Distracted by Moose

I must distract you with a moose. I have no knitwear to display. No works in progress because we have spent every spare moment without small children working on the stairs. As many of you know, home improvement with a two year old is tedious and drawn out.

So on Sunday of last, we had a visitor. A female moose who has been roaming the neighborhood terrorizing all the gardens. Here she is eating my delphiniums. She had already consumed my tulips, thinned my mountain bluebells, and nibbled at the lilac. I am thinking she is carrying a calf because she is pretty rotund for a moose who just survived a very snowy winter. She is also appears to be eating for two because she really has stripped every ornamental tree in the neighborhood of bark and eaten every single tulip. My poor across-the-street neighbor, she just put out her annuals. Now they are gone.

I never tire of seeing moose. It is one of the things I love about living here. We share our space with some very large animals. The trick is learning how to share the space with them. Sometimes people forget these animals are wild and do stupid things.

The boys watched with a great deal of enthusiasm while this cow hung out near our house for a couple hours. Muskrat asks me daily, "Where is the moose?" We drive the neighborhood looking to see where she is grazing. As of yesterday she is still pregnant, when do moose calve? I was thinking we still have a few weeks to go. Check the comments, I am sure some smarter Alaskan will let you and me know.

Happy Mother's Day

Being a mom has been an interesting trip so far. The older they get and more independent from me they become the more interesting it is. Let's see if I refer to it as "interesting" when they are teenagers. However, there are a number of things that have happened that I never ever expected in becoming a mom. Here is a list of my top ten.

1. That there would be so little sleep in this process. Truly. I was not properly forewarned about this and if I knew what I know now, I might have reconsidered.

2. I could know so much about something I really don't give a hoot about (*cough, cough* airplanes).

3. My standards of healthy food could sink so low.

4. It actually is possible to never leave the house between the hours of 1 and 3 pm.

5. I could read a story book so many times that I could read through the book, come to the end, and not really remember reading it at all. This might have to do with #1 though.

6. My opinion on things can matter so little - somehow I think this one is only going to get worse.

7. People so small can produce so much laundry. It is staggering at times.

8. Poo. Throw up. Boogers. Nothing phases me any longer as long as it comes from one of my kids. Now your kid throws up, I will too.

9. I could love my husband more even though I see him less and argue with him more.

10. I would write so damn much about my life on the internet because of my desperate need to feel like I am interacting with someone above the age of 5. :)

If you are a mom, I hope you had a lovely day. Just FYI - today is the busiest day for telephone traffic. The Cliff Clavin things you learn when your husband is a communications geek. :)

a cuffed hem

I finished my first Nutkin on Tuesday when I went knitting. It was very pleasant. Instead of posting a picture of the finished sock giving me a false sense of completed object, I decided to show you my favorite thing about the Nutkins pattern - the cuffed hem. What I really like about it is it requires no seaming. While this might seem like a no-duh to many of you, it is a new to me process. :)

First eleven rows, 5 in stockinette, 1 purl row (the turning row), and then 5 more rows of stockinette.

Now to turn the two halves together and make the cuff. You fold at the purl row which makes a lovely edge. Then pick up one stitch from the cast on edge using the right hand needle. (My husband helped with the photography - behind every knit blogger is a patient friend or spouse shaking their head in wonderment as to how their friend or spouse got to this state)

Place that picked up stitch on the left hand needle next to a stitch from the other side of the cuff.

Now knit those two stitches together which joins the two halves together. You continue in this fashion (pick up stitch, move to left hand needle, k2tog) working your way around to the end of the row. It can get a little wonky toward the end because you might have missed a stitch or two from the cast on edge, but I worked it out both times very easily.

In the end, you have a very lovely cuffed hem. Now I have done socks with picot edges, but it required seaming and therefore I hated them. From now on I think I will knit picot edges in this fashion, much easier.

Didya notice the brass needles? Oh, Addi Lace Turbos how I love thee. A few weeks back I went in to Far North to get some new 32" Addis for magic looping socks. My old ones had seen some serious action and had major kinks in them. Kay (the lovely owner) convinced me I will enjoy the Addi Lace Turbors DESPITE the higher price. She was right. I heart them.

No carpet for you!

So, I know I whine a lot about being a SAHM. I do, however, know there are some perks to being one. First, I don't have to grocery shop when the rest of the world does. I stroll down empty aisles while my child runs around helping me pick things out. This would be unimaginable on Saturdays or Sundays. Second, I do all of the mundane household activities during the week. No mountain of laundry to say Happy Weekend to me on Saturdays. No toilets to scrub. No vacuuming to be done. I get it done during the week. You would think I would have plenty of time to knit, yes? Not when you are crazy DIYers.

