When I was young, often at Christmas, the entire family would gather at the farmhouse. There were so many cousins, and such a large range of ages. And this meant that outdoor activities dominated our fun. Sledding, snowball fights, ice skating, and any other mischief we could think up while we were at it. And then there’d be hot chocolate inside, which I never really liked but I would often pretend to fit in. Soaking wet woolen outerwear hung above and beside the wood stove, I can still hear the hiss of snow and wet dripping from them onto the stove. There’d be a point where we’d have gone through the box of gloves and mittens, scarves and hats and we would have to wait for everything to dry out again before we ventured back outdoors. There’d be my Nana, sitting on the couch near that wood stove, knowing full well that I had an inability to know my limits when it came to the cold.She would take my painfully freezing feet and hands in her warm hands and patiently wait for them to warm up. Christmas also brought indoor activities that felt fascinating and new. Sometimes we’d “convince” the adults to allow us to make homemade donut holes. The Mennonite Community Cookbook, the family “bible” of cooking would be brought out, dough mixed, and oil heated to just the right temperature. The house would smell of fried food, the adults would hand us paper bags of powdered sugar or cinnamon sugar and fresh donut holes and had us shake the bags to coat the donuts, the dark stains of the grease showing through the bags so quickly. I don’t think I loved donut holes that much either, but the process was new and fascinating and wonderful.

As an adult, I know what massive amounts of work goes into making a christmas all shiny and beautiful for a child, and I know that adults have their own cares and concerns, thoughts and feelings brought on by being around so many other people. I don’t know what it was like for the adults in my life when I was a child. But boy did they make Christmas beautiful for us!

I like fried food just fine now, and so these are the memories that pop in my head when Don and I make our own traditional funnel cake on Christmas morning.

For the first time in a very long time I felt a bit melancholy on Christmas morning. Thing is, I am usually so busy go go going that the brief and quiet respite of a christmas without people is bliss. So, this time, I think it’s that I’ve got this stretch of not working laying out ahead of me (despite the fact that a huge portion of that is full of Mr. Ink’s family) and I didn’t feel like I “needed” christmas day to be quiet like I generally do. Or, maybe, when Mr. Ink’s mother was still in town and his kids would pop by unexpectedly, that was enough to make things feel appropriately festive. I really couldn’t say. I certainly wasn’t melancholy at thanksgiving! In any case, that was a bit of a new feeling this year. And it passed pretty quickly, as we occupied ourselves with yardwork (Ok, that was Mr. Ink, not me) and a nice long walk during breaks in the rain.

We had a line of storms go through as well, later on in the day. High winds, sideways buckets of rain. The sideways rain managed to get into the doorbell, making it seem like someone was playing “ding dong ditch” for the majority of the evening. Maybe PART of my melancholy was it just not feeling like christmas with the warm, rainy, spring like weather!

There’s been spinning!

All my into the whirled bobbins got finished, and then I plied on Saturday.

I ended up with 280 yards of what I’d guess to be a sport weight yarn. It didn’t turn out anything like what I expected but it is certainly pretty!

I began another spinning project soon after, but most of yesterday’s crafting time was spent on Mr. Ink’s socks. I don’t know why, but they really just were the perfect knitting for the day.

Miss Butterfly comes home today. She and I have some Christmas shopping to do for Mr. Ink’s family. And then tonight we will do our own Christmas. I am really looking forward to that!

I do hope everyone had a lovely day!

Today is day 1 of an 11 day much needed vacation. There’s a “wintery mix” outdoors. Mr. Ink is also off work. We are still doing a lot of this:

Basically, just relaxing, as Miss Butterfly is still in recovery mode. She’ll feel better briefly, act like a normal kid, and then she’s down for the count again. This photo was after she’d exhausted herself taking a bath and washing her hair. She was fever free for most of yesterday, but had one again in the evening. So, we are being pretty quiet around here, allowing her to rest at any point she needs.

A bit of knitting has been done, though I was terribly uninspired about it last evening. I need to start the heel flap on the stocking now. This is always where I stall out on these, once the fun of the colorwork pattern is over I no longer want to work on them. Thankfully, this isn’t a rush situation.

