Fixer-upper

Found the perfect place for me (stashed in my parents' attic for who knows how many years).
Constructed (poorly) by me when I was twelve, a birthday gift from my grandma.


It needs a roofer.

And a glassier.

The kitchen needs to be gutted.
A great fixer-upper for while I am still homeless (it turns out you can't knit constantly, your wrists just won't take it.)

Happy Birthday!

Today my sweet little guy turned three years old. Happy Birthday Monkey!
Yes, that is a Trogdor cake. He was delighted.

Marc left for Maxwell AFB this morning. Now I'm all alone (with the Monkey of course) staying at my in-laws house.
A week ago we didn't know where he would be going and now he's gone already.

Frequently at night we would find ourselves snuggled on the couch, him playing video games, me knitting, and we would discuss quantum physics, Elvis' affect on the culture of music, how sad it is that the Pieta is behind glass in the Vatican and you can't really experience it the way Michelangelo wanted, or whatever. So I don't really feel much like knitting in the quiet tonight, even though I am quite enjoying Mim's Adamas shawl. If anyone feels like hanging out and talking while I knit though, call me. We have dozens of video games and half a container of Cookies and Cream ice cream. Snuggling optional.

Wow

So, a fast update because I've actually received a couple of emails wondering what happened to me. In the past couple weeks, I have:
Downsized our belongings by at least 30%
*Moved out of my deluxe apartment in the sky to my in-laws house
*Fixed a big freaking hole in their roof
*Sent off my KSKS package and had it returned by the post office with tire tracks on it...(thank goodness for insurance)
*Spent several days in the hospital after the monkey ingested about two weeks worth of his anti-seizure meds (this was absolutely horrible-they flew him in the helicopter he was going down so fast, but he is doing fine now. Kids are rubber)
*Found out Marc passed the Bar Exam, Hurray!
*Spent hours on the phone with the Pentagon getting our placement preferences etc set because Marc will be going active in 2 1/2 weeks. For months now everything has been wait wait wait, now it is HURRYHURRYHURRY! The really awesome thing is that we still don't know where we will be moving yet.
*I've even done some knitting
For a long time now I've felt like we've been dragging along slowly to our next stage, but now everything seems so sudden. We found out Marc passed the Bar on Thursday and Friday the Air Force told him to be in Alabama (for a 9 week military law class) in 2 1/2 weeks. At that point Monkey and I will load up our car and drive to California to stay with my parents while Marc is at Maxwell AFB.
Wow.
For now we're running around getting things taken care of like doctor appointments and traveling back to Boise to be sworn in to the Idaho State Bar. I keep trying to think of some witty way to end this post but all the news has rather knocked me over. Peace out-

It's a bird, it's a plane, no...

It's a FINISHED OBJECT! One present down for Christmas this year. These socks are a surprise for my sister, whom I tricked into picking the yarn while helping me decide on the colors for the Momsocks, and I cleverly got her to give me her foot measurements without her suspecting a thing. In trying to do something interesting between the two socks I knit one from the inside of the skein and the other from the outside, resulting in not quite matching socks. No pattern to speak of, just your standard 2x2 ribbed socks on #1 needles.
My next project is a pair of Knucks for my FIL (I'm pretty much grounded from any personal knitting for a while, at least until I have a more significant lead on Christmas). And I would have a pretty decent start on these stupid gloves if I didn't so completely suck at casting on. How is it that in 25 years of knitting I still haven't learned a way that really is stretchy and attractive? But that is a gripe for another post. Off to pack* some more.

*By "pack" I mean tape together another box, then stand in my kitchen looking at it and curse quietly.

Oddly compelling

Lest you think I've been wasting all my packing time by creating quilted breakfast food for the monkey...



The chocolate cake is really the coolest thing I've done so far.

Fluff

Instead of getting any meaningful packing done or even posting anything with substance, the monkey and I have been playing kitchen and sewing together. He loves to sit on my lap while I'm at the machine and only touches when it's not moving. Better than actually feeding my family: quilted breakfast.

Weeeee!!!!!!

So what did you do this weekend?

Oww.

Because I don't have enough going on in my life right now, today the universe conspired with a 16 year old driver and I got hit by a car while riding my bike to the gym.
Stupid freaking cages.*
I ended up on her hood (then flying back onto the ground) while my poor bike ended up under her tire. We (the bike and I) were lucky; I so far only have some scratching and bruises, and the bike is looking pretty awesome with her new bad-ass black front tire (the front tire frame was taco'd) and a tune up since everything was out of wack from being hit.
I declined a trip to the hospital; we were up there with the Monkey last week and I'm sure they are getting tired of me. I'll re-evaluate the knee tomorrow.

*Be the first to name that literary reference and I've got a prize for you, no jokes.

Knit Sock Kit Swap

I received the best package in the mail from Jenny, my Knit Sock Kit Swapper the other day! I am hugely spoiled. She sent me a great embroidered polka dot bag that already contains my sock-in-progress (retiring my crappy ziplock bag), a matching needle holder containing an addi turbo needle (my first!), stitch markers, stitch holders, a cute measuring tape so I can be cool like the girls at the SnB, delicious candy that you can see from the picture has already been sampled significantly, and a booklet about Magic Loop. And best of all, she sent me two skeins of Regia Stretch in the extremely awesome Camouflage color. Holy smokes, it is even cooler than everyone says it is. Browns, greens and blacks; my favorite colors all wrapped up in one fantastic elastic yarn. Thank you so much Jenny!
One more dyeing of the sock yarn for my secret partner and my box will be ready to mail. I hope she loves it as much as I adore my present.

Adultery

I am slowly staggering along on the Project That Would Not End, and I admit that I am beginning to have feelings of...infidelity. I'm tired of knitting away on a project that does not change in any easily perceived way. The socks I'm working on are getting a lot more attention than the shawl, absolutely due to the actual progress the sock makes. Meanwhile, the shawl hangs there, looking not unlike the string bags I carry my groceries home in. It's impossible to really even show someone who is interested, I usually end with "it's hard to tell, but someday it will be really beautiful!"
Yeah.
So my cheating heart is looking around seeing all these beautiful shawls (I obviously really want to work on a lace shawl, I just want one that will someday be finished. And isn't such a mindbender trying to figure how one pattern transitions into the next when you finish a row) and I admit to having feelings for a number of other patterns. Mims Adamas shawl pattern is right here, literally hanging on the wall in front of my desk. It is especially tempting because I recently bought a giant cone of Zephyr in white, and it whispers so seductively.
"I'm such a dream to knit with. You could dye me any color-you have dozens of packs of Kool-aid. You could knit right off the cone. Over 5000 yards, I'm anything you want me to be!"
Please just let me finish this thing. It has been a long time in the works.

