I’ll fess up. My arm is totally hosed. My right arm.

Every Thanksgiving my family and I volunteer at our Church to do Thanksgiving for 100 people. A whole bunch of incredible volunteers join us, but my DH and I do the coordination and timing (and a chunk of the cooking). Two days of chopping (55 lbs of potatoes, 30 lbs of winter squash, 10 lbs of carrots, 20 lbs of onions, 10 lbs of celery, 15 lbs of turnips), plus more whisking, stirring, and mashing then you can shake a stick at. That’s probably when I hurt my right arm the first time.

Then Christmas knitting kicked in–hats, sweaters, and finishing work. I did get it done though.

Finally, inventory at the store–I moved everything in the yarn department at least once. Every ball of yarn, every book, every notion.

The tendons in my right arm, at my wrist, elbow, and shoulder, have gone on strike. I’ve been told that I can’t do any repetitive motion. Grrrrr. So, I’m not doing much typing and very, very little knitting. Of course other than one week of NO KNITTING AT ALL, I’ve been sneaking in knitting (a bit like drinking on the sly).

So, how do you sneak knitting in? First, you have to make sure no one is watching you. Second, you do it quietly. Third, you don’t do it for long. Fourth, you hide the evidence. Finally, you practice your “I wasn’t doing anything” look when your DH catches you.

In the spirit of Not Knitting I will update you with a list of WIPs tomorrow.

There are MANY things I didn’t blog about in the last six months, so I’m trying to catch up on the things you’d like to see or know about.

Here are my three kids in front of the tree we picked out for Christmas. I’m including it here so 1) you can see how huge my kids are and 2) you can see the hats they are wearing.

T1 (the tall one) is wearing a hand spun, hand knit hat done in “safety orange”. That’s so you don’t get shot at during hunting season. Each boy has a hat somewhat like this. The color is roving from Ashford, but I don’t know if they still make it. It really is florescent.

T2 (the middle sized one) is wearing a hat in Maine wool (heavy worsted) made on my knitting machine. It was too small for me, so I gave it to him. It’s based on a hat we sell at Unique One called the Reversible Hat. There are four layers of wool over the ears. Toasty!

T3 (the small kid) is wearing one of the very first hats I ever knit. It was for one of his older brothers. I had just learned to knit (note that it has a seam; this is from before I knew how to rewrite patterns to knit in the round). The pattern is Yankee Knitter hats and mittens and is available at the store. I knit it in bulky weight Lamb’s Pride Worsted.

I used to post two or three times a week.

Apologies. I’ve been away for awhile. It’s the end of the school year for the kids and I’ve had a health scare. Both, I say with relief, are over. I’ll be catching up over the next week or so. What did I miss blogging about?

The Fiber Frolic
Dye-no-mite exchange
Camden Farmers’ Market
Lupines and Columbines in bloom
50 chicks, no waiting
Sooper Secret knitting project
My new favorite tv show

That should keep me busy any time our internet connection is up

I’ve been remiss this week in posting. After all the fun of T2’s birthday we got sad news. DH’s grandfather, the reason we moved to Maine, passed away at the age of 98. This wise and wonderful man was an incredible husband, grandfather and great-grandfather. We were greatly blessed having lived near him for most of the last eight years.

I’m sure that at some point I will was poetic about him. He deserves it. Today I leave you with a glimpse of Maine in May.

Please click on this picture. It’s the side yard of the Blair House (the governor’s mansion), looking towards the Capitol building (shown is the Capitol office building). The trees are in full bloom, the sky was brilliant blue, and the gang of fourth graders full of life and laughter. The Way Life Should Be.

We survived T2’s birthday week! And, here’s the reward:

Of course he immediately put on his socks (you gotta love a kid that loves to wear what you make for him!)

I’ll put up some birthday day pics later, but it’s late.

We’re nearing the end of T2 week

For my birthday T2 gave me the project he completed in a school arts residency. The students all embroidered symbols of the State of Maine. T2 chose the Seal of the State of Maine. In a week, working every day (I think) he drew out the design, learned to embroider, and did all the stitching. Very impressive IMO.