See our “wintery mix?” It’s really weaksauce.

I am currently plying my loop cloud but I couldn’t resist starting a new project before I got around to plying. It’s Into the Whirled bfl silk, and really pretty!

I am going to do a 3 ply because 3 plies are cool. This is 1/3 of the 4 oz. project. The remainder is prepped and ready to go as soon as my loop cloud plying is off the wheel.

Mr. Ink woke up with a massive headache this morning. Miss Butterfly quickly reminded him that’s what her illness started with. He doesn’t think that’s the case, but Miss Butterfly and I are kind of watching and waiting. But if he were to get it, that would be pretty disastrous considering all there is to be done. I guess this is why things need to be done early! Even though it’s entirely my own failure that things aren’t done early.

Happy Holiday Weekend everyone!

Leading up to vacation. Miss Butterfly had a fever of 103 last night! Somehow that feels disturbing on a 12 year old. But, it was down a bit this morning, and she’s keeping soups down. She has requested egg drop soup and a fruit cup today, that I am to find on my way home from work. Yep, I am at work and I’ll be here the full day or until I hear she wants me home.

However, being at work today has been lovely quite frankly. It’s quiet. There was a gift card under my keyboard from the person who headed up the disastrous grant on Tuesday, as well as an email to the chair of our department acknowledging the super hard work of my team and myself, and an email from the chair of the department also acknowledging that work. I actually heard that the chair came to my office yesterday while I was gone, and was apparently going to tease me a bit about the grant, telling me we were ready to move forward with trying to submit it late. The one person on my team he told this to was like “It’s probably best she’s not here….”

I guess there’s nothing like major work disaster to make you appreciate a long christmas vacation. Which I am on, as of 4 p.m. today.

Here’s some knitting and spinning photos I took yesterday once I was able to be home with Miss Butterfly:

That’s half a loop cloud on a bobbin. I finished the other half last evening. And then I started a new project, so I have to wait to finish that bobbin before plying the loop cloud. After taking a long spinning break, I don’t feel particularly tied to any one spinning project or producing a certain yarn. My whims are where I am headed with it at the moment. Not a lot of thought, just pretty fiber and muscle memory.

And there’s the Lintilla I started out of Miss Marja’s handspun. Honestly? I might rip this. There were two skeins. But, the tiny skein was chain plied while the rest 3 plied. And I started with the chain ply. However, I feel a bit like this isn’t making the product I want, and may rip back this section, remove the chain ply from the bulk of the project, saving it for the end in the off chance I run into a situation of running out of yarn. I think that would make me happier. But, I could just be sick of knitting this right now, and need to put it down. And that would be ok, I’ve still got a stocking on the needles, and I’ve got Mr. Ink’s socks, and two more skeins of Miss Marja’s handspun that want to be made into fun knitted objects.

Tomorrow all 3 of us have off together, and I admit that I selfishly am hoping that Miss Butterfly is feeling well enough to at least go to the movies or something! We shall see.

 

Well, I suppose just with the knitting. I finished my Lintilla scarf, and it turned out so pretty !

I had plenty of yarn, no issues there. I am glad to have used up an entire skein of such fun yarn on two of my absolute favorite scarves. I cast on for another right away, out of Marja’s yarn. She should have one of her very own!

Other than that, things have been so nutty around here that the idea of a holiday, or that I even have vacation at the end of the week, have receded so far into the background I’ve completely forgotten.

On Monday afternoon I found out that me and my grant submission team were going to be asked to do the impossible. Basically, pull together the equivalent of 7 grants, with foreign contracts, by 5 p.m. on Tuesday having absolutely no information on these grants whatsoever until Tuesday morning. It was truly an impossible task. But, I arrived, along with two of my team, at work at 6:30 am. We began the work, and as the rest of the team trickled in, they all began working on tasks I gave them. We all knew by 10:30 it wasn’t going to happen, but we had to work on it until 5. The entire team TRULY put in their best work, but after 3 p.m. we still had not received all of the documents we needed for it. It was….futile, irritating, and exhausting. And, really, never should have been agreed to in the first place.

