A Whole New Chapter

So babylove is definitely not a baby anymore. We've closed that chapter and embarked on an exciting new one. But, I just know you'll understand why he'll forever be my babylove. Look who started Kindergarten!! Yup, I cried buckets when that big ol' bus carried off my sweet #7. I'm so not good with endings and this definitely felt like the end of our special time at home so I just kept focusing on what a great new beginning this is and I keep imagining all of the wonderful and exciting new opportunities he has. He has adjusted beautifully,(as have I, lol). His wonderful teacher posts pictures daily for the parents and it really is a joy to see how much fun he is having. It's all good. Sooo good. Whatever am I doing with all this new free time, you ask? Why, I'm deep in the fiberlove of course! My first goal is to stash down by 10 before buying anything new. First up, Inspira Cowl with a combo of hand dyed I made with Kate one afternoon and a Loop self striping batt spun in a rustic single. That textured knobby single totally changes the look of the Inspira. Next, it's back to my square shawl. I'm totally just making this up as I go along in the same hand dyed as Inspira as well as Ode to Sock Summit in Dragonfly Djinni. The inspiration for this came from Ann Weaver's Square Shawls workshop. My third project is to finish my Alber's Cowl Here's my first square: I'm diggin' these colors. Can't wait to wear this one! I also need to make the Ioanna cowl from The Container Ships Club. Haven't decided on a yarn yet for this one. OOOh, and lookie! Not sure I'll include these in my stash down but these are battling their way to the top of the queue: Picked up this pattern and one of the yarns(Velvet Underground in Djinni) at Michigan FiberFest. The other yarn is a gift from Gryphon. Love this pattern, what do you think of the yarn combo? These three in Squishy lace are begging me to drop everything and knit for the rest of my life in Squishy. The problem is, they don't know what they want to be yet. Speaking of Michigan Fiber Fest and Squishy Lace...I finished my Chittagong in Squishy just in time for a little designer photo shoot. Fun times! Really great show! The peeps in Michigan are the best! Some of my favorite people from the BohoknitterChic group on Ravelry stopped by to say hi. How cute are they ? So sweet, too. I met the most extraordinary knitters that weekend. I can't wait for next year! So, that's the round-up. But, before I close, I just wanted to mention that I'm an affiliate for my friend, Tara Wagner! See that little badge up there in the corner? Her brand new Organic Parenting Course starts today! Even if you are not a parent, I hope you will check her out. Tara is the most amazing wise woman. She is an incredible life coach and the author of Digging Deep. Check out her website! I hope you find her to be as wonderful as I do. Thanks for looking! I love this here blogosphere community we have all created. Friends supporting friends. As always, thank you for supporting me, friend! I'm so glad you stopped by to see what's up in my little corner of the world.

Clockwork

A few weeks ago I received another surprise in the mail. It was StevenA's travelling clockwork. I immediately recognized the yarn from my days with the Sanguine Gryphon, now the Verdant Gryphon. Small world. Steven's dream is to send this creative work out into the world and see where it travels. Just as I was about to check off "Maryland " on the paperwork and send it on its merry way, my husband introduced some travel plans of his own. I snuck "Tick Tock" into my carry on and away we went. First, and most exciting was our 25th anniversary trip to Maui, where Tick Tock adorned some lovely statues along the beach. I had to chuckle when a passerby commented on the Clockwork wrapped statue," Yeah, cuz I was just thinking he was looking cold." Lol. I was glad I had Tick Tock to keep me warm at the summit of the Haleakala(House of the Sun) Volcano. It was blustery up there and only about 40 degrees! My fright wig says it all. Nice hair. That's the volcanic crater behind me. Almost 7 miles across, 2 miles wide and 2,600 feet deep. There is a trail called Sliding Sands that leads into the crater. It is exactly as it sounds. Hikers can actually camp in one of three cabins inside the crater. Um, no thanks. I had the Clockwork to consider, after all. 10,000+ feet. Yo. Tick Tock also survived the Road to Hana. Google it. 'Nuff said. As for the rest of our travels, I must apologize. I took pics on every stop and in every airport. I wrapped Tick Tock on mannequins with state t-shirts in every airport gift shop...Charlotte, North Carolina, Columbia, South Carolina, and Phoenix, Arizona. All this after pulling an all nighter traveling backward through time zones, then suddenly we were 6 hours ahead and back on the east coast. Tick Tock met the owner of Island Knits in Pawleys Island, South Carolina. She was kind enough to come outside and be photographed by the web of a silk spider. I had photos of our visit to KNIT I'm crushed to discover that they were inadvertently deleted during the Flickr upload. I highlighted the whole kitnkaboodle for uploading,but apparently Flickr only took every third pic due to it's Beta status limiting 100 photos per upload. Yup, that's quite a few photos I lost. Trying not to think about it. Things like this happen to mamas of 7 who only have a few secs to accomplish everything and therefore attention to detail is sacrificed. I thought I recovered the missing, but evidently, I see now that I must've missed another whole page at least. I smiled when I saw this pic made the cut. This is my husband, kindasortabutnotreallycuzhewasoverit, being unsupportively supportive when I whipped out the Tick Tock Clockwork for the gazillionth time. He's a keeper, my hunnylove. But the Clockwork is a traveler and is currently with a friend in Washington, DC for the week. Tick Tock is on its way to Georgia, friends. Follow Steven's blog for all the fun.

The Sweetest Thing

Look what came in the mail! It's a hand stamped surfboard postcard!! My anniversary man secretly made this while I was at the beach during our trip. He arranged for it to be mailed so it would arrive home on his first day back to work and my first day back home. How sweet is that?