Rain, plus more jam

It rained again last night and now everything is so fresh and cool; a beautiful 68°. Apparently the ideal temperature for me. It has been a busy week in my little world, in preparation for moving I had to clean out the bedrooms in the inlaw's house that we are moving in to. The only kid living at home with them for two years has been our drummer Sean, who behaves like a gas and expands to fit the space provided. Since there are two free bedrooms and three bathrooms available for his use, he has expanded to use all of this space to one degree or another. Between his crap and the ginormous collection of polo shirts acquired at trade shows, the closets were no small task. I feel honest fear about the time when I will claim one of the bathrooms as ours and clean it out. But I was then able to bring in a few big rubbermaid boxes, filled with Christmas decorations and baby clothes, giving me a warm glow of accomplishment that I so don't deserve. Yep, three boxes, I'm practically moved already.
Due to the overwhelming popularity of the Cherry Nectarine jam, and it's subsequent disappearance, the Monkey and I made another batch yesterday. Soooooo delicious! I maintained a little more creative control during the blender portion of thejamss construction, so it is a little more chunky this time (the Monkey prefers to blend everything into oblivion). Hopefully I will have the good sense to stash these jars instead of handing them out to family again

Hiking

This weekend we took the Monkey hiking in Alta. He does better and better while we are out, but still does a considerable amount of sniveling while being forced to walk uphill. I think he's so happy to have Marc around all the time that he wants to constantly be carried by him. We saw hummingbirds and squirrels and a pica that a clueless youth group was absolutely delighted to see, as they all thought it was a beaver. No moose on our trip, the Cecret lake trail is waaaaaay to crowded for them. Too crowded for me too, but it still is a beautiful area so I'll put up with the crowds once a year or so. The Project that Would Not End came too, and enjoyed the amazing wildflowers that still blanket the mountains.

Hurray!

We are finally home and back to normal after the Bar exam, which took us to Boise for 5 days. I'm really glad to be back home, and the monkey is too, based on his much improved behavior. Still broke, still unemployed, still have to move by the end of August, but I'm focusing on the fun stuff that we get to do while we have a lot of free time together. I'm even getting some knitting done! Still clicking away on The Project That Will Never End (aka Shetland tea shawl), working on a sock for Christmas, and finished a Sophie bag a week or so ago.

Pattern: Sophie from MagKnits
Yarn: Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in Winter Night
Alterations: I cast on 50 stitches instead of 39, because I carry around a lot of stuff for the Monkey. I followed the pattern for decrease rows, but knit an extra 8 or 9 rows after the last decrease. I made the handle longer too.
In retrospect I probably didn't need to make the bag bigger since it has become a project bag for The Project That Will Never End. I will definitely re-block and maybe further felt the bag in order to make is a little more tapered towards the top.

I crave the normal

I will start updating this again with some frequency in a little less than a week, when my life returns to as normal and predictable as it ever is. But for now, it is going to remain a little erratic.
For those interested in my band, we are playing tonight at a club called The Circuit (7711 South 700 West). We'll be up at around 9:00pm. If you are interested in going, I've scanned in a sheet of discount passes that will get you in the door for just $5. Just print them out and please be sure to write Lucky Dragon - Erin on the back of the pass. Streetlight Silhouette, Blame the Sea and 4 Saken 1 will be playing too, so it should be a really good show. This is the first all-ages show we will have played (read: non-bar) so it will be interesting to see how it goes. I hope to see you there!

Dry those eyes!

I just finished reading Elizabeth Zimmermann's Knitting Without Tears. My goodness she is a hoot. I will probably not use any of her sweater patterns anytime soon--I fear no seams and think set-in sleeves look best, but her overall knitting advice is very sound and practical. And again, she is hilarious. Best quote:

Really, all you need to become a good knitter are wool, needles, hands, and slightly below-average intelligence. Of course superior intelligence, such as yours and mine, is an advantage.

Lazy Sunday

Another lazy lazy weekend here, due more than a little to the unbelievable heat outside. Last night at 1am it was 84 F outside, too ridiculously hot to sleep. Thank goodness for air conditioning; wo/man's greatest triumph over nature!
Continuing on my efforts to feed my little family, yesterday I made more jam. Just in case we decide to eat nothing but peanut butter sandwiches between now and whenever we move in August. Three big jars of Cherry-Nectarine, yum! They look a lot like the jars from Thursday's post, only red. I've come to the conclusion that I'll pack these carefully in the boxes that will not be opened until we are wherever the Air Force sends us, probably in December. That way we will have something delicious and homemade, wherever we end up.
Marc's last day at his job was Friday, blah. But to see it with a positive light, now he can spend the next week cramming for the Bar exam. As it is only the most important test he'll probably ever take, we are going to call this a good thing. I'm not really concerned about him passing, he is a very smart guy and great at taking tests. But there still is that abstract fear in the back of your mind any time something this big is coming up. Just one and a half weeks though, and the anticipation is over!

Where have I been anyway?

Today I got up and actually got things done from my list, amazingly enough. I haven't been sick for a couple of days, but it really took me a while to get back on my feet. It feels like I've been laying around for weeks, getting nothing done. And while nothing is a bit of an exaggeration, it only just barely falls into exaggeration territory. I've been staying afloat and nothing more. But today has seen the bathroom and kitchen cleaned, the house vacuumed, and jam made, and it's only half past noon. Behold the beauty of the jam!
Apricot-Pineapple! Apricots from the trees in my in-laws backyard, and pineapple from... Indonesia, according to the label on the can. Global economy at its most delicious! It does seem a little silly to be making jam though, as our move out of our deluxe apartment in the sky looms close in my mind (still a month and a half away, but I'm really dreading the thought). Since the Air Force has not yet decided to send Marc to Japan, we have to make other plans. Currently that means moving in the with in-laws at the end of August, and staying there until mid-October when Marc goes to Maxwell AFB and I float to California. I love Marc's family but still feeling apprehensive and sad about the move. It feels like one more useless step between us and whatever the future holds.
Wow, I had no intention of unloading like this today, I really meant this to be a positive post. I guess what is really there is oozing through my cracks more than I thought.

Ouch

Ok, I apologize for the omission from today's earlier post. I am on pain meds because I have one awful aching oozing case of strep throat, and it has caused an abscess on my tonsil. Needless to say, I feel like shit. I can barely even knit.

