Really, I'm still alive

I transferred to a different job in June, therefore I haven't had time to post.  Many projects have been knit.  Elections have been worked on.  My latest finished project is Madli's shawl from Knitted Lace of Estonia:

It's made from Suri alpaca lace yarn.  So silky and soft!

I am currently working on a pair of black lace socks:

These are the Embossed leaves socks from the Favorite socks book.  I'm using Dream in Color Smooshy in the Black parade colorway.  I am working on the heel flap for sock #2, so they should be done soon.  Goody.  I am wearing out some of my handknit socks and need to get knitting more!  My next project will also be a pair of socks and also a stealth project for a gift.

Here's what greeted me on the way to my car this morning:

Sorry it's blurry.  I was laughing.  Our vegetable garden is next to the pussy willow bush in our backyard.  the birds had a nest in there that you can now see with the leaves all gone.  Some industrious squirrel carried a tomato left in the garden up to the nest, and is storing it there I guess.  What will the wildlife in my yard do next?



Long time no talk

Well, it has been a really long time since I last updated this.  Let's see, where were we?

The robin's nest in the back yard is now gone.  There were babies:

The mother robin was really mad at me for taking this picture.  She chased Paulette all the way up our driveway to the front of the house.

I transferred to a new job.  I am now the coordinator of Interlibrary Loan in Polk Library.  I worked in Polk for a long time before transferring around at the University.  I feel like I am home now.  I missed the library.

I went to the Wisconsin Democratic Party convention early in June.  Here's me knitting there:

I finished the tank top I was knitting:

It turned out really nice, but it was a very boring knit.

I have started a new shawl:

It's the Crocus Pocus shawl, which has really a lot of beads.  I am using Sea silk yarn and size 8 hex beads.  I am about 40 percent done right now.

We've really done a lot of work in the yard.

We planted a flowering crab tree to replace the ugly box elder.

Paulette made a hosta garden.

The garden in front of the house is getting really lovely now.

My birthday was last week Tuesday.  It was fun.  Paulette and I went to Madison shopping and out to lunch.  I bought yarn at the Sow's Ear in Verona.

Here are pictures from Independence Day weekend:

Here is my family waiting for the parade in Sheboygan to start.

Here is a picture of me, with my niece and my sister making faces in the background.  Gotta love your family.

Here is a nice picture of my sister Lora and my niece Melissa/

Here's me using Scott Walker literature as firestarter:

More firestarter, in the form of a Republican Party sign up form:

Yet more firestarter.  This is Tea Party literature:

Paulette burning a marshmallow:

Beth roasting a marshmallow:

S'more made with a strawberry marshmallow and a fudge stripe cookie:

And last, but not least, here's a picture of me and my sweet Churchill:

Peep peep

May 28, 2010.  Robin's nest in the rose bush next to our back door.  Guess our back yard is still wild kingdom:

Mrs. Robin flies out of the nest and looks mad every time we go past to get in and out of the door. 

Oh joy, it's Harry Potter weekend on Family HD!

Full moon

May 27, 2010.  The full moon this month is called the flower moon.

Bonus round

My goodness, it's been a week or so since I posted.  We have a lot of photos to catch up on!

First, the back of my sweater is finished and perhaps, 1/5th of the front. 

I have been knitting on this seemingly forever (yes, I am whining now).  I'm sure it will be a nice sweater to wear, but I am ready to knit something else now.

Paulette and I were busy yesterday.  We both took vacation (Paulette only in the morning) to protest one of the candidates for governor.  He is riding his Harley motorcycle around the state, supposedly to promote tourism.  We're not buying that.  Anyhow, here are some pictures:

My creation to help protest.  The dollar store was my friend for this occasion.

I had a pleasant afternoon yesterday.  It was 80 degrees outside, so I sat in one of the adirondack chairs in our yard and knit for about an hour.  I also finally put my turtlenecks away and got my summer clothing out.  It's about time too, since it's supposed to be 87 degrees on Sunday.  Time to crank up the A/C!

