she was going to school - at 8:00pm.  I took this one the other morning.  She just loves to play like she's going to school and doing homework.  heh  And it brings her Daddy to tears thinking about his little Emeline going to school.  *sniff*

Lila Pearl:  Talking Talking Talking!!!  If Emeline can say or do it, Lila Pearl wants to be saying and doing the same thing.  She's talking quite a lot and surprising us every day with new things.  She loves reading books as much as Emeline and will never be satisfied with being in the shadow of her big sister.  I've said it before.... Lila won't be ignored.  :)

A few days ago I was trying to take pictures of some glass for Jeff to list on eBay.  You cat owners think you have problems.  ha

What began as this.....

Turned into this...

And then this....

So in conclusion... Life stays interesting at the Bunny Hutch.  Still knitting and spinning and yes Adrienne.... even dyeing.  I have done a little dyeing for the shop but still need to list it... and will be doing more very soon.  VERY soon!  Just like all the charity knitting.  ha  Oh the plans I make.

Everybody have a GREAT WEEK!  :)

Knitting Foes

Whelp.... so much for my sidekick abilities.  The Colts won.  Congratulations to Peyton Manning, congratulations to his coach and his team.  Congratulations to the team owner (as if he has anything to do with them winning) and all that.  And I'm sure the boy in Katie's math class will come up with a new lifetime wish.  Fourteen is a sadly early age to have your greatest dream/wish come true.  Aim higher, hon.  But be careful what you wish for.... we all know what happened to Hurley when he won the Lottery!  heh

LOST will be starting up again on Wednesday.  This is a much bigger event to me than the Super Bowl and it is only one fourth as LONG.  I swear I will probably CRY when this episode is over on Wednesday night because I don't have any more LOST for another WEEK.  I just finished watching the last disk of the first season.  Whew!  I was on the edge of my seat for all six disks.  I'm telling you.... it was HARD TO TURN THE TV OFF when it was getting late at night.  At some point during disk four or five at the end of one show Pregnant CLAIRE popped out of the woods and then the show was over... and my husband jumped off the couch, turned off the TV and said, "Time for bed!"  GAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!!  ::calm::calm::calm::  I am looking forward to Wednesday night with great anticipation.  And I want NO INTERRUPTIONS.  Honey, do you think we can get TIVO by then?  If not, I might have to rent a hotel room for an hour.  *smooch*

So we have some knitting foes!  Yes, I feel the need to spell it out.  Because people will be wanting to correct my grammar if I don't.  Really.  When you have a knitted Finished Object you refer to it as a FO.  But do people say that in their mind as FOE or as EFF OH ??

I say FOE.  Gramatically that is .... "I have a FOE to show."

Some say EFF OH.  Gramatically that is "I have an EFF OH to show."

Now that we're on the same page... and you know that I say FOE.... here we have it.

Besotted.  In the category of "Norma said if it's not in the mail, don't send it now - save it for next year."

Next up... a long overdue FOE.... Katie Basic Sweater from LB Homespun - the yarn I will never use again unless I'm being tortured on a deserted island in a dimly lit underground bunker and the only way to get home is to knit with this yarn.  BLEH.  They'd probably require that I also count rows which is pretty much impossible even with good light.  Goodbye dear sweater, I am so glad to be FINISHED WITH YOU.  And Katie loves it.  But she doesn't like how it flares out a bit in the back.  I told her "It's not supposed to be a fitted sweater, dear."  I was on Sleeve Island for EVER with this sweater but I have something new in the wings that I'm just dying to work on so this one had to get finished first cause I'm just that kind of person.  I have very little self control when it comes to finishing stuff and I was feeling AWFUL that I hadn't gotten this done for Katie sooner.  It was finished last night at midnight and she wore it to school today - thus, poorly lit photos.

More randomish stuff:

• I really want to make photo albums for my FOEs.
• The Kansas Knit Bloggers webring is READY!  YAY!!  I need to make a seperate post for this but it's not happening today.  I'm still working on links for the sidebar on the home page but the ringsurf joining page is ready.  The webring is intended for people that actually do live in Kansas or who travel here often and might talk about Kansas yarn shops or something on their blog.  The purpose is to help bring together Kansas knitters as a regional community.  Hopefully anyone with an interest in Kansas or who would like to know about yarn shops and fiber farms in Kansas will find our blogring full of helpful information and friendly people.  But really.... current or future residence in the state of Kansas is pretty much necessary, don't you think?  I'm not a born leader... I'm too wishy washy sometimes... so maybe I'm a terrible person to host the ring!  But I'll try - I'll really TRY to put my foot down about some sensible guidelines about participation in the ring.  With a smile too.  :)

Everybody have a great week!  Knit!  Stay toasty warm!  Enjoy the snow if you have some!  Take down your Christmas tree if you haven't already!  :)

Fourteen Christmases

Way way back in December 1993 when Benny was 14 months old and his Daddy and I were getting ready to buy our first house, we were also expecting our second baby.  We closed on our house in the little known community of Crawford, Texas, December 15th.  Baby was due to arrive on December 20 so we had to hurry!

My parents and younger brother and sister arrived from Michigan on December 19th to help us move, celebrate Christmas, and welcome the new baby.  The last piece of furniture, my piano, was moved in on the evening of December 24th.  Benny was tucked into bed and Santa visited our house.

Bright and early December 25th - 3:30am to be exact - I awoke with labor contractions.  As the world was welcoming Christmas Day, our Katie was born at 7:00am December 25, 1993.

She weighed 10lb 12oz and I always said that if I had known she was so big I never could have gone through with the delivery.  She had more hair than a lot of kids have by their 2nd birthday and she was very strong!  She could roll from front to back when she was two weeks old!

Katie grew and so did her hair.  To my constant amazement, people often asked if she was wearing a WIG!  She did, however, finally grow into her hair.

Fourteen Christmases have passed and she has continued to grow into a beautiful young lady.  I'm proud and happy to be her mother and can't say enough good things about Katie - her excellent grades, her sweet and thoughtful personality, her great sense of humor - too many things to list.  So I'll stop at that. 

If you have survived the birthday photo parade then you deserve a little Eye Candy Update!  Here is Argosy as of yesterday afternoon.  It's another few inches longer now.