There’s not much going on at the moment. Well, other than mothering 5 crazy kids. So there’s always tons going on, but in terms of moving and such, not much. I think the bubble is going to pop at some point, and I’ll suddenly have to get the house packed in 3 days or something. There was a massive, crazy 3 week insanity, trying to get the house “good enough” to go on the market and show. Now, other than trying to keep it clean-ish at that level, I’m not doing much.

I think the next big thing would be cleaning out the garage so there’s a good place to store packed boxes. But it’s SO FREAKING COLD!!!!! And wet, and not nice outside, I just can’t get myself psyched up to do it. Plus, there’s a lot of hazardous chemicals and latex paint cans to deal with, and I flat out don’t want to.

However, I’m afraid that time is slipping away from me, and at some point in the future, I’ll be mad that I didn’t make use of every single day in getting ready to move.

But, there are still no offers on the house. Not a lot of traffic coming to look at it. We have to drop the price slowly to show the bank that it really won’t sell for more than whatever offer eventually comes in, so they’re more likely to accept it. Which again means that it’s going to go from “nothing’s happening” to “crap! I have no time” real quick.

And yet, I’m enjoying the lull. I’ve been knitting the last couple days. I can’t remember the last time I indulged like this, and it’s glorious. I’ll post pictures when it’s done, which will be soon. It’s kind of a funky, orange shawl that may end up being a warm house shawl/blanket type thing. It might be too weird to wear out in public, but I don’t care. I’ve wanted to knit this pattern for years and I finally have.

Here’s a cute picture I took for my Twitter account yesterday (I don’t post there, just internet stalk my favorite musicians). I really like how it turned out.

Nate came home with some cool stickers last week, so the Yellow Submarine had to move

I also scored a vintage Elvis Costello sticker from the ’70s. How cool is that? When I got the camera out to take a picture of the new stickers, Max had a lot of fun sticking his face in the camera and laughing at me

This case has been fun to decorate.

Abby has finally decided that she wants to read Harry Potter. She’s been resisting, because she tends to resist things that “everyone else” does. But she’s been in the mood to read, and was having difficulty finding enough books to keep her occupied. The Harry Potter series has, what, 5000 pages? I think the sheer quantity was appealing to her. Liv thought it was a good idea to read them again, so here the two of them are, reading big books in front of our little fire, trying not to freeze to death in our cold house. It was cute.

I’ve had an ugly ball of handspun yarn on my bookshelf for a long time now. I haven’t wanted to take it down to the yarn room in the basement, because I knew it would never resurface. It was some merino/silk/angora that someone gave me to spin in very soft, pale shades of pink, green and blue. Well, it spun up pretty muddy and bleh. On Sunday night, I decided to just jump in and make a small scarf with it, hoping that it would look nicer knit up than it does as a ball of yarn. I’m nearly finished.

I think it does. I go back and forth

It’s not quite as pretty in person as it is in the pictures. Especially that last picture. It’s much more muted. But it feels dreamy and it will be warm, and that dumb ball of muddy yarn isn’t going to stare at me every night as I get ready for bed anymore. Win win.

It’s really cold. I’m not sure when we’re going to turn on the heat, but it’s definitely “not yet.” I’m so tired of this blasted recession.

So as I laid in bed last night, unable to sleep, I thought about slouchy hats. Green ones and pink ones and blue ones and brown ones… lots of hats. I want more of them. I love them, and I wear them ALL the time.

I also thought about selling them on etsy, but then I looked and there are SO many slouchy hats there already. While true, the ones I saw aren’t as cool as mine, there are lots. But I’m still thinking…

I made biryani last week. Along with some raita and sweet lassi.

The family loves it.

I love my enormous cast iron dutch oven. It holds so. much. food. And since my girls like taking leftovers for lunch instead of sandwiches, it works well to make huge dishes. Like cooking for an army.

So my gorgeous, warm new hat is done. And wet.

I hate blocking. So much so that I don’t always do it, but I could tell that this hat would look better if I did.

So I wait.

It is both flattering and really annoying that now the girls all want a slouchy hat like mine. How many times have I made fingerless mitts, or legwarmers, or hats only to hear “I want one! I want one!” So I make some. And they wear them once. And then I find them on the floor, under the couch, etc. for the rest of forever.

But I will probably make Abby a hat. Veronica isn’t too interested, and Liv made herself one awhile ago, that I don’t seem to have a picture of. It’s really cute.

Here’s something that few will find interesting besides myself… But I LOVE it!!!

This is my pedalboard case. For those of you who are confused, a pedalboard is a board with pedals on it that you plug an electric guitar into. Pedals change the sound of the guitar. You turn the different pedals on and off, depending on what sound you’re going for.

This is the board that sits oh-so-happily inside the above pictured case-

Anyway, (and I can’t remember if I’ve told you all this already), when my pedal board sits out, it collects undesirable things like cheerios and goldfish crackers. It also gets stood on and messed with by my little boys. So quite awhile ago, I bought a set of sturdy, Samsonite suitcases real cheap on Craigslist intending to use the biggest one for my board. More recently, I made pillows to cushion the board in it’s case, and now, I’m decorating the outside of it with stickers.

My brother has the smaller of the two cases for his board, and at his initiating, we’re kind of competing to see who’s case will be cooler.

Can you tell that I love, love, love The Living End? If you have the time and want to see some AWESOME… here are three videos. Enjoy.