Our stairs. Naked and cold. We ripped the carpet off last weekend because we are going to make them hardwood. There is another flight going up, but I will spare you another boring picture. Not a hard project - especially when honey bunny does all the work and I stand there and cheer him on. It will be nice to no longer have WHITE carpet on our stairs. The people who lived here before had no kids and were apparently much cleaner than us. :)

I am past the heel on my first Nutkin and half way down the foot. Tomorrow I am having a knit night out come hell or high water since I haven't been in a few weeks. Maybe I will finish it and give you a peek. Hope everyone had a lovely weekend. I think spring is officially here.

Regularly Scheduled Knitting

Alright. Alright. This is a knitting blog. Here is some knitting. I am through the leg of my first Nutkin. If you liked knitting the Monkey sock, you will enjoy the Nutkin pattern. Very similar in predictability of pattern. Knitting is quick and enjoyable. Of course, the Cherry Tree Hill yarn I am knitting with doesn't hurt either. I *heart* merino sock yarn. It doesn't last as long in the wearing department compared to sock yarn with nylon, but, oh, it is so nice to knit with.

Like how the army man is sleeping in it? We are all military all the time around here. Of course, our army men do not have guns and I am often asked why. :)

Check out the pajamas my mom knit for Bubba. Isn't the fabric hysterical? He picked it out. It is like the kid does not have my genes or something. He is CRAZY for military stuff lately. One of the moms at preschool asked me if Bubba is recruiting. I guess he is going around asking the other kids at schools (girls included, maybe he does have some of my genes after all) if they are going to be in the military with him. If you ask him the five branches of the US military, he prattles them off. At least when you ask him who he is voting for for president he replies, "Barack Obama." Of course, I think this has more to do with how fun the name is to say. Sometimes I will find him and Muskrat sitting there just saying, "Barack Obama" over and over.

Me and My Stash

The scrapbooks are done. Thank heaven. I don't know what ever possessed me to think I would like to do it. I like sorting through the photos. I like looking back over the past couple of years with my boys, but I don't like cutting and gluing. :)

My reward was first to cast on Nutkins with some Cherry Tree Hill yarn (*swoon*) and second to sort through my stash. I heart organizing and sorting. When it involves yarn, even better.

The first thing that became painfully obvious to me when my sock yarn was all in one location is, well, I have a lot. Thirteen pairs worth. That is a lot of socks.

Now prior to this sorting I had my stash throughout the house. Under beds in bins. In sweater holders. In bags. When it is scattered it doesn't seem so large. First I put it all in one room and began sorting. There were two major piles - yarn that was purchased for a specific project and has yet to be knit and then leftover stuff. There was about three largish tubs worth of leftover stuff. Like most knitters, I over buy when I purchase for a project "just in case" - my husband thinks it is a big fat excuse to buy more yarn. Perhaps it is because in some cases I really over purchased.

Behold. Yarn that has been sorted and has specific projects in mind that I have been wanting to knit. Such as Koolhaas hat. EZ's mitered mittens. Foliage. Vests for the boys. Backyard Leaves scarf. A myriad of fingerless gloves. This is a lot of knitting.

Here is what it looked like when I was done. Sweater holder on the left houses the yarn for specific projects that I have been meaning to do such as Gathered Pullover, Charisma, Lopi sweater, Clapotis, and some hats. Holder on the right has all the yarn I recently rediscovered. Tub on the bottom left has bulky weight yarn from my felting days and I can't bring myself to give away. Tub on the bottom right has worsted weight yarn, which is really just a lot of Cascade 220. I should do something with color work. Overall not a lot of yarn, but more than I should have. Clearly I need to stay away from the yarn store to keep myself from buying more. :)

Just in case you were wondering we ended up with 22 inches of snow. That is a lot of snow for here. It is melting very nicely. :)

I don't make this stuff up.

It is snowing people. A lot. Apparently a snow storm has "stalled over the Southcentral area" producing many inches of snow. This is the yard I raked on Wednesday. We basked in sunshine on Wednesday and 60 degree weather.

NWS says only 5-8 inches, but the snow is up to the top of my Sorels. More than 8 inches and it is still REALLY snowing.

These are my crocuses. They are confused. So are all the geese around town. :)

There is no knitting to report. No fibery goodness. Muskrat's scrapbook is done. I desperately want to cast on socks. I don't think I can hold out any longer. :)