LeesyKnits

Island sheep baah in the sun

2012-01-31T20:14:00.000-05:00

I'd been hoping for a while to get around to spinning some Hog Island wool, and now I have. I'm delighted with the fiber and the results, and I'm sharing a little of my excitement with you.

a bobbin full of 2 ply Hog Island wool yarn

There are few feral sheep breeds in the world and almost no truly feral sheep populations left. The Hog Island sheep were feral until the 1970's, when the Nature Conservancy bought the island land and removed the sheep to be protected by at Gunston Hall, Mount Vernon, Williamsburg, and a few other nearby historical organization sites with suitable land and expertise. Hog Island itself, since you probably can't place it, is a small island off the Eastern Shore portion which is part of the state of Virginia (the Eastern Shore region is divided between the states of Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, and some of the islands are large enough to be named though many are just sand bars to most of us). Hog Island being about 45,000 acres, it was large enough for the sheep to be left to their own devices from the seventeenth century, when residents began allowing their sheep to simply graze at large. Most humans left the island in the first half of the twentieth century, bringing the majority of the remaining sheep with them. The sheep, amazingly, are still very much like the sheep of the early colonial period, according to Colonial Williamsburg experts (see this article for more).

The wool is reasonably soft, comparable to a medium to coarse Corriedale or Dorset wool. It is fairly short, extremely lofty and elastic, and is wonderful to spin long draw. This is the only commercially prepared wool I have ever bought which can be spun in a true long draw one handed style if you so choose. Both white and colored wool is available for spinning. I bought mine from Julie's Handspun Yarns; owner Julie George volunteers at Mt. Vernon Plantation and manages the fleeces directly from there (you can read more about that here).

It took me only four days to spin and ply four ounces of the fiber into 500 yards of two ply yarn. There were simply no slow-downs and very little fiber waste. I still have my other four ounces to spin and I am torn between spinning the rest identically to have about 1000 yards of one yarn; or to spin with a short forward draw into a very elastic three ply yarn suitable for socks and hard wear. I'll have to decide very soon or else I'll never be able to have the option of spinning more to match what I have exactly; despite my copious spinning notes, I never have exactly the same fiber control and handling if I leave a long time between spinning sessions.

Weave us a message?

2012-01-25T20:28:00.000-05:00

A bit of weaving has been goin on. I'm weaving yardage for a skirt, using all hand spun wool and wool-silk blend yarns (7 of them at last count, 3 in the warp and the others in the weft, but never more than two weft yarns at a time).

Using hand spun for a skirt comes with its own issues. For one thing, I have to determine which yarns are appropriate for weaving in elasticity, luster, and hand. Then I have to combine them appropriately. I need to measure them properly, which was a bit of an issue, because while I properly calculated my warp, I assumed my weft would be picked at about the same sett, and that was an incorrect assumption. I calculated my weft yarn needs assuming 12 ppi, and ended up liking the fabric I got at 20 ppi. This meant I had nice fabric, but ran out of weft with over a yard of warp left to go. I think I got just enough of that one fabric for my skirt. Then I used a variety of other wefts. I dyed a CVM lace weight yarn I had spun a while back, into a purple to match the purple wool/silk I used as one of the two wefts in the main fabric piece. I used the rest of the one warp yarn I of which I had leftovers. Finally, I pulled out a heavier singles I had spun YEARS ago, and it worked perfectly to make a heavier but lovely fabric.

But the real weaving excitement is this little bookmark. That's because I didn't weave it. Miss Addie did on her new little lap loom.

Isolation, for better or worse?

2011-12-31T21:26:00.000-05:00

I haven't really waxed philosophical for a while now, have I? In addition, I've been putting off posting again, and again. Some of it is business (no surprise), some of it is that I always just post one-liners and single silliness moments with the kids on Facebook, but some of it I think is this weird direction I'm going in.

