Remember my Hannah Hat? I’ve been working on some matching mittens to go with it and they’re done and they’re lovely and I love the concept and execution of it. Let me show you:

The Inner Mitten – wearable by itself. It’s a fingering weight yarn (think socks) so it’s not for *very* cold days, but cool enough to want *something* days.

The Outer Mitten – wearable by itself, though a bit more baggy. It’s a worsted alpaca so it’s *really* warm.

TOGETHER! They’re super super warm. 1 + 1 = 3 here.

I don’t feel the cold. Period. Even on windy days. They’re a bit bulky, but only a bit, and more than make up for that in warmth. I love that the cuff isn’t bulky yet they’re long enough to go up and under my sleeve to keep droughts out. I’m not sure if I’m going to sew down the tab or put in a button/toggle (had originally planned that but worry about it getting in the way or being uncomfortable).

The mitten-inside-a-mitten idea wasn’t mine, but the rest is my own design and I’m quite proud of them. I’m thinking I’ll need to make another Hannah hat in the alpaca, to match when I’m wearing them both together. I’ve also made a cowl/gaiter in those two yarns (it doubles as a hat – I’ll post about that another day) so I’m all set for warmth and love the colours.

So today I received a book; relevant to my interests in that it’s about a Canadian woman who moves to the country and becomes a shepherd. Problem is I didn’t order it, have no idea who it came from or why? It’s from someone in Rochester, NY, but I can’t find any information on them online (JH Marketing – there’s a business in California by that name, but none in Rochester).

There was no note. It was my name and address on the package. We’re stumped. It’s unread (no spine cracks) and a first edition of a paperback printing, but was published in 1999 (original pub. date was ‘95) so it’s not likely a promotional thing (though why I’d get one I don’t know). It looks new, save for some mild lines on the cover surface (like it had been scuffed against). It also smells mildly of cigarette smoke. It only has one price, so I’m assuming it was printed in and for sale in Canada.

MYSTERY!!

It looks like an interesting read, but I don’t feel right reading a book that’s not clearly mine.

During a phone call with Jess the other night, I was surprised to realize I haven’t mentioned something here, though we’ve talked about it in person to people for a while. Ken and I have realized that we have a dream that we’re now working toward:
We want to be farmers.

I know some of you will maybe think we’re crazy – we do at times – but it’s something we’ve thought about for a long time. At first in small measures – a garden – then expanding our dreams of self-sufficiency – chickens – to the point we’re at now. We want to be farmers. We think it’s possible to do so with little to no need for off-farm employment (though we’ll start with that). We’re going at this from a holistic angle; multiple “products”, improving the land naturally, minimal/non-use of chemicals on plants/animals.

We’re thinking of chickens (layers and broilers), pigs, sheep (meat and wool), mini-cows (more efficient feed to carcass ratio than standard cattle). If we’re lucky we can do maple syrup, honey and cider/perry. The garden will be for us and the animals (as much as we can). I’d like to grow grains for baking, too. I expect we’ll maybe do the farmer’s market, thing, or CSA, though that’ll wait til after we’re sure what products we can/want to sell.

I know it sounds crazy. It sounds huge and complicated. It’s not something we’re entering into lightly or without doing our best to self-educate and take our time making the best, most informed, logical decisions. We may rent land to start off, to keep from landing in big debt. We’re aware of the cons – for us and the boys.

We’re also excited. We desire this, deeply. We don’t think we’re crazy.

I want to explain how SOPA/PIPA would affect my site. Links. Any and all links that I’ve made I’d have to go through and remove, one by one, and never link to anything but my own stuff ever again. If I link to a site – even an image from that site – that contains copyrighted material (even if that isn’t what I link to) – I could be shut down. Stupid, right. WAY STUPID.

Here’s a run-down of the basics. It comes across as kinda doom and gloom and overly dramatic, but they’re telling the truth on the matter. If you go to here and scroll down about 1/4th of the way there’s a place for non-US citizens to sign a petition. I’d appreciate if you could do that. It’ll affect all of us – US citizens and non-alike.

I’m still here, just tired and mildly depressed (yay S.A.D.).

I know I haven’t yet told you about Disney, nor about the little things we’ve been up to, but I will when I’ve more strength of heart.

It’s raining today. I hate living here (the weather is *all wrong*, among other things). We’re surrounded by books about small farming and sheep and chickens. I feel discouraged, though, because of the voice in my head that tells me “everyone thinks you’re crazy or foolish and that it’ll never work and you’re going to ruin your life”. The other voice, though, reminds me of all the exciting things we could try and surely it’s possible… Sheep milk cheese! Baked products (for sale)! Lamb/Mutton! Perry (for me, it’s my new love)! It’s all such a healthy step (making our own food, more active lifestyle, living within nature) and we want to do it so badly.