FIRE BABY!

Yesterday some pretty cool thunder and lightning blew in for the 4th of July, bringing with it delightful cool temperatures. So we opened up the windows and turned off the AC (it was smelling weird anyway, like something blew into the big water tower outside). Fast forward to this afternoon. Remember the weird smell in the AC last night? This afternoon I turned on the AC and looked down the hall, and there were FLAMES in the air intake. Little flames, but flames non the less. So I calmly unscrewed the thing, popped out the filter and patted out the fire. Go me! Maintenance is up here now replacing a fuse (the part that was on fire). Way to go original fuse! I thought your job was to prevent this kind of fun. It was probably the pain meds that kept me calm, otherwise I might have been more concerned about being very sick and having a naked toddler (he's potty training himself) while my apartment went up in smoke.

Ooo, pretty

So, somebody somewhere is doing some sort of posting involving pictures of the sky, which I could very easily look up but I'm making ice cream and it is almost done. Anyway, the sky is so beautiful right now I wanted to share. Have a wonderful evening.

Yipee!

Thanks to all the creative energy flying around the room at the SnB last night I actually figured out what my problem was and fixed it. Mim and Shelley were especially nice as I sat there and stared at my pattern for easily 30 minutes, knitting and then tinking the same 14 stitches over and over. It seems I missed a YO on one side of the pattern and picked up some random loop on the other side, making my overall count ok but still nothing was fitting.
Now if I stare at everything else for long enough, maybe my next move will become clear...

Arg.

Overall, the knitting on my Shetland Tea Shawl has gone extremely smoothly. Until tonight. I'm not really sure what the problem is, in fact, yesterday I finally figured out what the heck they are talking about when they talk about moving the stitch markers, and why I should do that. But I either have a missing stitch or my markers are just scattered helter skelter through my stitches or something. At least I've isolated the problem; it is definitely somewhere within the lace.

Strangest thing I've knit

I was kind of burned out for a few days from working on nothing but the big-ass shawl, so last night I started Nautie from Knitty. Very weird and cool, plus a good use of the crappy Red Heart I have floating around since before I started knitting with decent yarn a few years ago. The green of the shell is Wool-ease, and not bad to work with at all. The cream is the tiniest fraction of a giant skein of Red Heart, and is nearly impossible to touch with knitting needles. I've been knitting for 24 years, how did it take me so long to pick up decent wool? Anyway, since I started this I am full of ideas of who I know that needs such a strange knitted object. My mom is a science teacher, of course she needs one! Brother in law and his wife just had a baby-and what better toy could an infant have than the weirdest thing in the ocean? My cousin is pregnant, hurray! A pink one for her baby-in-waiting. Tomorrow I'll pick up some googly eyes for the wacky little guy.

Getting better all the time

Today was a much better, smoother running day than I have had in a while. My post-seizure paranoia has lessened to the point where the Monkey does not have to be in my direct line of sight. And my outlook on everything always improves after yoga, which I went to tonight. The kind people at Knitpicks also sent me a catalog (yarn porn) the other day, so I also partook in a little retail-therapy, and bought myself a project or two-s yarn.

Last Saturday I did a little KIP at the Farmer's Market and met David and Jessica. Beautiful day, and the Monkey was actually really good while I sat and knit for quite a while (food always helps him hold still-eating is serious business to this kid). When the wiggles got to be too much for Monkey, Jen had arrived and we did some shopping. David's genius idea for my impossible to shop for MIL's birthday was to knit her a washcloth. The farmer's market is a really easy place to pick up some delicious handmade soap, and I whipped up a cloth from cotton in my stash that night. Done in plenty of time!

And last, I will finally post my Knit Sock Kit Swap questionnaire for my very on the ball secret pal. I admit I didn't answer some of the questions thought. What kind of yarn would I be? The kind that is baffled by that line of questioning.

What are your favorite colors? Purple, brown, earthy dark colors
Are you a new sock knitter? Very new, I've knit two whole pair so far!
How long have you been knitting socks? Just a couple months.
Do you prefer solid or multicolored yarn? Solid or very lightly variegated
What fibers do you prefer in sock yarn? Haven't really been doing this long enough to have a strong opinion. Wool/nylon blends seem like a good sturdy idea.
Where do you usually knit socks? The park while chasing my kid (or otherwise on the go), with the ball of yarn tucked under my arm.
How do you usually carry/store small projects? Ziplock bags. Serious class, that's me.
What are your favorite sock knitting patterns? dyeing to try Pomatomus, it is so pretty.
What new techniques would you like to try? I would like to try magic loop.
Do you prefer circulars or dpns for sock knitting? DPNs, but only because that is all I've used.
What are some of your favorite yarns? I'm working on a huge lace project with some Gems Pearl, and it is a delight to knit with.
What yarn do you totally covet? Sea Silk. Never seen the stuff but I'm smitten by the idea of yarn containing seaweed.
Any pattern you would love to make if money and time were no object? I'm still looking for the perfect yarn to knit the Shoalwater Shawl with. Were I to fall headfirst into a big pile of money I'd use Sea Silk.
Favorite kind of needles (brand, materials, straights or circs, etc)? All but two pair of the needles I own are straight wooden, made by me.
Do you have a favorite candy or mail-able snack? I have one easy to satisfy sweet tooth.
What is your favorite animal? Cats! I even spun cat hair once...
Do you have pets? Just my husband and kid
What are their species/names/ages? Homo sapien/Marc and Monkey/30 and 2 1/2
Describe your favorite shirt (yours or someone else's).. I designed and screened a Muddy Waters shirt for my boy. Coolest shirt ever.
What is your most inspiring image, flower, or object in nature? I have a special place in my heart for the ocean and most things in it.

Monkey had another seizure yesterday, so back up to Primary Children's ER. So I'm a day behind again.
Fuck.
I have actual updates to do, but they'll wait until tomorrow.
Really big hugs to the SLC SnB girls, you have no idea how badly I needed a fun normal night tonight. Thank you.

Nemo!