I'm somewhat isolated already, I know. My family is pretty darn unique (statistically it's pretty incredibly so, right?), our lifestyle unusual in the general USA, and then there's me. I get depressed regularly, I'm caught up in our family craziness, my brain has never been the same since Addie was born (I can never come up with words, and some depth that used to be in my brain just doesn't seem to be there any more; it's not getting worse, it's just never gotten better). I don't like to be in groups, I don't like crowds, I don't socialize well, I don't do small talk, I'm not warm and fuzzy, I'm not communicative. Now, in addition, I'm really having trouble with night time driving, and night time here in the mid-Atlantic comes at 5 pm throughout the winter months. I just can't see well and I'm very uncomfortable with it.

Now, I know that I am inherently lazy, and that this is my greatest problem in life, but all of this makes it that much more easy for me to always justify my laziness and rationalize it. I've been working for the last few years more on getting a little more easy-going, learning to take a deep breath when things go crazy, much more than I've worked on my motivation and willingness to take action.

Now I'm at an impasse. I know I'm terribly lazy and don't do what I need to do. So much doesn't get done. Cleaning, caring for the kids, taking care of details, I never do enough of any of those. I really wish a lot of the time I could just fine "the ultimate book," the one I could read and read and never tire of and read again, and just lock myself up somewhere and be left to read it indefinitely. That's obviously fiction (ha!), but it's a way of conveying my ideal. I can't kick the laziness of my lifestyle, and the craving for isolation feeds my laziness or at least my lack of action to get anything done. Just call me sloth.

Down, down, down, down, down...

2011-12-21T12:14:00.000-05:00

On Sunday, F (our 15 year old with intellectual disability) went with his next-youngest brother to do some work at his grandparents' house. They paid the boys really well. When the boys came home, we reminded F that we had discussed several times that the previous week he had gone and spent all his money immediately, when he owed several people and the synagogue money (he had borrowed, he had destroyed siblings' things he had no right to be touching, he made pledges at the synagogue that he absolutely couldn't be talked out of, and so on) and so we had told him this time he had to use some of his money to pay back his debts. He was furious and couldn't get over it, screaming, yelling, fighting, denying, arguing. Then he learns that we're waiting to open Chanukah gifts until Tuesday. You know, Chanukah. He actually gets to open his grandparents' gifts because it seems appropriate that this happen while his grandparents are at our house to be thanked, but that's not enough. Even the 4 year old is fine about waiting, but he won't stop yelling about it.

Forward to Monday, when he's still angry and argumentative over it, as well as other things he's arguing about. Like being ready for the bus because he insists every morning that he doesn't need to use the bathroom before his bus arrives (they pick him up at the door) only to realize as the bus is driving up that yes, he really does need to use the bathroom at this hour every day. So he argues and yells at us for requesting that he go take care of this in a timely fashion. He hasn't forgotten that we're making him pay back money and won't let him open his Chanukah gifts yet, either.

Tuesday. He has a wrestling meet. We arrange to wait until after the meet to light Chanukah candles and so on. He calls as school is ending to tell us that he won't come home after school and then go back for the meet; he insists on staying. He argues with J that he does indeed have food for the afternoon to keep him tided over, and that he won't be hungry. So at 6 pm I arrive for his meet (we knew he probably wouldn't be wrestling, the visiting team isn't bringing too many JV players) and he's already bored, won't watch the other matches, and is angry that I won't buy him food (the only kosher food available is junk that his coach doesn't want the boys eating anyhow, and I wasn't planning on buying anything) since he didn't have enough food to tide him over until after the meet.

When we get home, we light candles (him refusing to listen to us about the religious laws involved and doing it "his" way). Then we open presents. He decides he hates his big present, it's terrible, he is furious that he waited all this time for a bad present. Then he goes to get scissors to open the bad present. I show him that attached to the present is the gift receipt to a very convenient local store, so that we can exchange it for absolutely anything (within reason) he wants there, and there are many things he's said recently he wants that they sell. Suddenly, he starts arguing that no, it's a wonderful gift, how dare I consider not keeping the gift, he must open the gift NOW, he won't consider returning it.

