Time...

In the last few months time has slipped away...A month ago my mother in law had to make the terrible decision to put Pookie to sleep. It was horrible. She got very sick very fast. Pookie had been with Lin and Keith for 18 years...Long time. We all miss her yowling when she did not get her way. The picture above shows one of the other tragiedies of the year... We still think Zeke is going to wander into the room with his funky strut. On the right you can see what I did at the start of October. Turned out pretty well. First paying gig and for a wedding! Okay so that isn't quite true...LONG STORY! The semester is almost over and I feel good about this semester so far. Hope the next two weeks go smoothly. So many things have happened recently it all seems a blur. One friend who was diagnosed with breast cancer in June has almost finished chemo! One more treatment. Meanwhile another friend is in my thoughts while she just tries to deal with the sheer weight of her news. My thoughts are with her always. I will be glad to be on the other side of Christmas as I always end up missing my family. I have so many it feels strange to only have us.(Okay so that is 6). But my mom has 10 brothers and sisters...And I am one of 9. So you can see a pretty HUGE family just there... Time keeps coming and time keeps going and so it will continue... Do we ever feel caught up? I haven't yet. Most of the time I feel good about it but just for a moment I would love to freeze the kids and enjoy them just this moment. I have been knitting lately and will try to get pictures of my sock on here soon. And maybe I will have a Christmas present picture too!

Peace to you and yours,

Sarah

Pushed under

I must maintain control...The last few weeks have flown. I really don't know what my problem is but I seem unable to catch up with myself this semester. I guess this might just be one of the reasons behind NOT having kids and a marriage before deciding what you want to be when you eventually grow up. I am trying to adjust to the schedule, add to the fact that wonderful Hubby is also now a fulltime student. Oh and guess what the Girl Scouts are calling. I love being me and love that I have been able to stay home with my kids because I had no career to get back to... but they depend on me so much that some of the pressure of keeping the place in order and normal mom stuff makes me put off studying... Pushes me under the bus to say the least. So for now I have not forgotten you my blog, I miss the time we briefly shared and I promise I will get in the groove this week. Peace from the inside out!

I am guilty

Okay so I thought I would try and write more often...the problem with that is that with 3 kids on spring break my time has been well crazy lately. But, the kiddos are back to school already and next week I start back myself! My friend PG13 had written about the beers I brought to her and then I thought "eeks it has been too long since I posted anything" Before I do anything else though here are some beers that although I can't drink beer due to allergy everyone says these are the best Vermont beers...Magic Hat "9"; Long Trail "Blackberry Wheat"; and
Trout River "Hoppin' Mad Trout"
Knitting has not been going so well aswell it is too freaking hot here. My northern blood is boiling. All I want to do is go back to Vermont where I was a couple of weeks ago and deal with what they consider a hot summer... I am knitting nothing at the moment. The last thing I tried to knit, I frogged. I am bored and I don't know where to begin. I have laceweight which I would love to try but am kinda scared because none of my other projects have been turning out right. One of first blogs had a picture of the Yarn Harlots snowdrop shawl that I had started and that is about how far I have gone so far... Maybe that is what I need to work on.
As I leave here are a couple of pictures of my minivacation to Vermont...how I miss home.

It's been awhile

Okay so my personal goal of writing at least once a week has failed. Too much going on. I have been missing my family a bunch lately and have decided that because of that today I am going to make my Grammies Wheat Germ Brownies...Don't let the wheat germ fool you these are gooey and full of molasses. And yet better for you than if they were made with flour. I grew up with these and the smell of them while they bake and cool brings me right back to sitting on Grammies kitchen floor with the molasses spoon in my hand savoring each lick. Molasses what a New England tradition... So if you feel the desire here is the recipe:
Wheat Germ Brownies
1/4 C melted butter or Marg.
3/4 C Sugar
1/4 C molasses
2 eggs
2 tsp. cinnamon
2 tsp. vanilla
1/4 tsp. nutmeg( I use freshly grated)
1 C raisins
1 C wheat germ
Appx 1 C sunflower seeds
1/2 C powdered milk
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt

Mix all of these together and bake in a 8 X 8 buttered and wax paper lined pan(butter paper) at 350 degrees for 30ish minutes. The brownies will pull away from the sides of the pan when done. Remove from oven and let cool for about a half hour then turn upside down and peel off wax paper. These tend to stick to the paper so you haven't done anything wrong if they don't stay together. Enjoy. From my family to yours.

