No time left.

I'm knitting and ONLY knitting right now. It's nuts. Of course, I'm working and still taking care of my family, but I don't have time to spin. I still have Xmas present to finish, and there's only 28 days until Xmas!!!!! Less than a month!

We had a bad night last night. Elodie had been sick since Thursday, and last night, it peaked with a 102 degree fever. We took her to the Children's Hospital where she was diagnosed with Croupe and was given a few doses of oral steroids. She's home today, along with Robbie who is watching her while mommy works - (procrastinates) - and is THE grumpiest baby EVER. EVER!!! Screaming, whining, crying, throwing food, begging for milk, tossing the milk at you, crying some more. Top it off with a buttload of work because I can't say no to anything, and you have my life at the moment.

Long story short, Elodie and Robbie and I didn't get home until 2:00 last night, and Elodie was up at 9:00 today thanks to a phone call from my contract. :( Le sigh.

Further, I'm more than a little choked right now. See, I had Danish citizenship, but I thought the opportunity to apply for it permanently had passed at the arrival of my 21st birthday. I'd greived my stupidity for not applying and moved on. Last week, I called the consulate to see if there was ANY chance that I could still apply for my dual citizenship to find out that I could've received it until my 22nd birthday. Now I'm doubly bummed for not even checking. I'm going to DK this summer, though, so I'll be marching my little katooshie with my rudimentary Danish-speaking skills to the place in Copenhagen where I can apply, and I'm going to BEG for my citizenship.

The reason I want it so much? It's my heritage. It's the other half of me. It's the place that I spent summers and vacations. It's where half of my family lives, and it's the place in the whole world that I feel like I'm home. :(

Okay. No time to complete this post in a coherent fashion. I have work to finish, dinner to cook, a child to love, a husband to nag and Xmas knitting to finish!!!!

Not Having Fun.

So it went from bad to worse. Remember how my wrists hurt last time I had posted? Add to that a stomach virus and you have happy little me for the first three days this week. I was feverish and shakey and sweaty and seriously thought my girls were leaking like they had shortly after I'd had my daughter, but it turned out that it was an actual bead of sweat (more like a small rivulet) running from my girls to my pants. How disgusting.

I was not having fun this past week. Between trying to work, trying to deal with the dirtiest house I've owned in a while and taking care of the munchkin by myself while Robbie's laughing it up in Jasper, it's been a trying time. The only thing that could console me was my socks. I'm working on a pair of socks from Cat Bordhi's new book, "New Pathways for Sock Knitters." How lovely is this book? I bought it on a whim after reading a great review by The Tangled Arts. Thanks, T! I agree. Great book! *thumbs up*

Currently, if you want to hear how awesome my night is going, I have 27 minutes of a 65 minute file finished that is due for tomorrow, meaning I still have and hour and a half of work left to finish tonight. Further, I have a 60 minute file due on Sunday and a 50 minute file due on Monday. Obviously, I'm working this weekend.

To make things every better, right now, Elodie is being weaned from her soother. I really did put it off too long. First it was going to be at three months, then six, then a year, then after she cut her molars. Now? 19 months and just leaving her soother. :( What a rough night tonight will be. There's always been an excuse before. She was sick or we were in Newfoundland or she was cutting a tooth or she was especially grumpy or mommy had a lot of work to do or daddy was tired. NOT ANYMORE!

I feel my will crumbling. Time to drink. Then maybe curl up in a nice bath for a few hours until she's officially asleep and I'll type after that. :\

Xmas knitting is nearly complete with only two halves of scarves, half a toque and one mitten to finish. For good measure, I'm probably going to finish the sweater that I started six months ago for Elodie so she can wear it for Xmas morning. :) Thank goodness SOMETHING is going well tonight.

K

Late for pictures.

Ok. I apologize. It's been a rough couple of weeks. First, I like money, so I've been working 8-10 hours a day, trying to save a bit before xmas. Second, I overworked myself and ended up hurting my hands fairly significantly. I was having burning pain all in my wrists when I worked, and it was NOT good. I was rather concerned that it could be carpal tunnel, a dangerous thing for a transcriptionist. After sleeping with a wrist brace on for a few nights and taking the weekend off of typing, my wrists feel much better, although they're still not 100%.

Without further ado, I give you pictures!!!!

I promised you pictures of my wheel, an Ashford Traditional:





See the split in the wheel?? The one between the spokes? THAT is the damage.





The wheel is great. It's well-broken in, and I've been pampering it with a nice, thorough oil every week. These pictures were taken before I oiled it, so it does look a bit nicer now. The wood has swelled since oiling it so often, and the split is almost gone. I've put some glue in there for good measure.

On to the yarns!!!!

I'm not too happy with this one. It's 100% Alpaca. Red laceweight alpaca plied with an undyed single. It's warm, but I just don't like the look. Very thin. Like, maybe sport weight?



Here comes the next. I call it Toby because it's for Toby's Xmas present. It's also 100% undyed alpaca. VERY warm.




OKAY! TOBY! HIDE YOUR EYES!!!!!!!!



That's the scarf. Like??? It's got a bit of red thread knit into about three rows to give a nice, subtle stripe.

Finally, Robbie's yarn.






It's been navajo plied (which I love), and is self-striping. I REALLY love this yarn. Can you tell? I only took about a billion pictures. There is other yarns, but I'm honestly too lazy to take pictures of them. LOL! I've done a few more sock yarns, which turned out much better than my first attempt. If you haven't noticed, I've pretty much stopped posting knitting. This is NOT because I've stopped knitting. It's because they're Xmas presents, and I WILL NOT ruin the surprise!!!!

Anyway, there's about a pound of yarn in the mail, on its way to me. I'm excited. It's a test-order from a fleece company, and if it's nice, I'm going to be ordering A LOT more so that I can keep my store well-stocked.

Finally. Three words. ORGANIC SHEEP FLEECE. I went to Millarville this weekend with my mom and gramma, and met a sheep farmer. Turns out he has fleece. LOTS of fleece but never even thought about selling it to handspinners. Oh, I'm going to buy. Oh yes.

Opening Soon.

I have officially gotten myself an Etsy store. Think Ebay but no bidding and full of crafty happiness. The grand opening will be December 15/2007, but do check it out. I've got it all set up and ready for my yarn!
http://plied.etsy.com