Man we’ve been busy! I don’t like being busy. It’s a testament to how fast hats are that I have this much done.

It’s been non-stop this week. I think tomorrow is relatively unscheduled. Yay! I look forward to it.

How do you like the hat? I’m not completely happy with the tension behind the colorwork, so I’m going to rip it out and redo it. I’m contemplating moving the pattern closer to the bottom a few rows. I don’t know. I’m going to have to spend some time in front of the mirror to see exactly where I want to place the color change.

Clark was SO cute yesterday. He was adamant that I teach him how to spin. He’s been “spinning” on my wheels since he was 2, by holding onto the bobbin leader and moving his hand up and down while treadling. Well, yesterday he decided he wanted to do it for real. I said no. He persisted. I said no a few more times, and told him it was really hard. He was sure he could do it.

So I went downstairs and found some fiber I was willing to sacrifice to the cause. I showed him what to do with his hands while I treadled for him and do you know? He did really, really well! Shockingly well. When he would pinch and pull the wool forward, he’d look and stop before pulling it completely apart. That’s actually remarkable. Then he’d slide his thumb and finger back down at the proper tension, to about the right place before doing it again.

I think he’s a natural.

I don’t do it much anymore, but I really enjoy spinning, and really like to spin my batts.

Nate was somewhat in awe last night. “You just decide you want a hat, pick through your stash of wool downstairs, and spin up yarn. Just like that!”

Yup.

It’ll be interesting to see how the knitting goes. Fortunately, hats are a small project. But the last few times I’ve tried to knit (it’s been many months since I tried), my tendonitis flared up something fierce.

There was a time in my life when I dreaded not being able to knit. I’d heard of it happening to other people, and thought there could be nothing worse. Fortunately, music has come into the picture, and I am able sate my need-to-create through another vehicle.

But I do miss it.

As for the hat…. I’m hoping it looks as nice as I’m envisioning. There are specific design elements in my head, but I’m not sure how they’re actually going to play out.

I’m going for another slouchy hat, but I wanted this one to be thicker than my brown one,

so the yarn is heavier. I have a huge, thick, blue and brown hat that my sister knit a decade ago. It’s an unintentional slouch hat, and I love it. That’s kind of the vibe I’m going for, but I want it to fit better around the face. We’ll see what happens.

First of all, here’s Liv as a brunette. Or redhead. Or whatever.

We had a wonderful time at the bluegrass thing. I’m so impressed by Liv’s orchestra teacher. She teaches at 2 junior high schools, so both schools came. She was the only one in charge. It was just her and assorted parent chaperones. We spent Thursday night in instrument specific classes, where the kids learned how to play the instrument of their choosing. I was able to help out in the guitar class. Then late that night, a number of instructors, chaperones and students played together, mostly improvising. Bluegrass style. Totally fun.

The next day, we divided into 6 groups or “bands,” mixing the instruments up, and each band worked on a song. We played all day, in about 1 hour increments, breaking for meals and a block of 2 hour free time in the afternoon. Then more band practice. Then sound check. Friday night, the parents arrived and the instructors (a mom, dad, 3 sons and one friend) did a show. Then each band performed their song. Ours was “shortenin’ bread”). The instructor family did a finale of “Johnny B Good” bluegrass style, and it was rockin’.

So. much. fun.

However, the food completely sucked. I can’t even articulate how bad it was. If I go again, I’m taking a cooler and feeding myself. Well, myself and Liv. She hated it, too.

This was our band.

I’m in a pink hat, in the back, on the left. Liv is to the right of the banjo, under the horizontal cello, wearing red. Our instructor is in black, holding the yellow stand up bass.

Here are some more photos. Our practices were all indoors, but we played outside while waiting for our turn to sound check on stage. And it was freezing.

That’s pretty much all I got in the way of pictures. It was a busy 28 hours.

The local fire station was hosting a pancake breakfast and tour Saturday morning, so we all had fun with that.

Can you tell which of my kids really likes to have her picture taken, and which totally doesn’t?

In other news, I need a black/gray based hat. I don’t have one, and I have acquired some shirts and a scarf over the past year that really don’t go with brown. So I might have some spinning and knitting in my near future. It got real cold, real fast, and I need more woolies to keep me warm.

I thought that since summer came really late, it would at least last longer. Well, my toes have been cold for a week + now, and I’m coming to the sad realization that my days of barefoot bliss are coming to an end.

Pout.

Socks and shoes that aren’t my Dr Marten sandals are a pain.

So that’s it. That’s my ground shaking post after a month long break. Awesome, huh? I’m getting a bit tired of Facebook, so I may come ’round here a little more often.

Do you remember when he was born? And the few days afterwards? That was 5 whole years ago? Hard to believe. And I’m an official parent of a teenager now. Abby is 13. That’s not as weird to me for some reason. So, happy birthday to the both of you, my beautiful children!

It’s been a busy weekend, and I’m going to be running around like crazy today, too. I’ll get pictures up later this week.

Thank you for the naming suggestions. I really, really appreciate it. I haven’t decided what I’m going with yet, but it was really helpful and I’ll either go with one of yours, or something inspired by it. So far my favorites are April Showers and Saturday Market… but thanks to everyone for chiming in!

My elbows are hurting a lot right now. I haven’t been playing guitar all that much, but I have been knitting more in the last few weeks than I have in a very long time. This is not a good sign. They really hurt. I’m not sure what I’m going to do about it yet.