Birthday Bonanza

I had a wonderful birthday earlier this month. My oldest daughter made me a knitted dishcloth and a coupon to have her wash dishes sometime. My second daughter gave me this beautiful yarn:



...and then promptly asked if I would make her a pair of socks sometime.

And of course, my little boy gave me a big hug (and I swear he wished me 'happy day' first thing that morning before he even heard birthday mentioned).

My husband spoiled me with this yarn...



which will actually go into his stash, as he said he might use it to make something for me, or if I get to it first I can use it if I want.

He also gave me some beautiful fiber I had admired online...




Isn't that pretty? He also gave me an official shawl pin, as I've been randomly using anything that would work.




He also gave me a Loopy Ewe gift certificate and then my sweet husband also gave me a yarn bowl. It's a beautiful piece of pottery that can hold my yarn while I'm working...






I also got a great book from my brother's family, several exercise dvds (that I had asked for), a new cake doctor book, and a yogurt maker.

Thanks to my husband who made sure I had a great week, and to everyone else for their birthday wishes and gifts!

Crazy Busy

Another month has zoomed by, and what a month it has been. I did mange to get one more pay it forward gift off, and now, although I am past the year deadline I do have a plan to get the last one done, hopefully soon. Other than thinking about that gift I also am knitting. I do have several projects in the works, but my time is going to only one, and it happens to be the one I can't post about until it is done. I'm hoping another week or two will see it done, but I've said that before about other projects and have been wrong....

Now since this is normally a craft blog, and I don't have crafts to blog about... I've been pretty silent, but this past month has been very busy. We wished my little brother a happy birthday, made a couple trips to Ikea, watched olympics and had fun doing homeschool with that theme, celebrated the short life of little Hazel, baked two cakes and watched my oldest turn 8, planned a baptism, started shredding my body, got the bikes back out for a family ride, wished my dad a happy birthday on pi day, been so happy about the warming weather and spring coming, and realized it's been a month since I blogged.

So, it's been busy, as we've been doing our normal daily/weekly things during all of that... I bet life has been crazy and busy for all of you too. I've been thinking of have a little contest with a prize, anyone interested? ...watch for my next post!

Pay it forward Progress

I'm trying to wrap up my last two Pay it Forward gifts.... hopefully by the beginning of March I will be done and good!

We're watching a lot of Olympics... including doing our homeschooling around that theme. I'm knitting and spinning and such, but not all the time as I'm slowly recovering from a cold.

What are you up to?

The end of 2009

OK, before I can start fresh, I need to finish wrapping up 2009. From mid-October until now I did finish several items.

One item I am still trying to get a picture of is a poncho I made for one of my friends. She painted my kids' room in exchange for the knitting. Beautiful simple alpaca silk.... yum. Hopefully I'll at least post pics of it on ravelry sometime. It's my own fault - I was so excited to finish it that I handed it over to her without remembering to snap a couple pictures.



I did, however, finally take some pictures of my green shawl

It's alpaca tencel yarn and is warm, and drapey, and easy to throw on around the house.




I gifted a blanket and bear set in mid-December to a beautiful new baby girl. Aren't they sweet?




I was given some yarn so that I could make scarves for the homeless (for an Eagle Scout Project). Since I know the guy doing the project, was given yarn, and wasn't planning to do any Christmas Knitting anyway, I whipped out 7 of them while watching tv and supervising schoolwork. It helped that all of them were worsted weight held double, knit on either 11 or 13s.




Back in October I joined with a ravelry group called Ply By Night. They order the same fiber and then spin it different ways to see how it looks as yarn and then knit one of two projects. Of course, I haven't spun mine yet, but I've enjoyed watching some other projects get spun and knit in that group. This might be next on the spinning wheel. (After I finish the current green I'm spinning)



I also joined a fiber club. I've admired the colors and beautiful fiber whenever I've seen David's work, so I was on the waiting list for the Southern Cross Fibre Club. When my name came up on the list I jumped in. He is in Australia, and so my December shipment came a couple days after Christmas.



Speaking of Christmas... when I was ordering some items for some other members of my family, this ended up in my Knitpicks cart.

I love the look of this kit. I now however, have two different steeked vests to make, hopefully this year.


My husband gave me these beautiful braids of fiber...






So now I have a queue for the wheel (or spindle) and plenty to keep me busy this year...

I have already made some resolutions for myself, none of them are fibery though this year. This year I guess my simple fiber goals would be to enjoy my stash and to relax and enjoy my projects. I'm not going to say not buy anything, and knit and spin only from stash, but my goodness, I do have a lot of pretty things that I should use. The relax and enjoy is to remind myself that I should be using this as my downtime and hobby, not as another stress.

The Present is Good Enough

I recently read this blog post which prompted me to look back and find the quote and original post she was talking about:

“Don’t let the perfect be the enemy of the good.” - Voltaire

...and then I've stumbled across these two quotes that go so nicely with that concept...


“Do not spoil what you have by desiring what you have not; but remember that what you now have was once among the things only hoped for.”
--Epicurus

"We don't have to be perfect today. We don't have to be better than someone else. All we have to do is to be the very best we can."
--Elder Joseph B. Wirthlin, "One Step after Another,", Nov. Ensign 2001 pg. 25


I'll be back to update the past two months of my crafts soon, but I thought that in the stress of the holidays it would be good to share these.