I got home that night and Miss Butterfly said “Mom, I was sick at school, but I didn’t let anyone call you because I knew what a terrible day you had.” Sweet kind child that she is. She spent the rest of the evening sleeping and puking. We were up in the middle of the night for 3 hours. Then I had a doctors appointment for her this morning at 9. I’d let my team know I’d be out but that if there were any repercussions from the grant fiasco the day before, I wanted to come in and be there for them. So they had to let me know. As I was driving Miss Butterfly home, I got a text saying that the guy who wanted to submit the grant was still trying to get us to do it, despite the fact the deadline was over. And alternating between accusing us of not doing our jobs and pleading with us to still submit. I told them I’d be in as soon as I could.

I dropped Butterfly off at home, changed my shirt to something work appropriate, and headed into work. Took one look at the email we’d been sent, marched myself up to the chair’s office and defended my team, and reminded them that it’s our department and our people whose reputation is on that grant and that we have no business submitting it late, or in the condition that it’s in.

I went back to my desk without resolution, but knowing my arguments were strong. Only to get a text from Butterfly basically saying she’s now got a fever in addition to the puking and could I please come home now please? She’ll allow me one day away, but losing mom two days in a row to a person who doesn’t deserve mom’s time and attention was too much for her, so I began to make preparations to head home. It took slightly longer than I thought, but before I left I got the call that our chair was supporting our decision to not have the grant submitted, and furthermore, he didn’t even want us speaking to the person making this request of us, he wanted that person to be directed directly to the chair’s office, full stop. I filled my team in on this, and was grateful to have gotten the phone call so that I could go home and spend time with Butterfly without the anxiety of not knowing what would happen next.

Miss Butterfly finally napped. I finally napped. I finally ate! I hadn’t even managed breakfast yet, and it was well past noon. Definitely not a recommended couple of days to experience around the holiday season and I am so grateful it’s over.

We have one of the last two pre christmas holiday parties tonight. Not sure if we’ll make it or not, it’ll depend on Miss Butterfly. She gets to choose if we go, if she stays alone, or if she goes to dads, or if she just needs mom. All options valid.

That’s us for now! Hopefully more fun stuff soon, but the past couple days haven’t been that fun. Talk about putting a cramp on already behind christmas plans!!!

Staying in. Yep. That tops the list. And that is what I did all weekend, even though I had talked of doing otherwise.

Except for a walk. Mr. Ink and I went on a long walk yesterday in the bitter cold. Except, compared to Saturday, it didn’t feel bitter! I mean, instead of cringing in the wind and making it once around the block, we walked for an hour. Not much wind, and the sun was shining making all the snow sparkle. And the  -4 weather had the snow all crunchy sounding. It was really beautiful!

Unfortunately, my back has not been well lately. I can’t say why. But, it took pain killers every 4 hours to get me through yesterday, and a heating pad. Which is why I decided to stay in. I did get another 2 batts created, just one more for the set I am working on. And I got a little spinning done, more this morning.

It was dark when I got this photo. Those are greens. I’ll show you better pictures soon. Almost done with this bobbin.

But mostly I knit. In fact, I knit so much that my hands ache today. Cumulative from the weekend I suspect. They’ll repair themselves during the busy work week.

I started another Christmas stocking. This is stocking number 23. I’ve got two to make in the upcoming months. This one is for my cousin. Or rather, her baby. She had a baby this summer, he’s cute as a button. And, while she and I aren’t particularly close, I know that with previous pregnancies has come unimaginable tragedy for her. So I know this baby is so wanted. I wanted to…I dunno…notice that for her? I don’t really know how to state that any better. But, I contacted her and asked if she already had stocking plans for him or if she’d like one of my “family famous” stockings. And she was eager for me to knit one. So that’s what I am starting on.

There’s no rush though, I did tell her it wouldn’t be done for this christmas. I will then start another, as my nephew is getting a baby brother, and must have a stocking to match the rest of the family’s stockings. Unfortunately, one of the yarns I need is out of stock and won’t be in until the 29th of this month. So I am waiting. Thankfully, the above stocking just came from stash. Yep, that’s another stash buster!