Mahala

I have spent the most wonderful few weeks in Maui. I know...I can't believe it either! So unlike this conservative chic. Here's the deal. I have the most amazing husband. He has cherished me from the moment we met. I realize how huge this is. I am incredibly blessed and every moment I appreciate it. So, on the occasion of our 25th wedding anniversary, he had some big plans in store. He hinted around a bit about going somewhere crazy, but was met with my gazillion objections like: " Most people celebrating 25 years of marriage are in a totally different position. They have a couple kids, maybe 19 and 21 years old. You, know, self sufficient. Not 4 years old! Or 5! Or 8! Or 11 even! Definitely NOT 7 kids to make arrangements for! It ain't easy, friend. But on the other hand, here I have this hardworking, amazing, thoughtful man proposing a very long trip free from the day to day schtuff. Every day is so full, it was hard for me to even imagine adding something so outrageous into the mix. I know, crazy, right? But really, I thrive on simplicity. I don't need much to make me happy. I'm already so incredibly grateful for my life. Yet, above all I do know that life is a precious gift and we need to celebrate every last moment. This man o' mine? He knows this better than me even. He just went and planned all this. I am still shocked by the enormity of it all. He is a kind and loving and generous man. Gifts are his love language. He wanted to show me what 25 years meant to him. So, here it is. Black Rock. This is the view from our balcony. People jump off Black Rock all day long. According to Hawaiin legend, the spirits of warriors left the earth to meet their ancestors by leaping from this rock. I wasn't ready to meet any ancestors. No leaping from me. Also, the snorkling around this large black lava rock that divides Ka'anapali Beach in half is amazing because the rock is almost completely encrusted in coral. We had some cool adventures. Here is a photo from the potentially hazardous Haleakala volcano. Ever wondered what the inside of a volcano looks like? Here ya go: Notice, at 10,ooo feet elevation, the volcano is above the clouds! Pretty cool stuff. We also traveled the Road to Hana. Yes, it is every bit as breath-taking and terrifying as people say. Those tiny windy cliff hanging roads are scary! The views are beautiful. We stopped to hike the rain forest to Twin Falls. Yup, I swam under a waterfall! Here are some other views along the way. Lots of gorgeous waterfalls! From a cave on a black sand beach... I wish the camera could have captured the absolutely turquoise waves. We sailed on a catamaran out to the island of Lana'i to one of the top 10 private beaches in the world to snorkle and picnic. This company was da bomb! We saw tons of dolphins and a seaturtle. This was the little seaport town of Lahaina from which we sailed. Of course, we had to experience this! It was cheesy, but whatev. We had fun! There were tons of these: I think I saw more rainbows than I have in a lifetime. But these just might be what I remember most. Here's to the next 25 years! Mahala~

Check It Out

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Celebrations

I thought that might grab your attention! It is what you think it is. Yes, it is. A Moosie! I can scarcely believe it myself. There it was at Maryland Sheep and Wool all innocent-like. I mean, really...how could I not give this beauty a home when there is a 2 ish year waiting list on these one of a kind spindles made from moose antlers? Of course, no animals are harmed in the harvesting of the materials. It spins wonderfully with its elegant Cochin Rosewood shaft. It's 34 grams of pure heaven. One of the highlights of my festival purchases. Yup, I bought lots of practical things like a 5 dent reed for my Cricket and a nostepinne to wind little minis for hexipuff knitting. Knitter's pride square dpn needles joined my hexipuff supplies. Nice and sharp! Pretty, too. Such a joy to knit with that I've added a few puffs to this long term project. My goal was just to make a wee pillow with the ones I was sent from my Bohoknitterchic group swap on Ravelry, but as any hexipuffer will tell ya, these babies are addictive!

Of course I couldn't leave Maryland Sheep and Wool without fleece. I put my request in the trusty hands of my friend Kate, who selected this beauty.

It's indescribably lovely Corriedale fleece. I wish you could feel it.
MDSW weekend is always a blast, reconnecting with fiber friends from around the globe. We did have fun.
There was another celebration in the works kicking off the month of May. This little guy made his First Communion.

Then, to keep the party rolling, these four graduated:

Preschool

Graduate School

High School

Grade School

So, there were parties! Big ones!
And there were birthdays...

My babylove, I mean BIG boy, turned 5!!! Five!

#5 turned 11!

Lucky girl got her ears pierced!

Even I had a birthday.

But who's counting!?

Whoa! I needed a vacation after all that.

So we crashed my husband's business trip to Hilton Head. This is an actual photograph from our balcony. Looks like a postcard, doesn't it? Then we took a sidetrip to Savannah. Sweet little town full of southern charm.

Despite all the busy, I'm never far from the yarn. Here are some gratuitous yarn pics.

Here's what's on the needles:

Hand dyed with Kate and Ann for a triangle shawl

Dragonfly Fibers yarn for an Albers Cowl

A combo of Dragonfly yarn in the Ode to Sock Summit colorway and the product that came out of my dyepot when the three of us set out to create a deviant yellow. This is the start of a square shawl.

All the influence of this designer

Ann Weaver

who has officially joined our pack and unofficially made her second home in MD/DC/VA because we keep recruiting her to teach! We've all been having some fun times. Check her out. You'll love her designs and fabulous workshops.

Speaking of workshops, here's where you can find me this summer:

*Studio E June 25-June29 Boredom Buster Get Hooked Crochet Camp for Kids *Dragonfly Fibers Studio June 30 Spin Lab Beginner Art Yarn workshop *Spin U July 28 Liberation Spin Art Yarn Workshop *Michigan Fiber Festival August 18-19 in the Dragonfly Fibers booth. Stop by and say hi! We'll make it a celebration!