Thanks for the great comments about my Amazing Lace challenge post. My guitar is an older Fernandes Native, which I love. It has a sustainer, which has become more fun the longer I play. It really does look a lot like a Jag-stang, but has more of an evenly curved bottom so it doesn't quite have that retro cool. Real great warm tone, solid wood body without weighing a ton. Has the added bonus of being the only non-black instrument on the stage too-in case I don't stand out enough, as the only girl.
On to the crafty stuff, for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about. Tonight I pulled my Supermom costume out of the closet and made my kid some really cool Finding Nemo shorts. So easy, and when you're making size 3T clothes you need less than half a yard. The pattern is only two pieces also, so you don't even have to finish that many edges. Pictures of him actually wearing the shorts will have to wait for some time when he is awake (as opposed to now when he is supposed to be asleep but I can hear him jumping on the bed.)

Have a wonderful time everyone who is going to Estes! I'm jealous already!

Amazing Lace Challenge #2

My weekend involved some pretty x-treme knitting in public, combining both the Amazing Lace Challenge #2 and WWKIP day.

Picture, if you will, a purple-haired rocker grrl standing on the stage of a smoky bar. Lights flash, the beer flows, loud music is produced. Finally a set break, and does the grrl light up? No. Look perpetually confused like her drummer? No. Regret her comfortable but kind of dorky footwear choice? Maybe a little.
She pulls out the lace...























This lace that has been mountain climbing, worked on before yoga and kickboxing classes, sat beneath trees and grown in four city parks and one Utah State Park, and has been to the PCMC ER three freaking times. But I think this is the most extreme we've gotten so far.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is some serious bad-ass lace. We rocked, and we rocked hard.

Nakedfotolady do not look!

A few months ago I started a spirituality swap project on Glitter. Lots of things have come up for both myself and my partner, so it took until early this week to mail it off. It will probably arrive at her house any day now, so I can finally post pictures hopefully without spoiling the surprise.




You're not looking, right NFL?






Embroidery with cool silver thread. The first not crappy embroidery I've really done.













The banner! Hung so attractively before shipping on a yardstick. I sincerely hope it is not as crooked as appears in the picture. Hard to see, but there are a small embroidered sun and moon in the top corners as a reminder to keep life balanced. The two pockets on the bottom are green, the color of Mother Earth, and blue, the color of Father Sky. The pockets are there to place goals and wishes, the appropriate side depending on whether the goal is physical or ephemeral. I spent a lot of time trying to think of different ways to embellish this banner, before I realized that personalization would best be left to the recipient. The medicine wheel and most of the surrounding space is blank, to leave lots of room to place items that are important or symbolic.



I'm still too chicken to proceed with my Shetland Tea Shawl as the pattern is written to my understanding. The patterns have so far been very intuitive, so I'll follow along the way that makes sense to me. And if that completely fucks it up, well, that is why I've placed no small number of lifelines.

Bread

An interesting facet to my character is that I always bake my own bread. I the past 8 1/2 years I've bought maybe a dozen loaves. I started out with a bread machine as a wedding present, and wore two pans and eventually the machine out. My second bread machine was not as good, so I only used it to kneed. A couple of years ago my parents got me a KitchenAid mixer for Christmas, and I've been baking up a storm ever since. When I do need to pick up a loaf at the grocery store I feel like I've somehow failed myself, or that The Man is bringing me down. So with this abominable heat we've had here for the past couple weeks I've really been suffering. Mid 90s for days! Unseasonable! So today when it was forecast to reach only 80 (the average temperature for this time of year, according to weather.com) I got busy early in the morning and pounded out 4 loaves of bread to freeze, which is exactly how many fit at once in my oven. Not nearly as exciting as the other foodie pics from Utah grrls, but still delicious.
Please ignore the absolutely black bananas in the corner; you just can't make banana bread with yellow bananas.

Music, yarn, love and logic

I had a cool graphics assignment given to me yesterday: come up with a flyer for the show my band is playing in on Saturday. We (Lucky Dragon) are opening up for our friends General Confusion, and it should be a blast. Assuming you are into Punk/Blues.
In knitting news I am at the last pattern section in my Shetland Tea Shawl and am sooo stuck. The directions helpfully advise me to "move the marker one stitch to the right." Um, I can not for ANYTHING figure out why I should do this. The pattern balances out with increases and decreases, at least to my eyes. Grawr. The pattern corrections are here on page two (Diamond Madeira pattern), in case anyone feels like enlightening me.
This would probably be easier if the Monkey had taken a nap today. I get to be the mean momma tonight, as he was also sent to bed without (much) dinner. He's had a major food-throwing issue of late; not a desirable trait. So he was informed that food on the floor would result in dinner ending. Three bites of salad later and there is food all over. Calmly he was marched to bed, where he cried/sniveled for an hour. Being weak and concerned that he would be too hungry (I've been warned low blood sugar might bring about seizures on him) so he got to get up and eat a PBJ. He was mostly finished before the food throwing began, so back to bed for him. I am determined to be a real hard ass about it this time. We'll see how it works out tomorrow evening.

Dark ages...

Yesterday afternoon our power was out for a couple hours, and you would not believe the suffering we did because of it. It is not as though we are weak people, shuddering at the first sign of the wilderness. We weren't even doing anything power-intensive: Marc was studying for the bar, Monkey was sleeping and I was knitting and fixing dinner. But with our complaining you would think we had to dodge dinosaurs to sharpen pigeon feathers to scratch our crude marks onto curls of birch bark. Monkey woke up because it was hot and his fan wasn't going any more, therefore distracting Marc, and my dinner plans were shot to hell. I was making bread and ice cream for a friend's birthday-fairly low tech. PIONEERS made bread and ice cream, for crying out loud. But typically I use my lovely pink KitchenAid mixer to knead the bread, and I needed the stove to cook the ice creams custard base. So with much sniveling and suffering on my part I kneaded the dough, which we threw on the BBQ at the party (yum!) The ice cream was cooked and frozen at the party which occurred in a more enlightened, electricity-blessed part of town.

Lace

I'm up waaaaaay too late tonight, but I was really on a roll with the Shetland Tea Shawl and didn't notice the time creeping by. Marc is reading, which quite effectively removes him from the realm of this earth's time too. No matter, I finished the second block of lace patterning (the horseshoe design, to be exact) on the shawl and am zipping along on yet another increase row. Possibly the last increase actually, but the book is all the way over on the coffee table-much too far to check. The rows are about to get twice as long but I think I'm going to be finished with this a lot sooner than previously anticipated. Something about frequent stress and knitting to pull myself together...
I waffle between being afraid of running out of yarn early and worrying that it will turn out too small. I could probably do some complicated math to determine actual number of stitches done vs. remaining stitches as well as comparing weight of remaining ball of yarn with knit yarn. But that is going to have to wait until at least tomorrow. Enjoy your weekend everyone.

So I get another Thursday tomorrow, right?