In other knitting news, I am so close to being done with the Lintilla scarf. Looks like despite ignoring the 25% saved yarn rule and saving less, I’ll have enough yarn to complete the project. This is only because I’ve knit two other Lintillas, and had plenty of leftover yarn when using the 25% rule. Otherwise I never would have chanced it.

Once the current Lintilla is off the needles I am going to cast on another. One for Miss Marja out of her handspun. Handspun made from batts I created for her last year at christmastime. Full circle! I am looking forward to seeing how the yarn knits up, for sure. Here’s a photo of the batts from last year:

The black is alpaca and everything colored is silk. She made it into a great 3 ply yarn. I think I must be going with a black with pops of color theme lately, this will be project number 3 in the span of 3 months that has such a theme. Though this one quite different from all the 3 ring circus finished objects. Much gentler overall. There’s over 600 yards of yarn for this project actually, so it’ll be a very nicely sized Lintilla. Biggest one ever. AND, between that at Mr. Ink’s socks, it should tide me over nicely while we are away for Christmas.

Now, with Monday Update complete, I must ask, where are you with Christmas plans? I have wrapped NOTHING, Mr. Ink still needs to get gifts for his entire family. I need to plan and make a dish for the work potluck this week. I need to send out my nephew’s gift to my parents today and cross my fingers it arrives in time. I’ve been making lists of cookies and bread and pie to bake for our upcoming trip. We need to pack next week which I always find oddly stressful. A secret part of me is hoping our new vehicle will arrive before we leave, but I know it’s wishful thinking. And, if it does, it just puts more on the to do list really. I am behind. VERY behind. And yet, I’ve done little about it. Preferring to sit with a heating pad and my knitting. And yet, I know I’d be less stressed if I got stuff DONE!

Well, last night was the last night of my month of self imposed exclusive knitting. It went well I think. Here’s what I knit.

Dino Mitts: These can’t count as stash busters because I did purchase the yarn for them.

Then there was a 8 oz. skein of handspun which turned into a cowl, gloves, and an ear warmer to go with my new coat.

I completed the knitting of my dragonfire scarf, that was over 900 yards of handspun, even though it wasn’t enough to finish the pattern itself. I wear this. A lot. It’s amazingly soft.

 

I knit a snow showers cowl out of noro taiyo sock, great stashbuster that it was!

And then another 4 oz. skein of handspun went to a gothic spires scarf.

One completed project left, just the latest martinmas shawl which busted 2 skeins, one of handspun and one of commercial yarn.

Of course, I had a birthday in there and so that one skein of Marja’s handspun that went into the above shawl was replaced with a birthday skein of Marja’s handspun. I grin at this because while it begins to defeat the purpose of all this knitting, I can’t help but love it.

So,  completed project stash busting total, let’s count skeins at around 4 ounces. So the 8 ounce skeins I’ll count as 2. 8! 8 skeins knit into wearable items. In one month.

Now for an update on what got done last night. About an hour before I left work, it began icing. I can’t call it snowing. But, a film of ice formed over everything, the air was heavy, and then by the time I left work there were ice pellets falling and coating everything. It got very slick outside. So slick that I refused to attempt parking in our driveway. The commute home was ridiculously slow, there were cars in the ditches everywhere, but it seemed like slow was the way to do it, I didn’t actually have an issue with the drive.

It was Miss Butterfly’s winter concert as you may remember. I came home to her getting ready to go and a huge argument over her choir top (she doesn’t like wearing it, but I refused to let her replace it with a white tshirt) ensued. All the while I am waiting for a call from the school indicating the concert was canceled. But, it was only after the argument that the call came in. A sudden loss of evening plans resulted in Miss Butterfly and 2 neighbor girls using our upper parking lot as a “skating” rink, giggling and shrieking and running around. It was WONDERFUL. Mostly because I was in my PJs under a blanket.