And that's it. I can't deal with it any more. If I say the sky is blue, he'll insist it's green. He'll yell, he'll argue, he'll scream, and I can't take it any more. I can't talk to this child, I can't parent him, I can barely bring myself to be in the same room with him. There's absolutely no help for us with a teenager with an intellectual disability and I don't know what to do. I can't think straight today I'm so torn up about this, and I don't even know if this is coherent, but I'm in a bad place with this as the center of the problem right now.

Poof! Invisible fiber crafter!

2011-12-17T21:38:00.000-05:00

I know, I disappeared for a while. A couple of days after the medication fiasco, a family member was hospitalized (not going to go into detail to protect said family member's privacy) at a facility in the next state (best in the area for what was needed, and not over-full, but not easy to get to from here). That pretty much consumed my life for a couple of weeks. Family member is now home and doing very well, support being put into place moving forward.

Fortunately, I've been able to get a little knitting done for The Yarn Spot, a hat in some superwash wool

and now I'm working on a spring scarf in a really unusual design; it's one of those in which once I'm finally done with the beginning, half the total work or more will be done, but doing that beginning step takes a lot of concentration and tons of time.

I got another scarf woven, too. This one is in purple rayon 5/2 thread and some hand spun wool/silk (from Crosspatch Creations); I just alternated 2 threads of each in the warp and used the rayon for the weft. My original plan had been to use some other solid purple hand spun in the weft, but that turned out to be too heavy to balance well. The finished scarf is about 12"x65", not including the fringe.

I don't have a lot else to report. My brain is still a bit frozen, a left-over from the whole hospitalization thing, as well as the 15 different appointments we had last week (mostly doctors, a few school things, etc). I wish I had something philosophical and meaningful to add, but right now, what you see is what you get.

Temporary partial reprieve

2011-12-03T17:58:00.002-05:00

As of Saturday daytime, the medicines (my 3 and two of my daughter's; not including the one which can't be refilled yet and which we don't need so timely and the one they are still apparently checking with the MD about) did arrive at our door shipped from Medco. Nothing was ever transferred to the local pharmacy. We never got an answer about why Medco can't apparently process multiple medications ordered together when their own paperwork they offer us accommodates and encourages that method of ordering; why we received contradictory information about the possibility of transferring the prescriptions; why prescriptions mailed two weeks ago and which arrived at Medco in a timely manner were never being filled for administrative reasons related to one single prescriptions for one single individual; why their method of trying to contact a doctor consisted of a single phone call to a doctor's office on a Sunday; why our medications were not transferred on our request but rather magically were moved to a "being filled" status when their was no other option than transfer to a local retail pharmacy for them, so that they could insist that a prescription already filled could no longer be transferred; why they had never made adequate efforts to contact us or inform us that the prescriptions would all be delayed for any reason much less nonsensical internal administrative ones; or why then they could not physically track down the medication.

But the important thing for us right this minute, as I said, is that we have the drugs we need in hand for the moment.

An open letter, feel free to distribute and share our situation

2011-12-02T12:59:00.000-05:00

Perhaps you can help us or send us in the direction of someone who can.

We receive medication prescription coverage through Merck Medco as the provider from my husband's employer. They require us to go through their mail order pharmacy to receive coverage.

They require we get no more than a 14 day local prescription. However, this will be a minimum of a 21 days before they can get our medications even mailed out.

Twelve days ago we sent in prescriptions for life-saving medications; seven prescriptions in all for two family members. As of today, none of those drugs have shipped from them and there is no assurance they will ship in the next few days. This is not due to any administrative delay they can cite (as if would be the case if it were too soon for a refilled drug, or the like). They simply have not gotten the prescriptions mailed out.

We have no idea how we can afford to pay for these drugs without insurance coverage, but even more are we both furious and anxious that we cannot provide necessary-for-health-and-life medications. Do you or would anyone you know be able to help us with this situation? I am literally so sick that I cannot eat right now trying to navigate this situation.