I took pictures of the flowers in our yard:

One of the peonies in the front garden.

Iris along the fence.

Anemones along the fence.  Please ignore the grass.  Yes, we need to weed here.  It's a never-ending job.

And, finally we end with a picture of Churchill taking a nap:

Nummy

May 13, 2010.  Pretzel M & Ms.  Way. Too. Good.

Pictures

Gotta get back on track with my picture project.

May 8, 2010.  Picture of the lamp in my bedroom that I made from a painted metal vase I found at the South Park art fair in Oshkosh a few years ago.  I also hand beaded the shade and took apart a beaded fringe to apply those beads to the edge of the shade.

May 9, 2010.  Mary statue at church surrounded by parishioners garden flowers.  It smelled really good there because of all the lilacs.

May 10, 2010.  Today's entry is a two-fer.  This is Missy the cat, taken at my mom's house on Mother's Day.

May 10, 2010.  Mona the cat, taken at my mom's house.

And now, back to more knitterly topics

On Saturday Paulette, Tracy from our knitting group, and I went to Patty from our knitting group's alpaca farm (Apple Orchard alpacas) just outside Oshkosh to help shear the alpacas.  It was a fun time.  Because I had been there helping last year, I understood more of what they needed help with and what was happening.   This weekend, we helped with the white ones.  Patty had friends of theirs who came with their suri alpacas to shear them as well.  Here are pictures!

View of the farm.

Tracy helping hold down an alpaca's head.  You don't really want them moving around while they are being sheared.  The animal could get hurt.

Patty's friends shearing one of the suri alpacas.

Tracy and Paulette in the background.

The angora bunny got a haircut as well.

Paulette holding the angora bunny after his haircut.

Nekkid alpaca!  I'm always amazed at how small they are once they are sheared.

Patty skirting a fleece.  All vegetable and other matter needs to be removed before processing the fleece into batts or roving for spinning.

My jobs during the shearing were to hold the animals heads still and try to keep the animal calm, taking before and after pictures of the animals so that any potential buyer of the animal can see what they look like pre and post shearing, and helping herd some of the animals into a smaller holding pen so that they could be more easily caught to be sheared.   They are pretty skittish animals and mostly run away from humans.  It was interesting helping herd them.  Who knew that they could be controlled by just using a long nylon strap to corral and guide them? 

Jeffy's garden

Apr. 30, 2010.  Jeffy's garden is looking really pretty today.

For Vicki

Here's a picture for Vicki from my knitting group.  We were talking about home repair and I mentioned that all but 5 of the lamps in our house were made by Paulette, me, or her dad.  Paulette made this lamp out of a spindle:

Yeah, it's an interesting angle in the picture.

I started the bodice of the back of the sweater I am knitting.  It feels like I have been knitting it forever. 

Going, going, gone

Here are pictures of the tree coming down and the aftermath:

I am taking vacation this afternoon to clean this up.  The sawdust is covering up the lilies of the valley that were in front of the tree.  The tree guy told us to get a bag of lime and a bag of topsoil to fill in the stump where he used a grinder on it.

We are planning on planting a pink crabapple tree in it's place.  I am excited about this!

I was impressed that the fence came out okay from the whole ordeal.  There are big holes in the lawn where the large trunk pieces hit when they fell.  We also had a basement window get broken, which is a pain, but not the end of the world.  The window did need replacing anyhow.  When I pried it out so that I could put a piece of wood in the hole, I found that the frame of the actual window was rotten.  Guess we will be making a trip to Menards to see if we can find one to replace it.  If not, I think I can build one to fit.  My real problem is that I am not a good glass cutter.

Sorry there's not much about knitting in this post.  My sweater is coming along.  I only have about 2 inches of lace left to knit on the back until I start the bodice area.  You can see that I have been distracted.