A huge thanks to my Secret Pal 8 pal.  I loved the all the stuff in my reveal package.  I can’t wait to try to make the tank top with the yarn and of course socks with the sock yarn.  The bag/purse is currently stuffed with all my necessary every day items (wallet, ID, check book, keys, cell phone, sock bag…you know the esssentials).

I so enjoyed all your notes throughout the exchange.  Thanks again.

 BIRHTDAY

Jessi turned 8 on Sunday.  WAH….not fair my baby is 8.  I have only had the priviledge of being her mommy for 2 years.  She came to us with a blinded eye and no front teeth.  A scrawny thing in need of lots of hugs and kisses and reassurance that she was ok and safe.

Today, she can see (with correction) out of that eye and it is no longer “dead”, she has front teeth and a very cute smile, and is pretty self assured.  She still wants and gets all the hugs and kisses she can stand.  She had a good day.

KNIT SOCK KIT SWAP

I got my swap bag from my partner.  It was Louise Knits.  Wouldn’t you know it, but my camera batteries died while trying to take pictures of all the great stuff, but you can see the bag on her site.  The bag is huge an WONDERFUL.  There is tons of room of a large project.  She also included a smaller zippered bag that held four skeins of sock yarn; 2 skines of Grignasco Strong Print in a rainbow colorway and two skeins of Jawoll Sport Superwash in a cream/grey/pink colorway.  I love both of them.  I also got the Ultimate Book of Knit Socks from Annie’s Attic, a cpy of the Fall issue of Vogue Knitting (niether of which I had).  Also included was a cool tape measure with butterflies, a tin of smarties candy (which my kids are begging me for but I am resisting), a tin of Knitting Girl Sugar-Free Green Apple Mints that are AWESOME (wherever did they come from).  And there’s still more, a package of knitting notecards, some stitch markers, a hot pink yarn cutter pendant, and a box of vanilla nut cream decaf tea (which I had a cup last night and it was very good).  Thank you so much for spoiling me.  I haven’t particpated in many swaps and those that I have done have mostly found me on the “loosing” end.  Not this time!  Thanks again.

I went ahead and signed up for the Sockret Pal swap and am looking forward to the SP 9 sign ups.  My SP8 reveal package will be out in the mail by Friday.

Home School

School is back in session here at Covenant Christian Academy.  Things are going well for only our 3rd day.  I pray the next 177 days will go as smoothly as the first 3, but I know better.  Josh actually thanked me for letting him home school this year.  This, after all the fighting and screaming and kicking and moaning and groaning over the previous three school years.

Knitting

Hush up!  Actual knitting content?  No way.  Ok…is it actual knitting contet without pictures?  Still need to get those batteries…anyway, I finished 5 pairs of socks for CIC that will be mailed this week, and two hats for The Dulaan Project.  Am cooking away on a pair of socks for Socks for Soldiers and I think that’s it for now.  I will get some pictures posted soon.

Guess that’s all for now, so until the next time….knit on.

This is just downright scary.  Got this idea off of Rebecca’s blog.  Go to google and put your name in the search engine followed by needs then post the top ten queries your search brought up…so I bring you what Kimberly needs.

“Kimberly needs to continue sitting in the waiting area (I’ll bring my knitting)”  …. I promise that was the exact quote (ha)

“Kimberly needs to keep all 5 of her riders around her at all times”  (don’t know about “riders” but I usually have the kids with me all the time…does that count?)

“Kimberly needs prayers”  (always and I covet them and thank you for them)

“Kimberly needs a family to provide her with structure, accept her for who she is, and giver her unconditional love.”  (this came from an adoption website….sounds like what we were reading when we adopted our children…is someone trying to tell me something here or what?)

“Kimberly needs your help in finding worthy causes to support.” (as if Socks for Soldiers, CIC, The Dulaan Project, my shawl ministry and various other things aren’t enough…go ahead throw some ideas my way…there’s always room for one more)

“Kimberly needs her own show.”  (oh my….can you picture a reality show based on our life here?)

“Kimberly needs a forever family to call her own.” (I have been feeling rather orhpan-ish lately)

“Kimberly needs some suggestions.”  (on what I don’t know…but well…I’m open to them I guess)

“Kimberly needs a family that will be supportive of her of her activities and educational dreams and desires.”  (huh…that new loom and a garage full of fiber isn’t support enough?  oh honey…………..where are you?)

“Kimberly needs a fashion intervention.”  (if that’s not the truth then I don’t know what is!! )

Too funny.  Would love to read what you all come up with.

….at least in our neigborhood.  School went back into session today.  Weird to start back on a Friday, but they did.  Kids were walking down the street to school today looking over at my kids and I could see the look in their eyes wishing they were the ones staying home today.  We start back to school on Monday.  I had planned to start at the begining of the month, but a family in our co-op is doing the exact same studies this year and we decided to coordinate our schedules as much as possible.  Their kids and my kids are all the same age so it’s going to be great that we are all doing the same stuff.  I am not looking forward to the math this year (umm Keeeelllllllyyyyyyy) however, it’s all taught from a teacher on a DVD and he teaches in a way the kids really understand so that’s a good thing.

 It continues to be hot and dry here.  We really need rain.  But the AC is holding and it’s still cool and comfy in the house.  It’s actually making me WANT to cook and bake again.  So I think we will make some heath bar cookies bars later today.

Til next time….stay cool!

I need some help.  I was happily weaving along today and happened to look underneath the loom to see the woven cloth advancing on the beam.  Imagine my surprise when I saw that everything was all wonky and messed up.  I think the cloth rubbed on the breast beam and distorted it all.  Someone told that it’s because my warp threads had incorrect tension.  Truly the tension seems ok…so is that the reason or is it something else I have done.  Like perhaps not loosening the cloth beam before loosening the warp beam?  (all of a sudden I want to say Beam me up Scotty ha ha)  Anyway…here are some pictures of what I am talking about.

