Less Than Two Days Until...

The Yarn Train, the Yarn Train! Saturday is the big day - my friends and I leave here bright and early (5:30 am) to catch the Amtrak to Portland, OR. I am so excited... and I even sold a couple of skeins on my Etsy shop a week ago so I'll have a bit of spending money while I'm down there. Yippee!

This has a been a rainy week in the Pacific Northwest - Yesterday, it was one of those days when the kids were bored and anything I suggested was a boring idea... So I set up a sheet like a fort (which they grumbled about at first) and walked away to see what they would do. After a bit of squabbling and bossing one another around, they finally decided to fill it with blankets and pillows. (I drew the line at dumping boxes of toys... I know how that usually ends.) Today I put them to work rolling pennies from our Pennies for Peace drive at church. That's the organization that builds schools in Afghanistan to promote peace and provide education to children, especially girls. If you haven't yet read Greg Mortenson's Three Cups of Tea, this book can tell you more about the mission and the story behind it. Anyway, I think we rolled about $30 worth of pennies and hardly made a dent in the bucket... that's great news! But wow, we are going to be rolling pennies for a long time.

Speaking of charity work, if you haven't donated to help those who are providing aid to the people of Haiti, please consider doing so... I know a lot of churches are creating funds to help, but I think the money will get to where it needs to be much faster if we donate via organizations that already have infrastructure within the country such as Mercy Corps, Doctors Without Borders, or Partners in Health. What's scary is that our region is long overdue for a big earthquake like that. My prayers and compassion go out to the families who have lost their homes and loved ones...

Last week I started spinning the 8oz of Merino I won from Jersey Knitter and it has been good to sit and spin away the heartbreak. (I try not to dwell on the fact that we have a baby girl waiting for us in an orphanage on the other side of the world while we jump through more hoops in this process.) The striping is turning out to be so much lovelier than I imagined:

This is going to be a 3-ply (we shall forget that I said "never again" to 3-ply... ) because that is the sensible thing to do for a pair of socks. And if I can get the colors to line up just right... Wow. Just wow.

I've got too many projects spilling out of my knitting basket - a baby sweater (for a baby that was born 4 months ago,) a linen stitch scarf, another Red Dragon Shawl (for my neighbor who is still awaiting her adoption referral,) a pair of Firefly Mitts that I'm test-knitting for Tandy, and the Swirl Shawl which I have sort of abandoned for the time being. So I was very glad to finish these...

I knit the tiny hats with some of my own handspun merino/tencel for our friends Judy and Joel who are expecting twin baby boys in March... I'll try and get some pics with the light box before I send these off. I love how the colors worked out with the blue at the edging of one and the shimmery copper at the edging of the other.

Evelyn is doing alright with the "Knitting Nancy", although she broke the little plastic tool to pieces (the little stinker...) so I was torn on whether to let her continue with one of my darning needles, or take it away for awhile. I opted for letting her continue because she desperately needs something to keep her busy in the afternoons... during which her new hobby seems to be dreaming up all kinds of mischief or throwing temper tantrums when I'm trying to teach her brother something. Nathan has shown interest in the ukulele, so in addition to the beginning piano lessons and music theory I've been teaching him a few chords. For the piano, we are using the Piano Adventures series which (at least at the Primer level) has been pretty easy to follow on our own. Earlier this week, I got him started with some bow-weaving on a long stick of bamboo. Nathan really likes weaving, and enjoyed adding beads to his work. I'm so glad I learned how to do this at Valley Spinners this year:

Well, the next update should be all about the Yarn Train... It's going to be so much fun! A whole day to temporarily forget everything and hang with my knitting friends, shop for yarn, play the uke, walk around in downtown Portland, and eat things like Bacon Maple Bars from Voodoo Donuts. Can't wait!