Last week, continuing their studies of the State, the kids went on a field trip to the Capitol. I went along. In the House I saw this rendition of the State Seal and thought I’d share it, too. Personally, I like mine better!

Earlier this year my kid, T2, spotted an owl outside the window. Yesterday another winged friend was making fist-sized chunks of wood fly outside my bedroom window.

I’m told that it’s a pileated woodpecker, the largest of the woodpeckers found in Maine (perhaps anywhere, excepting the supposedly extinct Ivory Woodpecker).

The pic was taken through the screen in my window, so it’s not too clear. You can see the striking red crest and, I think you can tell that it’s one BIG bird. Like a crow–I’d say over a foot long.

This post is another in the series of birthday posts for T2. Everything I’ve posted this week has been about or for him! His completed birthday present pics will go up on Sunday (his birthday!)

For the last 10+ days I’ve been sick. First with the flu (for about a week) and now a cold. That makes for not much knitting, spinning or dyeing. I have three bumps of superwash Merino roving soaking in the basement sink, ready to dye, but have no energy to do so. I’ve got three knitting projects within arms reach, but no inclination to pick them up (though, I have updated the progress bars to the right–I’m not completely out of it ;-).

I ordered roving and set up the venue for the dyeing class I’m teaching in April. If you want to come and dye sock yarn and roving in rainbow colors, this is the class for you. I’m ordering dyes soon. Since it’s March, there’s a 20% discount on greens. Too funny! Contact me or Unique One if you want to come play in the dye with me.

When I recover from illness and survive my civic meetings (two budget, one planning) this week, I’ll be back to knitting and dyeing. My goal is to have pictures of completed items this weekend.

It was absolutely lovely yesterday. Here’s Guinness, our lab/shepherd mix, playing in the snow. He weighs about 75 pounds.

And, here are the crocuses that were bravely blooming yesterday.

Today is a different story. We’re expecting a foot or so of snow, followed by sleet this afternoon. The kids are all home from school and I’m paying far too much attention to my computer. So far this morning, I’ve shoveled 300 ft of driveway with T1 and T2, started dinner, and made this:

You can link it back to me from your own page. Email me if you need help doing that. I think it’s a cute little button. When I was joining webrings the other day one of them asked for a button, so I whipped this one up (please note the two, new web rings in the sidebar ;-). If you know of other web rings you think I should be part of, please drop me a line.

Here’s the driveway:

One more pic from yesterday. We tap our maples and make about a quart of syrup every year. Here’s T2 in his hand-dyed, hand-spun, hand-knit hat, tapping in a spile.

Now, I will sit, play games with the kids and knit. Stay warm, all!

For those of you who know me, you know how much I love to eat. (It shows in my waistline ;-). I’ve been on the road for two days and done absolutely no knitting. But, I have done a significant amount of eating.

As you know, I live on the coast of Maine, about two hours north of Portland. There are many restaurants here, many of which are good, but not much good ethnic food. For a person raised in California, who spent a great deal of her adult life in Los Angeles and Berkeley, the lack of ethnic food is difficult to live with.

In Boston we went to eat dim sum at China Pearl, in Providence, RI we ate Indian food at Not Just Snacks, had heavenly bread and pastries at Seven Stars Bakery and Mongolian-BBQ style food at Fire + Ice.

I’m home now and still stuffed to the gills. In addition to dark chocolate and hazelnut biscotti and pecan sticky buns at Seven Stars, I brought spinach and gruyere chese calzones for dinner. There were also two sourdough batards and some kalamata olive buns hidden the bag. I’m having French toast for breakfast tomorrow!

So the kids wouldn’t feel left out I brought home two dozen baked char sui bao and a dozen steamed bao. These are what my mom used to call Chinese hamburgers. They are wonderful buns filled with Chinese BBQ pork (sweet and salty). Some are baked and some are steamed. My children like both.

In chocolate news, I bought this, this, and this. I might share if certain people are nice to me. I obviously have an addiction to dark chocolate!