today's ramblings

This week has been a whirlwind of activity, but not much in the way of knitting. My oldest daughter, Laurel, had art camp. She took a full-day program, so it felt like she was back in school already. I had to wake to an alarm -- which I detest -- and pack a lunch, and then pack all the kids into the van and get her to class. I am a bit spoiled; usually my husband is home to help out with this kind of thing, but lately he's been working a lot.

He's a firefighter and his schedule is great for both raising a family and fostering a healthy parenting environment; he works for 48 hours and then is off for 96. During the summer months though, with co-workers on vacation or sent off to aid in wildfires, there is much overtime available. For the last three (maybe four?) weeks, C has been working 96 hours and then only home for 48.

The kids are in Daddy Withdrawls. They, too, are used to having two parents around. And of course Dad does a few more fun things with them. In fact, Laurel prepared a list of things she and the other kids wanted to do over C's last 48 hours home:


As you can see from the "For Sure column", Annika (age 3.5) wanted to go to the gym to swim, Laurel (7.5) wanted to go to John's Pizza, and Gavin (nearly 2) voted by proxy for a great city park.

Mom has mundane tasks like laundry, cooking and mopping to do; when those things aren't done, Mom gets a bit cranky. After all, Mom can't feel the zen of knitting when she looks around and sees a mess. Mom might have found an answer -- knitting outside.


The sock is Pirate's Dream Sock I cast on earlier this week. I typically don't like pooling of handpaints and do anything to avoid it, but I'm really trying to let the yarn be what it wants to be -- a freakin' sock! Considering it has already been frogged twice, I'm not willing to rip it yet again.

And if that doesn't work, then I can always rely on new yarn making me feel better! On Wednesday, I received the first package from my first ever sock club: Yarn Pirate's Booty Club.

Isn't it beautiful? There's a YP pin, some yummy soap from Good Soapworks of Athens, and, of course, Merino sock yarn in Rum Runner! There are plums, turquoise, and browns. I think I'm going to cast on a type of rib pattern from Charlene Schurch's Sensational Knitted Socks.