Mr. Ink got home and got the old truck into the lower driveway just fine. I reminded him that he’d have to bring my car into the driveway as I can’t park out back overnight. I told him he’d need to salt the driveway, but he didn’t listen. Instead, he went out there and said “Either my shoes are really good, or this stuff isn’t that slick.” I rolled my eyes and went back to my knitting and listening to the girls, knowing FULL WELL what would happen next. I heard my car come around, get partway up the driveway, and then engine revving and tires spinning. For quite some time. Eventually the garage door opened and closed again, and then Mr. Ink comes up the stairs and says “Well, I guess my shoes are Just That Good.” And then he headed back out to put ice melt on the driveway. The slightly snarky part of me wants to mention that he clearly learned nothing from last year. But soon that car will be HIS problem and he will become very knowledgable in how it handles in the ice and snow.

Miss Butterfly went to her dad’s later in the evening, and Mr. Ink and I watched our favorite movie again, Mad Max Fury Road. I knit on lintilla for a long while:

It has grown a ton. And I knit a bit on Mr. Ink’s socks. 10.5 inches of leg, and I’ll need 9 inches before I start the toe. I tried to get a shot of the scrap yarn so you could see how far I’ve gotten since last time I showed them off, but it’s not much farther to be honest.

Sorry about the cruddy indoor photos. You know I love to take pictures outdoors. However, the high today is 10F, and that already happened while we were sleeping. The rest of the day the temps go down, with the predicted overnight of -9F. Let’s just say I have no interest in going outdoors for good knitting photos, this will have to do. If I had a finished object, I’d just save it for another day.

Mr. Ink agreed to some extra work today so he’s headed in to work in my car, since it was in my garage and it’s nice and warm. I warned him that he might have trouble getting it started in the cold, but then remembered two things. The first being that his 22 year old truck isn’t going to start any better in the cold, and the second being that he’s a mechanic. At work. If he can’t get the car started, he’s got literally EVERY resource at his fingertips. Not actually a thing to worry about.

And I haven’t decided if spinning is a thing I’ll do, or if I shall continue on the path of knitting what I have, or even cast on something new! I’ve got coffee, the house is warm and quiet, and the day feels full of possibilities after a good night’s rest.

I’ve got a finished object! Well, I have had it really, but I haven’t gotten home until after dark regularly this week. Last evening was scheduled to be more of the same, but I ended up spending most of the day at work not feeling well, so I canceled evening plans, went home, took photos of the shawl, then crawled in bed to sleep for an hour and a half. Then I went to bed early, and do feel much improved this morning. It’s official, we’ve moved into the season where I always think I am getting sick if I just am not getting enough rest. Taking time to rest generally cures it, and I can continue on. Good thing too, this is not the season to be ill, there’s always too much that must get done.

This weekend was packed full. Tonight we have Miss Butterfly’s winter concert which I am looking forward to so much! I missed the fall concert because I was at the conference. Her choir teacher has come to really appreciate her and use her as an example for the altos. She harmonizes beautifully, and sings out, and seems to really enjoy singing. When she began the school year, she didn’t particularly care for her choir teacher, and she wanted to quit choir. I didn’t let her, and I am really glad she stuck it out. She likes her teacher now, and next year she’s got a great chance of getting into show choir since she’s made a name for herself in class. She didn’t even try out this year! Mostly because she didn’t like the teacher.

Then tomorrow was our annual holiday bike ride, where we dress up our bikes in bike lights, and ride around looking at holiday lights on homes. Sometimes we even stop and carol at various homes. It’s such a great time! Except….it’s going to be -7F. Which is what they call around here “dangerously cold.” And, while I’ve ridden my bike right down to -11F, it’s certainly not for everyone, and encouraging a group to ride in that kind of weather sounds like a lawsuit waiting to happen. So it’s been changed to a party. Indoors. And, quite frankly, Mr. Ink and I have a full day of gift purchasing that needs to happen, so we doubt we’ll even get there. Then, there’s the birthday party of a friend of mine. He was born on Christmas day, so we are celebrating early this year, and with sushi, which I rarely get to eat since Mr. Ink does not like it. A full weekend, yes, but a good one I think.

In any case, I finished the Martinmas shawl. It’s quite wonderful. The blue, again, is Miss Marja’s handspun and the olive green is mad tosh.

It really turned out lovely! And honestly? The shape is fantastic. Those higher ends lay very nicely around the neck and make the shawl stay put perfectly. I’ve not had to readjust at all. Let’s take a closer look, shall we?