Apparently when you are prone to seizures, every time you get sick your threshold is lowered and you are more likely to have a breakthrough seizure. Easy to read, shitty to experience at 7 and 9 in the morning after a long sleepless night. So we got to spend the morning at Primary Children's again, where for probably the first time ever the doctor heard someone cheer when they announced "Your kid has strep." Hurray! This is very reassuring; this is the first time we've had a reason for a seizure. So his anti-seizure meds stay the same, and we add some antibiotics to the mix for the next ten days, and we start the X days since the last seizure clock again. I was hugely upset this morning-we had been doing so well-but the monkey and I curled up on the couch together and took a long nap and are both feeling a lot better.
But all this does lead to my missing day. I honestly did not get a single thing done off my list today. Nothing. I barely got dressed. So I'm going to need to schedule a make-up day, to catch up with myself.
Meh, who am I kidding? I know I would just lay around knitting.

On a more cheerful note, broccoflower is really beautiful.













It looks like fractals up close. I am such a geek.

Hiking

We had a mostly good time at Antelope Island on Monday. Much to my absolute shock they do have antelope there, but I am not completely crazy with my antelope doubts. Apparently they did all die out years ago, but were re-introduced in the 90s. We did see a dozen or so of the alleged antelope, as well as a bunch of buffalo. Monkey was only really impressed by a huge buffalo, standing alone in the middle of the road. We hiked around, had a picnic lunch and checked out the ranch house. Monkey enjoyed himself the most at the ranch house, where he sat in a tree 7 feet up and played with bark and leaves for half an hour. I enjoyed myself the most talking to the two women spinning there. I need a wheel; this drop-spindle business is for the birds. Even did some knitting in public while speaking with them and was asked questions by the curious (who probably wondered why I was dressed so not-historically with the blue hair.)

Happy Memorial Day!

Today we are waiting for the inlaws to show up, so we can take Monkey to Antelope Island. As I understand, there are no actual antelope there but hopefully it will be fun anyway. It has been a pretty busy weekend despite the rainy weather, so while the rock climbing got canceled lots of other things did get done. Friday we snuck in a hike in Little Cottonwood Canyon before the weather became strangely cold. Everything was so green and beautiful, and the river is unbelievably high. To high to let Monkey even get close to in our favorite protected and (usually) slow moving spot, so he splashed for an hour in a small run-off creek that went right down the trail. Freezing cold fun at only two inches deep.
Have a happy Memorial day everyone. Spend some time thinking about someone who has affected your life drastically but is no longer with you. Share this memory with someone else - this is how people live on.

Kids these days...

My kid sat on my bed for over half an hour today, letting an electric fan blow his pinwheel. He'd still be there if he hadn't started sticking things in the fan blade and giggling (he likes the forbidden thwackthwackthack sound, but he laughs and gives himself away every time.)

Stash enrichment...

Two women in Atlanta are accused of stealing nearly $13000 worth of yarn from several yarn stores.
Holy crap.
I've been trying to come up with some clever remark about enriching your stash to the extreme, but I'm at a loss for words.

Finished socks!

I just finished the Momsocks, only one week late. I am amazed at how remarkably identical they are; aparently the Knitpicks Simple Stripes yarn is dyed in a manner that is downright mathmatical. Tonight they will get blocked and tomorrow they will be in the mail, on their way to California to arrive hopefully while they are having some unusual cold weather. I probably should have planned the socks for her birthday (November) and come up with some other clever Mother's day idea, but sometimes you just have to hop on your bad idea and ride it.
After grafting closed the toe tonight I was considering what an elegant solution the kitchner stitch really is. You k p p k a few times across the toe and TADA! No evidence that you were even there. I'd write a song about it but A) I am not much of a songwriter, just rhythm guitar, and B) I probably couldn't get the guys to perform it. "Thank you! This next song was written by erin. It's about coughknittingcough..." Not exactly the image we're going for.
Coming up tomorrow when I hopefully have more time, pics of my violet hair! I don't have any yarn to dye like everyone is doing, but the protein growing from my head is fair game.

Attention!

Men of the world, attention! I'm only going to say this once, so listen up.

This behavior will not get you laid:

That is all.

Knitting enabler

I love self-striping yarn. It is the perfect enabler to staying up too late knitting. You think,
"Wow, it's getting late. Just one more round and I'll stop."
But it's hard to remember where you started, so the once around turns into approximately 1 2/3. Then you reason,
"I'm so close to the end of this color, I'll stop then."
But the next color is really the short-stripped part, and it is easy enough to justify knitting up that. After that is just more of the original color, and why stop then? Just keep knitting until you actually get to the real next color. But you are on a roll and when you reach the next color, you forget to stop and the whole cycle starts over again. Before you know it, it's midnight and you are really tired but hey, your sock looks good.

Good thing I don't have a job.

(Those of you who know me and have met my kid already know that the last statement was hysterical. The rest of you do now.)

Ninja!

My sister finally sent me some pictures of the shirt I printed for her birthday. As you can see, she is a Ninja and needed a proper Ninja shirt:



















Cool Ninja sword screened onto the back:



















Across the front, Beware of Ninja (in the most polite form possible):

Happy Mothers Day

Great big hugs and a happy Mother's day to all Mommas, Mammas, Moms, Mothers, Mommys, anyone who has a mother, anyone who has thought about becoming a mother, lives with a mother, works with a mother, has seen a mother on TV, or has ever been called One Hot Momma.


I have had a wonderful day so far with my two boys. We went to the park outside the library and played in the fountain. I got to soak my feet and knit while the boys splashed. I don't know if I am eligible for the Amazing Lace as I have already started my Shetland Tea Shawl, but I find the idea quite inspiring. I also read a really great entry by Yarn Harlot where she wrote about slowly knitting a pair of socks while she tours with her book and taking pictures along the way, creating socks with so many memories incorporated along with every stitch. "A pair of socks so chock full of memories that you could scarcely wear them." I think back at the times I have pulled out this piece of lace and already it is pretty heavy with memories and emotions. I dyed the wool at home and hung it from the chandelier light in my living room, right over my computer. My monkey pulled out the needles when I foolishly left it where it could be reached. I ripped back to my lifeline and put it back on my needles while in the emergency room with my son, resting my head against his little sedated arm and feeling more scared then I've ever been. I've knit in three different parks here while watching him play with his daddy. This summer I'll take it into the mountains as we rock climb, and backpack into places so devoid of other people the silence is tangible. I hope to have the chance to fly back to Japan, and knit my way across the Pacific Ocean. Actually finishing and wearing the shawl is already secondary to what I am putting in to it.

