Yet More Good News!!

Remember that nice lady I told you about that I met at the bird store? Well, it turns out she really is a nice lady! She just emailed to let me know that she has sponsored a teenage girl through Children International! I was so happy to hear about that because I know the girl, Miriam, has been waiting awhile to find a sponsor. Go on over to her blog and congratulate her on becoming a first time sponsor mom!

And in even more sponsor kid news, my daughter's class is going to be sponsoring a child as well. I cant wait to get these kids involved. I really think it will be a great experience for them. First step - fund raising. Probably a bake sale - but if anyone has any other ideas I'd love to hear them!

Oh and also - I should have mentioned this before - if anyone would like to sponsor any of the siblings of my sponsor kids please email me. In most of the cases the kids are not on Children International's website. But if you let me know, it is very easy to get you all set up. :) The kids are in the program already, just not online.

And lastly, I thought this was kind of cool. I had noticed lots of hits to my blog coming from a single source. I finally got curious enough about it too take a look and was surprised to find that it was actually a website about Pre-Raphaelite Women that is run by Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas. They included a link to my book review of May and Amy by Joceline Dimbleby. (Look under the section for Mary Casavetti Zambaco click on the link for Burne Jones' wife, models, and lovers.) If you are interested in the Pre-Raphaelites then definitely check out the website - it has lots of great links! I'm totally flattered that they included my book review. I hope that means I didn't write anything stupid. :)

Has Anyone Seen These?

It's a new needle threader from Clover. I'm wondering if it would work with thinner yarns and the Chibi needles. I can't tell from the picture so I was hoping someone might have seen them in real life. It would make sewing up all these patches a bit easier!

Odds and Ends

First some updates and other random things:

1. Icing or freezing the silly putty does help it come off the blanket. It kind of peels off. I think I will be able to get 99% of it off of my daughters knitted blanket. However, we also discovered silly putty smeared all over one of her handmade authentic Amish quilts too. I'm not so optimistic about being able to get that clean. :(

2. There will be no more silly putty in this house.

3. My mom continues to do well. Her genetic testing came back clear so that means my risk of breast cancer is not increased. We also think she may be able to get away without doing any chemo! That would be great!! We will know better about that in probably three weeks - waiting on yet more tests of course. But so far her prognosis is good enough that she has decided to go ahead with her plan of getting a dog. :) She is considering a Leonberger.

4. My dear daughter just read me "My Friend is Sad" by Mo Willems. She is actually not really reading but repeating the book from memory. It's her favorite book and hearing her "read" it was the cutest thing ever. She also has a stuffy nose which just adds to the cute factor.

5. Some pictures of my nephew enjoying his Vestee that I knit for him.





My SIL says that every time they go out someone will ask her where they can get a sweater like that. She says - you can't. :) Here is my Ravelry page for the sweater.

6. Carrie asked about the bio of Edith Wharton I am reading. Well - all I can say is TEDIOUS. It's one of those bios where the author obviously did a TON of research so they are going to make damn sure that they put it ALL in the book. If Edith Wharton subscribes to a magazine then you will also get a list of every other famous name that also subscribed to that magazine. If Edith Wharton takes a road trip then you will get a list of all the towns she drove through on the way to her destination. There are detailed descriptions of every garden Edith Wharton ever visited complete with the names of every plant grown there. Really, I don't know why I persist in finishing the thing - sheer stubbornness I think. I greatly prefer biographies where I feel like I get to know the person I'm reading about, get to understand more about who they are, not just what they did. This bio falls into the "what they did" category. :(

Odds & Ends

Just some boring old updates here.....

I'm nearly finished with the Spring Things Shawl. I've just got to do the cast off. I've been leaving it for a few days hoping to find a time to do it when I wasn't feeling brain dead. Fat chance, eh? But I didn't knit that whole thing just to screw it up now! There was only one minor burp which merely proved to me that, yes, I do indeed need my glasses so that I can actually see the symbols on the pattern. (Sorry Susan!) Other than that - loved knitting it & will be buying more Sea Silk post haste.

Little blue chick is doing really well. I'm pretty sure he's past the toughest stages of being a baby. Nowadays he/she is doing a great job of begging his foster Mama and Daddy for food, even though he is also eating on his own.

I also bought some new nest boxes with a different design that I think will aid greatly in preventing the dreaded chick tossing. I can't wait til they get here in the mail so I can try them out. Well, actually I think I'll let the birds try them out. :)

Ron and Rosmerta's eggs never hatched and I took away their nest box for now. They did a great job trying to brood the eggs but I think they couldn't maintain an even enough temperature because Ron did a very poor job of building his nest. The eggs were pretty much sitting on the bottom of the nest box with very little insulation underneath them. Oh well - they are a young couple and that was Ron's first try at nest building. I'm sure he will get the hang of it.

I also started knitting Seraphim - the shawl by Mim of Mim Knits. I can't finish one shawl without having another one to jump right into. I think I'm having a "shawl phase" right now. Anyhow, as you probably know, there is a very large portion of stockinette in that shawl. I knit the whole thing on size four needles in only three days, got to the part where I needed to start the lace pattern and discovered I was missing one stitch. I missed a yarnover on the edging way, way down by the bottom. If you were knitting - Monday night, about 10 pm my time, you probably felt the huge disturbance in the force as I realized my mistake and resisted the urge to pull all my hair out. Instead I frogged furiously and cast on and knit about ten rows before I even allowed myself to think about it. Sometimes you really really need some knitting denial. :)

Since you read this far here's a little photo for you of how Henry spent Earth Day.



Don't worry, he's not dead! Just found a sunny spot in the yard and made the most of it. :) He was filthy by the time he came back inside.

The rest of us spent Earth Day on a tour of "Countryside Artisans". But that's a blog entry for another day......