The Purge

I've been blogging in my head and taking plenty of pictures... but I know that doesn't really count for beans if I'm not posting it here. There have been plenty of things going on, mostly to do with the adoption process that would probably bore you but caused a great load of work and stress for me... Thankfully that's over with (almost) and I can get back to more knitting. Which is good, especially because there are a whole bunch of babies on their way that I haven't made any hats for. 

But I've also been working on simplifying my schedule for next year. Jamie is starting Kindergarten in the Fall and it's now time for registration, so it got me thinking about what I want to commit to. Right now I volunteer in a crazy-person capacity, and that just can't happen if I want to a) stay sane, and b) drop everything and go to China when our referral arrives. So... I'm already down to one committee at church, I'm dropping MOPS next year, I'm off the BUNCO list (yeah, major sacrifice there,) I'm only attending one spinning guild (as opposed to three,) and two knitting groups (one once a week in the morning, and one every other week in the evening.) I still have some decision-making to do. We were going to put Evelyn in preschool, but then I realized that she probably won't be going to Kindergarten in two years because her birthday is late September. She seems like such a big girl now...

Isn't that cute? Her Great Grandma and Great Aunt Nancy sent that dress and matching purse along with some goodies for Easter - it's so adorable! I really don't know what to do about the preschool thing - she's certainly smart enough and wants to go, but that means more money and volunteer time.  We'll have to think about it some more before tuition is due.

Some of my knitting friends are doing a silly project that they've fondly named the "Fug-a-long". A ball of "fugly" yarn is being passed from person to person and we're trying to see how many mini-projects we can get out of it. When I got the fug (which was not all that fugly in my opinion) and my watch band broke that very afternoon, I knew it was destiny:

I whipped this out on Friday evening, and passed the ball-o-fug to Brina on Saturday when I had some friends over for Late Night Knitting. I was so proud of myself, what with all the shaping involved... until today when I noticed how fuzzy, pilly and nasty it looks. I guess I'll be knitting another one soon - out of hemp, maybe? Something a little more durable.

I was actually spinning on Saturday night and when it hit about 11pm, we all started screaming and jumping up and down because I was finally done (DONE) with Tandy's yarn!!!

That is 1391 yards of alpaca and wool, half carded by hand, half by drum carder... almost 14 football-field-lengths of oatmeal-colored yarn. Almost a year of my life... (Well, okay I took a lot of breaks and was an unfaithful spinner... but I also learned my lesson: DO NOT agree to spin someone else's yarn - offer to teach them to spin instead. I really love you, Tandy... I made you 91 extra yards, so please don't you dare ask for more.) 

Let's see, what else is new? Nathan is making a leprechaun trap for school and Jamie has been keeping me quite entertained in the afternoons...

Yesterday after church, Phil and I went outside to do some weeding and clear out some blackberry bushes. I planted daffodils and tulips, but today they are covered in snow. 

So unfair. Despite the weather, Spring Cleaning at the Kent household has commenced... I've been posting things on Craigslist and hope to have a few destash items on Ravelry soon. This was the first to go...

After spending weeks warping this loom, I started weaving. And it was all wrong!!! To get the pattern I wanted, I would have had to rethread most of it which was just not going to happen. I rarely lose my patience, but this weaving thing was sucking the life out of me and it wasn't worth it. (Besides, I do have a couple of other looms in case I lose my mind and want to try it again.) So I put it on Craigslist and a nice lady named Betty came the next day to take it away, warped and everything - I wish her many, many moons of happy weaving. 

And now... I'm going to go spin something colorful.