Graduation

Today was another very busy but quite wonderful day: Marc graduated from Law school! It is such an unbelievable relief to be done. So at the very latest, in October we will be an active duty Air Force family with all the benefits (like health insurance!) that comes with it.
Woman, it has just been milestone after photo-op for us this past week.
In knitting news, i am literally sitting here at the computer finishing up the toe on Momsock #1 right now. So much for pounding out a pair for Mother's day. Once I turned that heel I totally thought I was in the home stretch, aparently forgetting the 'foot' part of the sock. At least this way I can show her the sock and let her know that another is coming, really! I might even wait to finish until she gets back from the park with the monkey, to make sure they fit the way she would like them. I don't know about the rest of you, but my feet end straight across the toes like Daisy Duck, and a tapered toe just does not work for me. Once I've knit enough length I can pretty much just kitchner stitch all the way across the toe.

Turned Heel!

Hurray! Saturday I effectively turned the heel on the Momsock. The individual sock is looking great but I do need to hurry up; I need them done by Saturday afternoon. Pictures to follow, hopefully after I finish it tonight.
This weekend was very busy. Marc's Air Force commissioning was Saturday, and my brother's Army commissioning was Friday. I am so proud! The monkey and I got to get up and pin on Marc's lieutenant bars after he was sworn in, which was really cool. Sadly this does not make us employed or anything useful like that. Marc will not enter the AF full time until his Bar Exam results are in and he takes the Military Law class in October. But still! We are now that much closer. There is also a pretty good chance that Marc could be sent to Japan for 6 weeks after he takes the Bar in July; apparently the AF needs more people who speak Japanese and with all the classes we've taken plus our study abroad we are pretty good candidates. Then we would be entering active duty that much earlier; which would be good $-wise for us.
Disappointingly, the monkey had another seizure today. I wasn't (much) scared this time, just really sad that his meds didn't prevent this one. Since he got off the Dilantin he has been much less moody, and I am hoping he never needs to go on it again. I really want the Trileptal to take care of things all by itself. So the doctor upped his Trileptal dosage. Hopefully it is what is called a "breakthrough seizure" and his now adjusted meds will prevent any more. Still upsetting though.

Socks

Tonight I got off my butt and instead of reading about how to knit socks I actually cast on and am knitting away. I seem to be rather chicken about proceeding without a pattern, something I found rather surprising considering the only thing I've ever used a pattern for is lace. Hats, sweaters, bags and booties; all knit without a pattern. But this is my first real sock and it seems I wanted a (very simple) security blanket. Well, tough luck. All the patterns out there are for fancy-smancy socks that seemed a little silly to use this self-striping yarn with, or were not patterns but advice about writing your own pattern. I think my calculus professors would have found it funny to know I now use my really expensive graphing calculator for gauge purposes.
Tonight I have knit two inches of 2x1 ribbing, which is so nice and stretchy I'll probably do it for the whole sock. I'm pretty happy with my speed so far, at this point a Mother's Day due date does not look like an impossibility. We'll see how I feel about that in a few days.

On non-knitting news, the monkey continues to be seizure-free. He is switching over to just one med tomorrow evening, something I am looking forward too. He has been hugely cranky several days now and I'm praying that it is because of the drug he is finishing tomorrow. Hopefully the other med on its own will be enough to prevent any further seizures.

Blogger hates me

A quick synopsis of everything I tried typing before hand, all of which keeps disappearing into the void:
A last picture before taken before the stitch count doubles and it turns into the big rumpled looking mess. Any later photos taken before blocking will be simply for my own amusement. That is sure some nifty looking yarn.

I can not for anything remember who is was that recommended using tiny pieces of a drinking straw as stitch markers, but I would sure like to send that person a great big virtual hug. Genius idea! They are flat, too small to affect the spacing between stitches, and when they (frequently) slingshot off the end of my needle and into oblivion I don't feel sad.

The monkey continues to do well on his meds. We went to the Dr to check the drug levels in his blood and all looks good. He has two skinned elbows from feeling a little dizzy but I think they make him look tough.

Actual knitting news

Things have been going smoothly since last Thursday when we wound up at Primary Children's again. The monkey is on two different anti-seizure medications; drug #1 that he will probably be on for a year or so as well as drug #2, which he will only be on for a week until drug #1 reaches therapeutic levels in his blood. Drug #1 is expected to be pretty mild in side effects, much better than some of the older anti-seizure medications. Drug #2 is making him a little crabby, so it will be nice to finish that up Wednesday. I am starting to breath a little more normally and even will let the boy out of my site for two, even three seconds now. Yeah, way more relaxed.
I have got a lot done on my Shetland Tea Shawl in the last couple days. I had to rip down a dozen rows to my one stupid lifeline because some sneaky little hands pulled all the needles out and played with it, but it came back together easier than I thought and I'm zipping along now. Tonight I did the 5th increase round, bringing my stitch total to 290 per round. Now for no discernible reason I'm worried about running out of yarn. Not true, I do know why. I'm swatching up my knitpics yarn to do my Mother's day socks with and even using little size one needles I'm getting 7 1/2 stitches per inch, instead of the 8 stitches on size 1-3 needles the tag promised me. I didn't think I knit loosely until now. My STS swatch was...not exactly definitive, as I knit up a square in the fern pattern instead of a plain block. Hopefully I can soothe my concerns by reminding myself I did dye 140 yards more than the pattern called for. Has anyone knit this? How much yarn did you end up using?

More stress

I had written about 75% of a post about knitting, but my little boy had two more seizures today. Knitting was a very soothing thing to do at the hospital but I don't really feel like talking about it now. He is alright; these seizures were scary but not nearly as bad as his first, where I really was afraid he was dying. We decided to put him on the long term medications to (hopefully) prevent any more and keep his brain from getting in the habit of these electrical storms. I'll write more later.

Shrug

The monkey has spent this past week healthy and seizure free. After the drugs completely wore off (it took until Wednesday) he has been the same normal kid he has always been. The one difference I've noticed is that his sleep patterns have really been thrown off schedule by the electrical storm in his brain. He hasn't taken a nap since, and his night sleeping is all screwy too. He woke up hourly with dreams for the first several days, which was only partly why I ended up sleeping on his floor so frequently. Maybe things are getting back to normal though. While he went to bed at 9pm last night and got up at 7am, he was pretty grouchy and went back to bed after some snuggling and an aborted attempt at breakfast.
Incidentally, in case anyone is here because they are searching for information about seizures. Sister #1 sent me this link recommended to her by a Neurologist she knows and the information has been extremely comforting. It starts out acknowledging your fears but follows quickly with "Knowledge is an antidote to fear," which I really learned working for years in a hospital. It has good advice and nice hard numbers, which I find comforting.