Zeke, we love and will miss you....

You have been there wise old man for a long time. Now we must say goodbye... Know we all love you and will think of you and your little strut...your talking back...your insistance on eating whatever we have...the pizza man...Hugs forever...We love you...

What now?

Ever drift aimlessly in the knitting scene, tired of knitting the same type of thing again and again? Unsure of where to travel next? I finished my socks in Step last night. I then discovered that the sweater I so badly wanted to knit wasn't going to look right with my yarn given my gauge was way off the given...I have had this yarn for a year now and I am no closer to making into something for myself than I was then. Even better it has been discontinued...surprise... my knitting chicks can attest to the fact that it has been nothing but trouble even to simply wind up. So I am faced with two sock yarns to start...I am tired of socks. I have made 6 pairs of socks for myself in the last year....4 for my kiddos....one for the hubbie and several pairs of baby booties... I want a break...So I might start an afghan...I know here it is June in Missouri and I am thinking of starting a warm blanket. My friend needs a blanket. I am off to search the patterns in my stash.

Catching up with my sock pics!

So today I caught a break in the weather and went outside to catch some much needed pictures of some of the socks I have done. Last summer I had done the Jaywalkers with some cotton mix yarn that I think was Online brand. If it wasn't then it was Sockotta. I love them but they are a bit loose...I tried to knit on 1s but that wasn't working so any ways here they are...

A couple of weeks ago I started and finished this awesome pair of Monkey socks from Knitty in Jitterbug that some wonderful fellow sock knitters got me for my birthday! It says Popsicle but we thought Jamacian man! They are so me! I love crazy yarn! Unpredictable beautiful yarn. Jitterbug was fun to work with and so soft I will certainly go and get more as soon as the budget allows... This was the end result...

This week I have been getting ready for the end of school and managed to get the first of the Spiral eyelet pattern done in Step! I love it! So soft! Definitely will be looking for colors I can stand in this one...It is tamer than most my sock yarn but I like the colors together and it just looks right. Who knows what the next pattern may be...can't wait to see which yarn calls out to me next!

I'm it?!? AGHH!

Okay so Deb tagged me this week and I have been way to chicken to do anything about it... 7 things? Mmmm...

1. Most people don't know that I was born in El Paso, Texas at the Army Medical Center. I frankly have been slightly ashamed I wasn't a REAL Vermonter.

2. I met my husband on the internet. I DO NOT recommend this to any one else but it has worked for us for 11 years!

3. One of my best friends has been my friend since I was 10 and she was 9. That means this year is our 20th year of being friends...Scarey!

4. All of my immediate family lives in Vermont and New Hampshire. There is a constant battle between which is better...I have never lived on the other side of the river and have always called Vermont home.

5. I am one of 9 children. My dad and his first wife had three boys ( a set of twins and a single), then he married my mom and had three girls, THEN he married Aurie and inherited her kids so 2 step brothers and a step sister. For a long time we kidded my dad about heading the Brady Bunch.

6. I lived on goat farms until I was almost 10. I plan on going back and having a few because of my experience. I love goat cheeses and milk... it doesn't bother my stomach like cows milk which is actually why my mom started getting them.

7. My strangest pet I ever had was an iguana named Sampson( we found out later Delilah would have been correct). The guy at a pet store in the Ozarks said no one wanted her and he was going to let her go in the parking lot when he closed shop. Now any one that knows me knows I am a softy when it comes to animals. So I took her home and got online and started to read about them. She lived to be 7 years old. She was 6 and a half feet and she rode all the way to Vermont from St Louis on the dash of my 87 Taurus... She was so happy to be in the sun. My dog use to lick her and guard her from the cats...Mellow Rocks!