If it is my tension, is there a way to save it?

On the knitting front, I am working on my 4th pair of toddler socks for CIC.  Will post pictures when I am done with this pair.

My SIL and her two kiddos (4 and 10) were in town for a visit.  She and I went shopping one night and left hubby home with all 7 kids.  As soon as I walked in the door I noticed this…..a suicidal dog?

I think my loom and I are now truly up and running.  I warped turquoise cotton and am using a magenta weft along with a pattern I made up.  Here’s what I have done so far.

And in other fibery news…run…don’t walk over to TO KNIT..PERCHANCE TO DREAM and catch her awesome destashing sale.  Great stuff for the spinner.

Ok..so the title isn’t catchy.  Blame it on lack of sleep or something.  At least the AC is working again after a month of sweating in 85-95 degree temps IN the house.  We’ve been blissfully cool since Friday afternoon.

I have not written much lately…just been busy.  My SIL and her two kidlets “popped” over (after a plane ride then a 3 hour drive) for 5 days and we spent loads of time together.  They left this morning and we are going to try to set the house back in order, get back on our schedule and all that great stuff.  I didn’t get much done in the way of knitting or weaving while they were here.  I did finish a pair of CIC socks using a pattern from Whimsey Knits and will get those posted by the end of the week.  Finished my first “sampler” peice on the loom and got a feel for her.  I still haven’t come up with a wonderful name for her yet, so I will keep trying.  Am going to warp her probably tomorrow for a new sampler project and try some twill and overshot patterns and see how those turn out.

We start back to school next Monday so I have a planning meeting with our co-op today to finalize plans for the upcoming quarter.  It’s really the first time the kids and I have worked with a co-op group but we like the group a great deal and they kids all really have fun together.

Guess that’s all that’s fit to report for now, so until the next time…see ya.

…is not fun.  Add 5 kids to the mix and it’s worse.  Alas, we looked at a few houses today and they just don’t meet our needs.  I totally fell in love with one.  It’s a two story house with a huge yard, big enough for a pool and a trampoline.  There was a dining area which we would have used for our school area, the living room, kitchen and room off the kitchen, the closet under the stairs was very spacious and would have been PERFECT for all my fibery stuff (hubby suggested it first).  Then upstairs were the bedrooms.  I mean the walk in closet in the master bedroom was as big as the girls current bedroom.  HUGE!  The bathroom….ahhh the bathroom….I was in awe and started to get excited.  Then came the kids room.  While smallish, still around the same size if not a tad smaller then what they have now.  BUT (there’s always that word isn’t there?) the kids bathroom was in between the two bedrooms and the only access to the bathroom was through the bedrooms.  So…ummm..nope sorry.  We stood there for the longest time trying to come up with ways around it, but there was no way we could have made it work.  So….no go on the houses today.  But there’s always tomorrow……………….

Working on some CIC socks and of course playing with the new loom as time permits.  I think I understand her now.  Although she’s still nameless, but I am sure we will come up with one for her.

Until next time, knit on……

For those of you who guessed a loom…well…I guess I am transparent or something.  YOU’RE RIGHT!  My hubby gifted me with a wonderful 36 inch, 8 harness, 10 treadle loom from Harrisville Designs.  We got it on Thursday afternoon.  By Thursday evening I had the bench and warping board all sanded and stained and the bench together.  Friday the warping board was completed.  The boys helped me lovingly sand each wooden piece of the loom and I stained it.  Saturday morning first thing, I started putting it together.  Hubby helped some after he finished his workout and by the afternoon it was all put together and ready to go.  I warped it yesterday and started weaving.  I totally didn’t like the yarn that came with the loom as it’s really not a warp yarn and was breaking.  I rewarped it this morning with some of my hand painted yarn and it weaves like a dream.  Way different from my rigid heddle loom, but the weaving theory is the same.  Without further ado……the loom:

I LOVE IT.  Thank you Jimmy.  I love you too!!!!!!!

In other news…

Heat continues to be horrible.  We haven’t been able to sleep at night.  The AC hardly ever shuts off but it’s still so hot in the house.  We found two houses that we will be looking at in further detail tomorrow.  We did drive by’s yesterday and will get the key to take a look inside.  They both are both huge houses with lots and lots of room.  Hopefully one of them will work out.

My SIL and her two kids will be coming in on Thursday for a few days.  She wanted to come out to visit, but when we thought Jimmy was going to be deployed, she really wanted to come out.  We will take her to the lake and drive up to Tulsa for a play and just spend some time hanging out.

Oh and did I say when we “thought” Jimmy was going to be deployed?  Yup, I said it.  After a month of upheval thinking he would be going to Afghanistan and then told that the information was incorrect and he would be headed it Iraq instead, it’s changed again and Jimmy isn’t going.  While this can change again at any time, right now we are looking like we dodged the deployment. :)  God is so good!  Thank you all for your prayers.

Until next time…stay cool and weave on.

Sorry I haven’t been on line much this week.  Monday was tough, but we all got through it.  Thank you to all who wrote me with encouraging words and notes.  It was very helpful.  I will be writing you all back as I can.

Here’s another red woven bag completed.  This one is similar to the one I completed last week, just the oppsite side of the fabric.  I couldn’t find a pair of handles that I really liked, so I took 6 strands of rayon cording and braided it.

Now I leave you with the mystery……

What do you think this is?  Kiki and Kelly…you can’t tell.

Stay tuned for more pictures