As promised quite a while ago, here is my latest project that was started and finished before even getting a mention here. Friday night Marc and I had a ROTC formal dinner and I wanted something interesting to wear. Mom* and I went shopping at Soul Spun and picked out a delicious skein of Mango Moon recycled silk. Amazingly beautiful stuff that was a lot more fancy than I would usually use. I knit it with some black #3 crochet cotton to unify the colors a bit more and keep it from being too bright. I used the Anthropologie Inspired Caplet pattern from Craftster, a pattern I've used before. It knit up beautifully.

But.

It stretched hugely bad across the back. So much that by the end of the evening I was having a hard time keeping it on my shoulders. Now, this might very well be my fault. It took forever to dry after blocking, so long in fact that I had to throw it on wet to go (I really had no choice with the dress I was wearing under it. Imagine a strapless dress without a strapless bra; it was the shrugs job to hide that particular sin.) It started the evening fitting perfectly but as it dried on me (and under the air conditioning, burr) it relaxed a great deal. Is this my fault for wearing it wet? Will a good blocking fix everything? Or should I just frog the damn thing and try again, several inches less wide in the back.

*My mom loves to look at yarn and offers really good advice about patterns and yarn choices but I can not get her to learn to knit for anything. Seriously, I offer to teach her every single time we are together.

Scary

It has taken me quite a few days to update because we've been pretty busy with some very scary stuff. Over the weekend I intended on writing about another knitting project started (now a finished object) but that will have to wait for another day.
Sunday morning Marc, the monkey, and I headed over to grandma's for some Easter fun. The monkey hurried down into the basement to play with the drums while I put some stuff in the fridge. Less than a minute later I followed him downstairs. This is where my life fell apart. I found him in the corner of the room, face down, having a seizure. I picked him up and, remarkably, started checking his ABCs on autopilot while apparently screaming for Marc. I must have told someone to call 911 but don't remember that; I do remember yelling and possibly swearing at Marc's mom that he was having a seizure not choking. Sandy City Fire Department arrived remarkably quickly and loaded my poor unconscious little guy into the fire truck to zip off to Primary Children's. After a couple checkups, blood tests and a CT scan we were informed that a small percentage of children will have one freak seizure incident and much relieved, we were sent home.
Two blocks later in the car he had his second seizure.
This one gets him admitted to the hospital for observation and bumps him up on the schedule for an EEG and MRI in the morning. He gets a spinal tap to check for meningitis and other scary things. Six hours after his first seizure he has his third in Marc's arms, which was really upsetting to the poor guy. Doctors and nurses were in the room in mere seconds, he was given some meds to stop the seizure and knock him out, and we were sent upstairs to the Neurology ICU.
For those of you who are shaking as much as I am right now I will let you know that the story gets better from here. He was given some anti-seizure meds which prevented him from having another one that night. He fell asleep right on schedule for the EEG (you get the best readings when the patient is sleeping). He was even good when they had to move his IV twice. Test after test came back negative. It is initially easy to think "crap, all these tests and still on reason for the seizures?" But this is actually good; when they find a reason for seizures it is something really scary, like brain tumors. About 80% of tumors never have a diagnosed reason. Over 90% are freak things that never reoccur.
We were given the option of putting the monkey on long term anti-seizure medications, but those are not without their serious side effects. When a child starts having seizures, long term treatment consists of medications for between a year and a half and two years. The point of this is to keep the brain from learning how to have a seizure and getting in the habit. After two years the brain will usually have forgotten. After very careful consideration we decided not to put him on the long term drugs. While he did have three seizures rather quickly each individual seizure was only 1 to 2 minutes long, and there is not a lot of indication that he will have another one. We also live less than two miles from the hospital so we could get there quickly in an emergency. We did opt to receive several doses of medications to give him in case one came along that lasted more than three minutes. Were he to have another seizure we would probably put him on the long term meds.
While this was definitely the worst Easter I've ever had, not everything about our experiences was bad. Marc posted a message for me on Glitter and immediately there were messages and calls pouring in offering support, prayers and love. It was extremely comforting in the hospital to get online on my cell phone and read the messages people posted for me. I can not say enough about the staff at Primary Children's Medical Center. I worked in hospitals for years and was still impressed with the level of care provided and the overall kindness of everyone we met. This experience has really given me the chance to see how very loving near strangers can be, and has raised my opinion of the world in general. Thank you.

sock yarn

Hurray! Today my Knitpicks yarn arrived, so I can start my first pair of socks. Ok, not the first pair, I have made a couple socks out of big chunky wool but those are really more slippers than socks. But I do (hopefully) have an idea of how the technique works. The blue striped are for mothers day and the raspberry for #1 sisters birthday.

Since everyone has been flashing their stash this month, this is it. The entirety of my stash, minus a dozen tiny balls of leftover project yarn. And that horrible free eyelash crap.

I yesterday I wound up the entire mile of lace yarn for the Shetland shawl and started knitting. I'm so glad to be working on a project right now. Whipping out a half dozen Warm Up America squares while helpful, is honestly not that compelling. It helps that the yarn dyed up beautifully after layer upon layer of coffee and other. It is just about the size where any later photos will be a big lacy mess, so one last photo until I've got a finished object. That should be in what, two, three years?







And one last photo because I'm a momma most of all:

Houseguests and the pervading smell of coffee

Houseguests are exhausting. Even when you love them. Even when they play with your kid. Even when they buy you groceries. It is still hard work to be off your routine.

I did get my yarn dyed today though. I ran through an entire four ounce jar of instant coffee, mixing it thick enough to get a caffeine buzz through breathing the vapors. It took a number of times to get it right, as what I wanted changed slightly with each progressively darker swim, but I finished with something I am quite happy with that smells only slightly of coffee and black cherry Kool-Aid. Very pretty with the great subtle color variegation you get when you do it yourself. As soon as it dries I'll start the shawl.