I wanted to zoom in a bit on the handspun, as it really is lovely and tonal, and looks so nice with the olive green! This is definitely a shawl for my keep pile. Despite the fact that my give away pile has been recently decimated.

I had been worried about the amount of yarn I had for the blue, the first repeat had taken up so much yarn! But, as is the case when working from the outside in, the yarn use goes down so dramatically. I had no trouble achieving the 6 pattern repeats. Not much to spare, but not worrisome either. Just the way I like it. I’ve got a ton of the olive green left! I think I’ll ball it up and save it for heels and toes on  socks for Mr. Ink.

Technically my month of self imposed knitting exclusively is up on Saturday. I miss my wheel a bit, but have really enjoyed creating some lovely items as well. I’ve been hard at work on the lintilla shawl I have on the needles, and the only other thing on the needles is Mr. Ink’s wollmeise socks. Since we are traveling after Christmas, and I don’t think I’ll bring my wheel, it’ll be another opportunity to get some knitting done. Plus, I scheduled myself off for a full 11 days! And my first day back is a half day! This is mostly because Miss Butterfly is off for so long this year. One week from today I’ll be on a nice long vacation. I’ll have none of that terribly boring post Christmas at work feelings, where I can’t figure out what to do because no one is in the office at all. It’s going to be great!

Apparently the 40th birthday celebrations just continue. We had about 25 people at the house last night, filling it with warmth and laughter. A few hadn’t even seen the house yet, so I was glad that I’d cleaned ALL of it, rather than a select space. As we wandered through our home full of my textiles, Mr. Ink’s art, our parent’s art, and our friend’s art, there were so many exclamations about it all, which is so fun for me. At the end of the evening, one of our friends came up to me and said “You know, it’s really sad you and Mr. Ink have decided not to have a kid together, that kid would be the next Picasso!” I’ll take that as a compliment.

I had the opportunity to send a bunch of handknits out into the world. I ended up pulling out the pile of stuff I desperately wanted to knit but didn’t care about wearing, and most of the women headed home with a scarf, shawl, or cowl. It was fun to look around the room and see all the women there at that time wearing things I had made.

While cleaning up the house in anticipation of the party, I’d become quite frustrated with the stove top. It’s awful to clean, I am sure I’ve even complained about it on the blog before. Too many small parts, so difficult to clean. And Mr. Ink’s love of cooking with oil doesn’t help whatsoever. Every time I clean that stove I discover oil that’s found it’s way between the layers of the stove, all the way down to the bottom. Every time I deep clean that stove, I spend at least an hour on it, maybe more. Yesterday I decided that life is JUST TOO SHORT to spend cleaning that darn stove, and I posted about it on Facebook, venting my frustration. Mr. Ink saw it, came home from work, and said “Would you like a new stovetop for your birthday?”  Why yes, yes I would! (But only if I can find one that’s easy to clean. It’s currently a gas stove, so I worry anything we choose won’t be much better. But we’ll see!)

In any case, I got quite a lot of knitting done yesterday and this morning. I finished the handspun portion of the Martinmas shawl yesterday and began the top portion, which I am almost halfway through with. I am so eager to block this one out! It desperately needs a good blocking, and I am hoping it will grow nicely. But most of all, I just want to get a really good idea of the handspun color playing with the commercial olive green!

This one has knit up fast, but then again, I think they all kind of do when I am not spinning. That being said, I am really missing the spinning. Can’t wait to get back to it. !

One of the awesome gifts my parents sent was one of those really small circular needles for knitting socks in the round. I am eager to give it a try, as it seems to be a bit of a trend around the sock knitting internet. There must be something to it! Mr. Ink also informed one of our guests last evening that he’d like me to knit him another pair of socks. This is the first I’ve heard about it! I think I’ll wait on that project until the new year, our local yarn shop has a great post christmas sale, and that’ll be a great time to pick out some Mr. Ink colored sock yarn. I don’t have anything in my stash that’ll fit that bill, that’s for sure. In the meantime, I’ll practice on my new needles so I am ready.

That’s all from here! I woke up too early and am hoping I don’t get dragged out for stove shopping already today. Tomorrow it’s car shopping again. I think Mr. Ink has made his final decision, as he’s been systematically answering the sales calls and telling them they don’t have to call anymore. Talk soon!