Are we so crazy? foolish?

A Paton’s pattern, out of print (yay ebay!), taken me a year to finish (oohh shiny’s!), but it’s done and I’m so completely in love with it.

It doesn’t have buttons yet, but will once I find the right ones.

(yay stitch holders!)

(my shoulders really aren’t that wide – that’s the camera angle Ken took)

Since it’s winter I’m only wearing it around the house. I keep it “closed” using a small, safety-pin type stitch holder between the girls and it’s a good look, so once I get buttons I’ll do the top few up and leave the bottom undone I think. I love it, though. It fits beautifully. Very comfortable, just the right length (few inches longer in sleeve and body than my standard long-sleeved t-shirts are), and I feel great in it. It may have taken a while to finish (yeesh!) but it was *so* worth it!

Victor’s been very snuggly with anything soft, lately. I’ve an alpaca cardigan that he always rubs his face against whenever he’s nearby. Recently he asked me to make him some “soft, fluffy pants” so when we were at Joann’s I had him pick out a colour of fleece and I looked around online for a tutorial on pants. Some luck, some tips, and I ended up drafting my own pattern based on a pair of pj’s he has. They have a proper front/back, they’re just the right length, and most importantly they’re “soft and fluffy”.

He loves them, and has been doing his very best to snuggle with his own legs (good thing he’s flexible!).

While I was making them, during a “fitting”, he commented “But what shirt will go with them?! Can you make me a shirt??” That might be a bit more than I can handle, I think.

Happy Birthday!!

What a big year we’ve had with you! We moved to a new home, which you love though you miss going outside as much and having a garden to forage. Lack of homegrown veggies hasn’t stopped your growing, and you now are just shy of 50lbs and are 45″ tall (almost 4′!!!). You love being in the city, though, and going on errands with me. You’ve also learned to ride a bike.

We went Trick or Treating for the first time:

You’re fully potty trained!! (We all love this.) You’ve become a startlingly good video game player with your favourite, Little Big Planet. The things you create with that game are amazing, and you’re as fast at learning new stuff and reacting to your environment as Daddy, I dare say. You and he play a lot alike. Your favourite part is the creation of stuff and getting to do it “your way”. An admirable quality though I can’t seem to convince you that “your way” knitting isn’t actually creating a knitted fabric, yet.

You learned to put your face in the water while at the pool on our Disney trip (with hardly any teaching and simply your own determination to do it). You and Ethan did so well that you’ll be starting swim lessons in the new year. You’ve done so much learning and doing-it-yourself that you’re very much the independent little man, now. So much the little man that you make me laugh, sometimes, with the way you talk. You’re very well spoken and use very adult phrases, completely naturally.

At Disney World, a few weeks ago, you had a marvellous time.

You went on your first plane ride, your first amusement park, and your first roller coaster (at SeaWorld where you saw dolphins and whales and turtles and manta rays).

It has been, truly, an eventful year. When we woke you up the morning of your birthday, your first comment was “I’m going to school today!”. You’re so excited about that, and about being a bigger boy, and about everything new that’s happened. I can’t wait to see what’s in store for your next year!

Love,
Mommy

The Yarn Harlot

This is one of my favourite blogs. She’s also rather huge in the knitter-world. If you scroll down 1 entry (as of today) to her December 1st post, there’s a very well written (she’s an author, so that makes lots of sense) piece on gifting and knitters. From my point of view, it describes how I feel about knitting gifts (all of it, especially the stress and compulsion of it). If you know a knitter, please read this so you can understand them a little better.

Ironic that this comes on the day that, as I finish up a big piece of a something I’m knitting for someone to gift to someone else (it’s not as complicated as it sounds), I have a huge disaster and have to frog (rip back) the entire big something and reknit it. I’ve had a few good drinks and am dealing. Yay holidays!

You may remember, some days ago, I expressed a desire to have Red Hair (scroll down to the bottom).

This last weekend I got it chopped (it was driving me crazy).  Love the cut!

Much better, yes?

But I wanted RED. So I did as I’ve never done before (Henna, aside, and that was just once), and dyed it. Well, technically Ken dyed it. We learned an important lesson: that vaseline around the hairline may keep dye off your skin, but it also keeps it off your hair (duh) so I’ve bits of dark brown hair around my face that look like roots, ahh well. I have RED.

(the sun was *right* in my eyes).

It’s hard to capture the colour. In the shade/dark it looks almost purple. In the shiney light it looks like a deep, slightly orange crimson. The shine and colour, is remarkably like our Red Bodum, especially where the light hits it in that pic.