This weekend I spent quite a bit of time tatting another snowflake, only this one is much larger (probably will be 8" across if I ever finish it). And I realized that, while it is very beautiful, tatting is just not that satisfying for me. It takes a long time to see any progress. And once you are finished, yipee, you have a doily. Ours is not a home where we really have that much call for doilies. I would much rather knit my monkey a sweater, or Marc a hat, or something useful. Even the lace shawl I've been talking about for so long will be more practical, I wear my one shawl all the time. I'm quite happy to have tried tatting though. But I will probably put up the tatting for awhile, until it better suits me.

It is a real shame that tatting is not a better fit though, I loved that a project can fit in my pocket to be worked on anywhere.

knit=love

The monkey also had a difficult time sleeping last night, and I ended up sacked out on his floor wrapped in the blankets that everyone gave him when he was born. Thanks a million, assorted relatives! It was really cold last night and the heat was off. So he has been in a grump since he got up, as one is ought to do after waking up at least 5 times. Tired of his wining, I wrapped him in my shawl and we snuggled on the couch for a little PBS. Hurray! That cheered him up immensely. He is still wrapped in the shawl, just running around and looking silly now.
This shawl is something I had wanted for a long time. I learned to knit when I was 5 but have never done a big project before. Mostly hats, doll blankets, scarves, and about a million squares for Warm Up America. Also a bunch of golf club covers of my own blocky design. But this shawl was my first big project for myself. It is knit with this Malwart acrylic faux-mohair on big huge size 17 needles (this is before I learned that there is more to knitting lace than using bigger needles.) It is a little oddly shaped, with knots tied in the ends to take up a little length and add weight to create good drape. Technique and materials-wise it is nothing special. And I love it. And wrapping my little boy in it when he's not feeling great makes me feel wonderful.

Not sleeping

Once again I sit here at the computer, typing away instead of getting the sleep that I really need. It's not that I'm madly updating for my legions of fans, I just don't seem to sleep anymore. I'm tired, but that is just not good enough for me it seems. Last night I was up until at least 3am, and got up at 7. This really sucks.

Not much in the way of knitting/otherwise crafting happened today. I did spend a lot of time playing with the monkey though, hopefully making up for the boredom of another play indoors day. I also spent a lot of time cleaning silly little things that individually no one will ever notice (want to come look behind my fridge? Because it looks FANTASTIC) but I think they contribute to the global cleanliness of my apartment. You know the stuff: not just vacuuming but pulling out furniture and using the crevice tool to edge the place too, washing all your silverware and the rubbermaid thing you keep them in, shuffling around five thousand books so they line up in a more visually pleasing manner. All this (sort of) because my parents are coming in to town. (Hey, I keep my home very neat, but there is still that extra stuff you do before you have company.) They are supposed to arrive some time Saturday, a nebulous time period that prevents me from making any plans at all. I really get along with my parents but it is hard for me to have anyone over to my home. You want to know how frequently I have people over? The last time anyone besides Jeff (guitar player in my band) was over was the monkeys birthday. In October. And I had a panic attack before the party and ended up sitting in my closet for an hour, playing guitar. So now they are staying over for around a week and while I can't wait to see them and let them play with the monkey it is very hard for me to think about the routine change and a whole lot of crap being dragged into my small apartment (my folks never learned about traveling light and fast. If I can't personally carry it on a trip, I don't bring it.)

Oh, I lied! I did do something crafty today, to leave on a good note. I dyed my swatch the color I want my Shetland Tea Shawl to be-a warm chocolate-y brown with tiny hints of blue and purple. Once I finally get the yarn dyed than I can spend two or three days winding 1400 yards into a ball so I can get started ;) Thanks for sitting up with me tonight, I'm off to try sleep again. Have a wonderful Friday.

Coffee and new Lace

Yesterday it rained on and off all day, but was still very warm and I had all the windows open most of the day. Imagine my surprise when I woke up this morning to snow. Crazy Utah springtime, I thought the monkey and I were going to the park today. Maybe we'll go to Toys R Us this afternoon-none of the sunshine but just as much running around.
Last night I dyed my Shetland Tea Shawl swatch with coffee and blocked it out. The pattern looks really good but I'm going to need to experiment with color some more; the coffee didn't dye it very dark. Most definitely due to my technique. Not being a coffee drinker, the only coffee here was a couple of packs of instant from MREs (both my brother and brother in law are in the army and Marc is an Air Force cadet, MREs frequently show up here.) I got the swatch wet with a few tablespoons of water, sprinkled with a few coffee crystals and microwaved for a minute. It left me a light brown and delicious smelling swatch. The swatch measures a little big, but I'm going to assume that is due to the pattern stretch (confirmation from someone who knows better than I?)
Writing this out has lead me to consider all the lace I'm knitting right now. I'm starting this big lace shawl, I'm tatting a lot, my other knitting project is a big doily/small tablecloth. Why all the lace? Why not something practical, like a sweater for the monkey or a pair of socks. Why not at least pick something that takes slightly less concentration so I can knit at the Stitch and Bitch?

Etsy

Due to some encouragement from a very kind person in bloggerland, I've listed a couple of the Pysanky eggs from the other day on Etsy. Thank you J., I really needed that.

In knitting news, I've dyed a few yards of yarn from my giant skein and have knit up a swatch for the Shetland Tea Shawl and it looks as cool as unblocked lace ever does. I'll post pictures after I've had some sleep. Maybe I should count sheep ;)

Easter and reminiscing

With Easter coming I've mostly doing Pysanky, not much knitting. Finished five really beautiful ones in the last few days, along with two more still in progress that I'm not as happy with design-wise. I'm very disappointed that the two shops who promised to carry my eggs this spring ended up closing before carrying them, but I've been doing really good work and that helps. Still, I either need to get a job or sell a dozen of these soon. If I get my act together in the next week and shoot some slides I will apply with the library to have them displayed there. That would be pretty cool; I really like seeing the different art they display. And it is possible to sell things there, you get to give the library a price list in case someone inquires.
Plus you get that cool "ah yes, I had an exhibit there" resume builder.

In my opinion, this is the coolest thing I've done this week. The design on this egg was taken from an Anasazi bowl found in Zion National Park. The 1100 year old bowl now resides in Zion's Human History Museum, where the monkey and I saw it last Autumn. Good story about that trip: Marc and his AF friends were climbing Angels Landing, a hike I didn't want to do with a two year old. So the monkey and I hiked around the park by ourselves and had a wonderful time. Around nap time cranky-ness was increasing quickly and he wouldn't just quietly take a nap under a tree, so we went and watched the movie at the Human History Museum where he fell asleep in my arms immediately. I sat through 4 1/2 showings of the 20 minute movie so he could sleep on my lap :)