Madeline and I at Niagara Falls in July 09

Me, Madeline, Ava, Alex and Luke

We spent Alex’s 10th birthday in July at Great Wolf Lodge in Niagara Falls and had a great time with WannaBaa – her kids and mine.  It was chaos – but a good kind of chaos!  What a great place to bring kids!  Highly recommended but definitely on the expensive side.

Stay tuned for a book review this week…

The new job is kicking me in the rear. I can’t explain why. It isn’t far off what I was doing before…just…more.

Anyway – here is the loveliest of merino I received as part of a fibre swap. This is from woolydaisy. Isn’t it pretty! The top on top (heh heh…aren’t I the funny one) is garnet and the bottom is topaz (coincidentally my birthstone) – I’ m having stripped mitten thoughts…

Thanks woolydaisy!!!

Next…tranquil Canadian summer pictures….

Sigh…I just wanna go back. There was chipmunk (named Chippie…what else!) that would eat from your hand if you were still enough. There was knitting and spinning on the screened in porch. And best of all? There was a guest cabin where the kids hung out. Kind of like the kids table at family dinners but EVEN BETTER.

At some point the knitting/spinning adventures will get updated included, but not limited to:

- a finished Swallowtail shawl out of handspun

- self-striping yarn in four colours – hand dyed and handspun

- the fleece I bought with Chriss - I have learned that when it comes to processing your own fleece, clean is a relative term.

Happyish Monday!

I went to Canada’s Wonderland with the dear son and proved that 37 isn’t too old to go on a ride that made me think I was going to die. Actually – this is more accurate. Except that in addition to the screaming I heard Alex say, “THIS IS AWESOME!!!!” That’s when I knew I was in big trouble.

We had a great time. I conquered my fear (over and over and over and over). We ate crap. We spent a lot of time in line and upside down. I got soaked on the water ride. It was all good.

Our first day Alex and Luke connected over foam building blocks. Alex built and Luke destroyed. All was well in the world. Luke had a new hero. Although Alex later admitted to Luke’s mom that Luke had more energy than he had.

The day before was far more sedate. Day one was a trip to the Toronto Zoo. I love the zoo. Alex loved the zoo but Alex did not like all that walking. What he did like was taking pictures. He took photos of everything. I had to step in and take pictures though because his intentions are great but his execution is not so wonderful. We wandered for about 5 hours and I had to agree that my legs were getting pretty tired too.

I can’t help but think that this polar bear is thinking “These people look delicious!”

This was a yarn-free trip because Alex is not a kid who likes a yarn store. In fact, unless it is a video rental place or carries video games, Alex is distinctly unhappy about shopping of any kind. So we did kid stuff. It was really nice to connect with him on stuff we both like. As he gets older and becomes more boyish – and I get more fibre-y in my choice of pastimes – we are connecting less and less. Although he is a lot more interested in spinning than Madeline is. He wants to know how the wheel works, what plying is etc. He asks interesting questions!

This week I have the kids in camp for three days while I paint — its slow going — mostly because I lack the resolve to work at it for more than an hour or two at a time.

There has been knitting going on – but not much to actually show.

I did manage to turn this:

Into this:

That’s the Couleurs de Provence colours. It is gorgeous and will be off, shortly, to Jeanne who was brave enough to admit to a love of self-patterning sock yarn. I am very pleased with it – particularly since I don’t generally like the colours of commercial sock yarns.

I can tell you that skeining self-patterning sock yarn is the most agonizing and irritating of jobs. Having to do it twice because the skeinwinder umbrella thingy collapsed causing all kinds of knots and generally ickiness may have cause a temper tantrum that is, in retrospect, somewhat embarrassing.

Xmas morning the sprogs were at their dads so I got up around 9:30 and went over to my neighbours for some coffee and conversation which was a very humane way to begin Christmas!

I picked up Madeline and Alex at 1:00 and came home and opened gifts. Because there weren’t a lot of presents under the tree we took our time and enjoyed opening one each and getting to admire each other’s presents. I gave Madeline a Real Meal Easy Bake Oven which she liked enough to try the macaroni and cheese (it is a stretch to call it that). Alex got a Robo-pet which is BEYOND COOL. Seriously. Even if you don’t have kids this thing is fun! And if you or your significant adult is a bit of a tech geek – you’ll be enthralled by the mechanical genius.

I think I’ve mentioned before that because I don’t have a partner and we celebrate Xmas with my family separately, I normally buy myself some stocking stuffers and a few gifts to give myself from Santa to keep the belief in Santa Clause alive. I did this the first time last year and discovered it is a lot funner than I thought it would be. I think this is because I am an instant gratification type of person. So packing up the gifts and not playing with them is hard for me. So I am truly excited Christmas morning to finally get my hand on my presents! This year Santa gave me a lovely earring and necklace set – bronze with nice red stones in it (how did he know I needed some red jewellry!), Nicky Epstein’s Knitted Flowers, the most recent Knit.1 magazine and the new Koigu book.

More books arrived from my parents: Odd-ball Knitting (which I’m not in love with) and Sally Melville’s Knitting Experience Book 3: Colour which I have glanced through and seems to have some interesting ideas and techniques.

Right now I am knitting up a few washclothes to “adorn” my last gift to give to my good friend Sandra, a beginner knitter who made the mistake of saying to me, “I wish I knew how to knit dishclothes.” Did you know that you can fit four “cakes” of wound Bernat Handicrafter cotton in one of those cylindrical wine gift boxes? Well, you can! I finished one ball-band cloth from Mason Dixon and am working on a modular one I really hope will work out based on the Koigu book instructions for diagonal squares – I am determined to make this without having to sew a seam!

Sorry for the lack o pictures but my camera batteries are recharging…and frankly? I’m at work (shhhhh!)