Just a quick update

I don't seem to remember the blog exists half the time, and when I do remember, I don't ever have much to say.

My camera is dead, so no photos for a while, unless I want to do camera phone pics or I can convince Steve to let me use his.

Its August, and the time of the year where I start planning what I am going to knit for Corwin for his upcomming birthday. Every year, since he turned one, I have knit him a sweater for his birthday present. There was Trellis, Scoop (minus the intarsia), Childhood in a solid bright red, and last year the green hoodie with cables (that I never put the zipper in Oops). I've been scouring Ravelry for sweaters for him, had a few to show him, and he didn't want any of them.

What does he want?

Spiderman!. He is obsessed with spiderman. I think we have settled on a hat and mittens for this year, and I'm going to have my mom put a zipper in last year's hoodie. I think I might re-size the mittens for fingerling, or try my hand at designing something, so I can do everything with the same yarn, and only have to buy a a few balls from Knit Picks. I can pick up the yarn to make this for $10 from Knit Picks, which I will be doing soon.

Until then, I'm trudging along on the Smock Coat for Kaylee. This coat is nothing but Seed stitch, with a little bit of garter stitch thrown in on the hem and collar. Its good mindless knitting that takes forever. I'm having to force myself to work on it some days, but others I can't put it down. I 'm making the 2-3 year old size to fit my big girl (18 months tomorrow and has been in 24 month clothing for months), but I think I miss judged, and made it one inch too short. Trying to decided if I'm going to stress and fix it, or just deal. I have the back, one sleeve, and half of the left front done, and just have the rest of the left front, the right front, other sleeve, and collars to go. I'm only on ball 5, and if I have enough left over, I think I'm going to knit a matching tam for her to wear with it.

My February Lady Sweater has been neglected these last few months. Since I took up spinning so hard core, and have been working on gift knitting, I just don't have time for it that often. I have it next to the bed for that "I'm up, showered, dressed, and have 30 minutes before I have to get the kids ready" time, but since Steve started classes in Dallas, I've been sleeping in longer, and not having that 30 mintues of veg time to start the day with. I'm still only on the second skein of yarn, and think it will only take 4 of the 5 that I dyed for it, maybe leaving me with a skein for a hat.

I've been obsessed with looking at hats on Ravelry lately. I'm not sure why. Maybe it has to do with spinning, and hats being a good option to do for small amounts of yarn. Who knows, but I see some hat knitting in the near future. Which is odd, since in all my years knitting, I have made a grand total of one, yes one hat. Cowls would also be a good thing to knit with hand spun, and I could give those as gifts. Hm, to ponder.

On the lace frount, I have stalled out on the GoddesKnits again. I' m just not feeling the love for this shawl, and have been thinking about frogging it and using the yarn for something else. This could be due to the fact that I just knit Aeolin out of the exact same yarn, color and all, and I'm tired of this color for now. Who knows.

I've taken a break from wheel spinning for now, and have been working on finishing up my two big SIP's on spindles. I also really need to stain the wheel, and hope to do that this weekend, now that Steve has a break from class and can wrangle the kids for me a bit. But I know my dad wants to see me spin on it, and I don't really want to break it down until after I can show it off.

First trip to the zoo

I was hoping to have our family photos uploaded for this blog post, but my husband has stuck the camera in his backpack, and I'm too scared to go looking for it.
My husband is getting ready to start an accelerated nursing program in June, which means that for 15 months he will be 100% a student (40 hours a week + in the class room) and not able to do much with the family.
We decided that we should take the last few weekends that we have before then to do as much family stuff as we can.
Sunday we loaded everyone up and went to the Fort Worth Zoo. Corwin had been there before, we celebrated his first birthday there, and have tried to go at least once a year (but missed last year). Kaylee had never been.
Corwin was most excited about seeing the elephants and lions on the drive up, and was in a good mood for most of the day. Kaylee, who loves anytime she spends outdoors, was in 7th heaven, and got even more excited when she noticed there were ANIMALS out there to find!
It was a mild spring day for Texas, high 60's low 70's, and the animals were up and moving for once. Our first stop was the Cheetah exhibit, where one cat was walking around, and the other was rolling in the grass and dirt trying to scratch his back. Corwin took a few photos with his small kids camera, and Kaylee squealed.
Corwin got to see the elephants, all together for feeding time, and thought it was so cool! In front of the giraffe exhibit was a pond with fish and turtles, and I think that was Corwin's favorite thing of all.
Kaylee loved everything. She went "Rawwwrr" when she saw the lions and tigers. The white tiger exhibit is set up with a glass wall, allowing visitors to get up close and personal with the animals. Too close in some cases, as I was treated to the image of a Yawning tiger jaw and teeth right behind my 15 month olds head.
Kaylee's real favorite, I have to say, was the penguins. She loved watching them swim and dive down, and come up for air.
I can't wait until we can afford to take them back to the zoo. If not the Fort Worth Zoo, then the Frank Buck Zoo, which is smaller, and costs about half what the FTZ costs.