Am I happy? Yes. The boys *love* it, especially Ethan (who tells everyone around about MOMMY’S RED HAIR!!). Ken doesn’t like it as much because it’s darker than he’d expected – too much purple. Next time I may try a different brand (used Garnier Nutrisse R3), but given I have such dark brown hair I’m pleased I got red at all, let alone as bright as it is. I’m using a red protecting shampoo/cond so hopefully it’ll not fade too quickly. I’m pleased, though (and curious how it’ll look after it fades).

What do you think?

finished hats for boys for our trip down to Disney. can now die in relative peace… (pattern, pics when I’m not dying.) used two old, dress shirts of the boys and some pants that didn’t fit anymore. learned how to machine embroider outline (badly). brim’s maybe too large. don’t care atm.

I have one of those colds that feels like Victor is sitting on your chest (49lbs as of yesterday, OY!). It feels like I’ve barely the strength to take my next breath. I’m glad our menu is flexible enough and has so much spaghetti scattered here and there (we try for twice a week cause it’s cheap and healthy) since I can just make that tonight. Boil pasta, dump sauce from jar (the boys don’t like theirs heated so cold sauce cools down hot pasta), serve. Maybe if I have some energy saved up I’ll steam some veggies too. Victor’s favourite food in the world is broccoli.

Last week I found that the boys like asparagus so Ken is comPLETEly outnumbered in his bid to make this a non-asparagus house (he hates it because of the stinky pee thing). When I have a garden, next, I’m *so* planting some. I’ll convert him… eventually.

So I just got the call. The numbers they came up with (one for the right-of-way + house, one for the rest of the non-right-of-way land, one for moving expenses), is about $3500 short of our mortgage amount. Damn. But doable if we dig where I’d rather not but, technically, can.

But wait! There’s more! Ken pointed out to me that we’ll get the balance from the escrow account on the mortgage, plus the taxes we *just* paid (for the year ahead) that we’ll get 4/5ths back (*big* tax bill, so that’s no chump change).

Toss all those numbers in a pot and the number we get back is, well, small but it’s black. If we’re right, we won’t *owe* anything.

Relief. Emotional roller coaster. Sadness. Relief.

Our first time trick or treating and it went off beautifully with loads of fun, candy, and smiles.

Through squeals of excitement giggles, the “Trick or treat!” came out, followed by the occasional “thank you” (more after frequent reminders from Mommy & Daddy).

Ethan was Ratchet:

Victor was Mater:

Ken was Skullboy:

Kelly was Ruby Gloom:

The boys loved our costumes, Ken’s in the morning before he left for work, and mine just before we left for trick or treating. They absolutely approved of our costumes and the detail we put into it. They especially loved my hair. We all did, in fact. Enough that when I next see my hair stylist I’m going to talk to him about colouring it.

What do you think?

I’m hoping for a really brilliant red. This stuff was spray-on, temporary stuff (easy, worked well, hugely messy!) but it had great colour. I don’t want auburn, I think, but RED.

Tonight is the start of Samhain and though I’ve no harvest to end I’ll still celebrate. We’ve costumes prepared for tonight’s trick or treating. The boys wanted to be something too difficult for me to make – Ethan will be Ratchet, from Ratchet and Clank (video game) and Victor will be Mater, from the Cars movies. Ken and myself are going as Skull Boy and Ruby Gloom from one of the boys’ favourite shows (at the moment, at least). Ken’s already in costume, for work, and I’ll be doing mine later. I’m pretty excited, to be honest.

In a while I’ll be doing my yearly tarot spread. I hope for a lot, this year. Hopefully my hopes reach the Gods.

I’m feeling especially productive (and good about that) today. I’ve just finished up making some trick or treat bags and I’m rather pleased with how they turned out. They should work for a long time and they’re cute (you can’t see in the pics, but the fabric is very sparkly).

I don’t do things half-assed, so they’re lined and the fabric pattern is oriented upright on all sides and the handles are well and properly anchored. These puppies are *sturdy*. The boys are super excited about Monday night. It’ll be our first time trick or treating. They decided on character costumes this year, so I couldn’t make them, but Ken and I are dressing up and those costumes we *did* make.

I also ordered some yarn for a “contract” knitting project (I say “contract” because it’s family, but not me giving to the recipient and I’m not buying the yarn out of pocket – and saying contract makes me feel important and fancy). It’s a cardigan for Rick, Ken’s step-father, to match one that he had made for his son and that his grandson now wears. I’m going to have to work *hard* to get it done by Christmas, but it’s a bulky weight yarn so that’s in my favour. Here’s hoping!