Well, we had a fun evening around here. I left work, checked my pokemon game only to see a dragonite in sightings. What a surprise! I’ve been walking a dragonair for over 88 km and am still only 60% to my goal of a dragonite. Early on in the game when I began playing, I saw one. I tried to catch it, not even knowing how rare it was. I’d really only just begun. It ate all my pokeballs and still escaped. I was determined, this time, to get it.

Guess what? I got a dragonite for my birthday!!! I immediately drove to a gym, took it down, and placed this guy in it.

In non goofy game news, once I got home Miss Butterfly and her friend insisted on making cookies. After all, they argued, it was my birthday! I allowed it, though the dough needed time in the fridge and we didn’t get an opportunity to actually bake them. The girls really just wanted the dough anyhow. Then, once Mr. Ink arrived home we were off to a local restaurant for indian food. The rest of the family kept eyeing the dessert menu, even though I told them I have no interest. No one pays much attention to me when I remind them that I don’t love sweets. Miss Butterfly ate her weight in naan as usual, and had a sweet yogurt drink. Then she decided that she hadn’t had enough to eat, despite the fact that Mr. Ink and I were too full for dessert. She negotiated a trip to a local fast food joint for a kids meal. The kids meal comes with ice cream, so she ate that. Then we got home, and she snuck next door and brought back this:

My neighbor, who I barely know quite frankly, though Miss Butterfly spends a ton of time there, made this for me! So so sweet.

But that’s when I also realized I’d been played all evening long. Really, my birthday was just an excuse for Miss Butterfly to procure just as many sweets as she could possibly find. Nonetheless, it was a lovely day.

I’ve one more week left in my self imposed month of knitting exclusively. And I’d say it’s gone pretty well! While I began with the Dino Mitts and cannot call that decreasing my stash, one of the main goals of knitting for a month, the rest of the month has been quite successful in that department. I am on schedule to have removed at least 7 skeins of yarn from my stash. Even if I don’t finish the two projects I currently have on the needles, They are so far begun that they are officially used up in my mind. Since I cannot technically spin 7 skeins of yarn in a month, the total is more like 4, 5 if I am pushing it, I’d say I feel a bit ahead. After all, Not only did I knit 7 skeins, I also didn’t create more skeins. It’s like using up 11 skeins! OOOOkay…That might be pushing the justification a bit.

In any case, the remainder of my huge skein of 3 ring circus paired with fatcat knits batt after knitting my nahant was calling out to me.

You might say I’ve been a little bit obsessed with this yarn. So I cast on a Lintilla scarf. Really one of my favorite patterns for enjoyable and easy knitting, and I need that for the upcoming car negotiations. In fact, while I am having trouble putting it down, and quite a bit is getting done on it, I am really TRYING to concentrate on the Martinmas shawl instead, leaving the easy and portable shawl for the upcoming week.

To some extent, that’s silly. I mean, it’s not like I don’t have LOADS more yarn and needles. Should I somehow magically finish this Lintilla before Monday (Not actually possible in a universe in which it doesn’t knit itself while I am sleeping) I could just cast on another easy pattern. But. This is my car buying knitting.

That’s all from here today. I’ve got to straighten up the house and clean so that we can enjoy our company this evening. And I’d probably better find some snacks for people to eat as well.

So, it’s my 40th birthday. I sort of don’t care much about birthdays as a general rule and let them pass with little fanfare. I rarely plan anything ahead of time, I see where that date falls on the calendar, and then try to make it special incorporating whatever I’d most likely be doing on that date anyhow.

It seems like, though, this year people keep asking me to reflect on turning 40. They keep asking how I feel about it, like it should be some really big deal to me, whether that big deal be positive or negative.