So there you go. My 7 things...trouble I am having is who to tag next...Oh I know... Here it comes your way Em.

In the meantime, I have put down the snowdrop shawl because I can't decide if I screwed up or if it is just because it is my first lace... My new sock is awesome and I will try to get some pics up soon.
Peace to all.

Look what she did!!!!

Hannah did this almost all by herself minus a few drop stitches! She now is the proud owner of a washcloth! So happy am I!

To start anew

Okay so I started a new project. I decided I have been terribly boring as of late just knitting sock after sock...I have had this beautiful lace weight in my collection for almost a year now (http://www.knitpicks.com/Shimmer_YD5420112.html in morning mist) and frankly I have been too chicken to get involved with it...I don't want to mess it up so...there it sat. Well I figure the semester is over and I have a little more time on my hands than before so why not... I have a great support system and probably between us we could figure this out... Okay so I am chicken when it comes to trying new stuff with yarn but then I love it... I am not sure where that comes from but it probably drives everyone around me nuts.... This I will try to amend...I will be more daring with my yarn. That in mind I chose the yarn harlots snowdrop shawl http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/images/Snowdrop_Shawl_v1.0.pdf for my first attempt. It looks to be a easier but interesting pattern. I will keep you all informed on how it goes... knit on knitters, knit on.

Relief

Last night in the middle of my weekly Stitch and Bitch gathering my husband called to see if I wanted to get my grades...I probably should have said I will wait til I get home but I had been on edge all day about this so I said go ahead... I was happy to hear what they were and am now relieved and ready to get back to it. I love going to school and learning but the end of a semester always has me on the brink. So today I woke more relaxed than I have been in weeks... Thanks to all my friends and family that have put up with my craziness!
On another note Deb, http://www.scarfitdown.blogspot.com/ has allowed me to borrow her sock collection book from Interweave. Hopefully I can decied on which one to knit with either my Step or Lornas Lace. I also have some Regia Silk that is begging to become something... That is my goal for the day...
Peace to all.

Ever have one of those moments

Last night my daughter and I had our girl scout meeting, but we as a troop had planned to make dinner for their parents. You know what for a bunch of kids that had never helped in the kitchen before they had a great time. The food was great and they each tried something new. So we packed up afterward and headed home. Silly me thought oh now I can relax and knit my sock... Well, I got the kids in bed and sat down to try on my sock I had gotten to the picked up stitches...this is the point where I always try them on for myself...And guess what. They don't even come close to fitting....I growled and grumped at my poor husband who said, "Just take it out." Didn't he know how much love and care I had put into this sock? No. So this morning I am sitting here with a beautiful skein of Lornas Lace that I just want to become a nice pair socks with no more trouble...Note the ball it is in...since no matter how much hinting I give to hubby he just doesn't seem to see the importance of a ball winder. Maybe now he will understand.

An attempt to stop being blogless

A while ago a few of my friends who shall remain nameless called me blogless on their blogs and this was true. But no longer!! Be patient fellow knitters as I am new to this and look forward to the journey that this will in no doubt become. As the mother of three (not including my husband) my posts may be more spread out and I may not be able to write something everyday but hopefully more often than not I will. A bit about myself first... my husband and I got married almost 11 years ago after a whirlwind relationship that left our heads spinning. We both were college students with a love for each other that we couldn't have held back. We had our first two kids within the first three years of our marriage. I put my education on hold. Then came our youngest. We lived in Vermont and were loving it but some times there are other things that need to be done too so we packed up the herd and moved back to St. Louis. Let me tell you this farm girl never thought she was going to live in or near the city growing up. Well any ways I am back in school, studying nutrition and loving it! after we finish school here we will head for the mountains again. Until then we will keep ourselves busy with many trips to the zoo.I knit to keep myself sane, it's a family tradition. I am knitting saucy socks now (pictures to follow), I just finished Cookie As monkey socks and let me tell you this was one of the best patterns I have ever followed there was no guessing and frankly the striping of my Jitterbug yarn was perfect. I will be back another time to post some pictures...Peace to all..