So, I’ve been reflecting on it a bit when I have the chance. I am not sure I have a ton of coherent thoughts about it. But, I’ll see if I can type the few thoughts I do have about it. Here’s the deal, I really do not see how I could possibly feel negatively about turning 40 when my experience since my teens is that life gets better the older you get. I mean sure, it’ll toss curve balls at you, and you have to learn to deal. But the overall theme, at least for me, is that life keeps getting better. Parenting a tween is FAR more interesting to me than parenting a little. I expect that to continue. I’ve never really been too concerned about aging. I think grey hair is gorgeous, and always have. I’ve had my aunts to look up to, staying unique and stylish and active and interesting throughout their lives. And, really, in my brain my mother and my aunts didn’t age past 40 anyhow. They stopped there, probably around the age they were where I realized that they were people with their own wants and needs too.

If I am lucky, I am about halfway through my life. I’ve worked my current job for 11 years. They’ve been GREAT years. Stable years. It’s been awesome. I want for nothing at this point. My family life couldn’t be more perfect. I love my home, I love going home to it at the end of the day, I love the anticipation of having Mr. Ink walk in the door, I love the warmth and quirkiness of our house and yard. I love the laughter of the three of us spending time together in the kitchen/dining room in the evenings. I love the relaxing of my uptight nature that I’ve found when I am not the sole person responsible for running my household.

So, truly. What am I supposed to say about turning 40 other than “Let’s do this!”

In knitting news, here’s a project I’ve started:

I know, I know. It kind of looks goofy. This is the Martinmas Shawl. The olive green is Madtosh, and the blue is Marja’s handspun. Here I’ve done 2 sections of the blue. There are 6 sections of the blue to do. I am already worried about running out of yarn. However, this is one of those shawls where you start from the bottom, decreasing as you go. Last night I worked through the third blue section and started the fourth. So really, it won’t be long before I discover if I will run out of the blue or not. Crossing my fingers.

Tonight we are headed out for indian food, just me and my family. Tomorrow we’ll throw a little party with friends. On Sunday, I’ll relax. It’ll be a lovely weekend of birthday, just the way I want it.

Guys, decisions are hard! At least, big ones like vehicles. We’ve just been struggling along this week attempting to make a decision. And just when we think we have, one of us thinks of some additional point that throws a wrench into the whole thing and makes us start over. In reality, almost every evening we come back around to the same vehicle, so it seems like that should be our choice. But, then, we have a day to think on it and we get confused again.

Early on we had told Miss Butterfly that we had made our decision, and we showed her our vehicle and she got all excited about it. Last night Mr. Ink felt like he’d better tell her that we were considering other options, because she really hates not being in the know. Her reaction was surprisingly generous, just a “Well, it’s hard to make a decision on a big purchase like that!” Thanks kid, for giving us the permission to take our time. Hah! Funny how kids to end up factoring in these decisions even when they will probably leave the home far sooner than the vehicle will.

I finished another knitting project, this is my Gothic Spires scarf. It’s been done since Monday, but I haven’t been home to get a photo when it isn’t dark yet. So, here it is, using my handspun.

It turned out nicely! It’s soft and squishy and I really do like it. And the lace pattern was great to knit!

On Saturday we had snow. Sunday, still snow. Monday no more snow, but it was cold and rainy. Mr. Ink said “I am going to the store for mulch.” Which sounded odd, but I didn’t question it. Upon his return he was outdoors for a very long time. I said “Miss Butterfly, go see what Mr. Ink is doing!” And she poked her head out the door and said “Well, he’s carrying rocks around.” Well, ok then.

Later he did come in, well after dark, wet, muddy, and shivering. (Please to remember he is also nursing a cold. If you use the term “nursing” very loosely since really he just gets on with it.) I asked him what he had done, and he said “Well, I put in a little more garden edgers and pulled out more sod, and got things mulched in.

The before picture I’ve shown here:

It is, of course, a bit hard to tell but in the photo above, just to the right, there’s an elderberry bush. Mr. Ink brought this section farther to the right to include the first of two elderberry bushes.

Of course, in the winter, it’s harder to tell what he did. But it’s progress! At a time I never anticipated any.

That’s about it from here. I’ve started two new knitting projects which I am hoping to showcase in the next two days. But, it’s been slow going due to a busy season. That being said, one of them I specifically started in order to be able to work on it while negotiating a vehicle price. I am sure you know how that can go, and I want to be prepared for the sitting and waiting part of that equation. I bet Mr. Ink will have a terrible time with that bit.