The Most Magical Place

2011-11-29T20:31:00.000-05:00

Were you wondering why I wasn't posting more knitting and weaving? I have an excuse. My parents

decided to fly

all of their grandchildren and children to DisneyWorld!

for Thanksgiving week! Most of the family did all four parks (Magical Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and Epcot) though the little kids and I skipped Hollywood Studios and spent two days in the Magic Kingdom. Addie and Kayla got to have breakfast with princesses, we saw the Mickey & Minnie "Dreams Can Come True" show several times, and we spent time with family. It was perfect.

pattern by Yarn Barn of KS

On return, I did finish my two linen huck lace towels (10/2 half-bleached linen, in a kit from Yarn Barn of Kansas, in 8 harness huck)

and wove a deflected doubleweave scarf in 10/2 tencel and 5/2 rayon on 8 harnesses (both front and back of the scarf are shown; they show two completely different patterns thanks to the deflection and structure):

pattern from Weaver's Summer 1999

And I've received two beautiful spindles from a contact in Serbia. I've tested them out and while there are those who claim that there is no supported spindling in this part of the world, these don't spin well as suspended spindles but do well supported. I suppose once a cop builds up on the bottom, they may spin well as drop spindles, but I haven't had the chance to test that yet.

Weaving: Days 3 through 5, in which Your Weaver gets Overconfident

2011-11-12T18:14:00.000-05:00

To recap, the first day we worked on pre-warped Gallinger looms to make twill towels of unmercerized cotton. Day two, we worked again on some pre-warped LeClerc jack looms to make twill and overshot samplers in heavier, mercerized cotton. Then came the big day; day three, we discussed a few more aspects of weaving, then went shopping for our own choices of yarns to make scarves of our own choice (in plain tabby weave).

The other students in the group chose to make 60"x10" scarves out of a variety of materials from cotton yarn warped at 6 epi (so only 60 ends to warp) to 8/5 rayon at 16 epi (160 ends to warp). I being somewhat insane decided to make a narrow stole, 80"x20" (to be fair, it was the instructor who pushed me to go to 80 rather than 60 inches in length), alternating 8/2 Maine Line wool and 8/2 rayon in the warp, for a total of 322 ends to warp! Yes, I was the last to get done with my warping that day, but I did finish by about 6:15 pm (the last 8 ends I had to re-do three times I was so tired I couldn't count to 8; otherwise I would have been finished by about 6 pm). Thursday we wove all day, and I was the second one finished with my scarf (and the lady working in all fine rayon was done first even though she was weaving at 16 ppi). I was working on an 8 harness Baby Wolf, the same type of loom I have at home. So here are more of my results:

My shawl on the loom during warping

close-up of my shawl fabric before finishing

a bunch of towels taken off the loom but not yet hemmed and finished

my sampler

overshot section of the sampler

some of the other students' scarves drying after wet finishing. Gorgeous, no?

I can't speak highly enough of this class. I can read drafts, draw down drafting, use my loom and any other I might find, warp, plan, and head off weaving on my own. So much to weave, so little time!

Weaving, Day Two: Towels, Twills, and Overshot!

2011-11-08T18:36:00.000-05:00

Yes, we continued weaving more and more kitchen towels, learning more about twills and what we're really doing. We began a big sampler of different twill effects, and then we even learned and began weaving overshot.

OVERSHOT!

Weaving, Day One

2011-11-07T17:53:00.000-05:00

I'm at The Mannings taking the beginning weaving class! Today we wove several towels (yes we all joked about them being the most expensive towels in the world). We played with tabby and 2/2 twill weaves, and now a little with color. Now we just have to learn to understand more of what we're actually doing. But it's great!

The bar mitzvah we couldn't imagine

2011-10-31T09:54:00.001-04:00

One of the first times in his life Sachy gets to eat some of his own birthday cake!

This last Shabbos we read Parshas Noach, the story of Noah and the ark along with the story of the tower of Babel. In keeping with the theme, it poured (and snowed a bit too, maybe that represented the fire in the rain of the Flood). Here in our home and synagogue, we celebrated Sachy's bar mitzvah.

Until just a few years ago, we planned that we would pretty much have to go to Israel for a family trip for this. There didn't seem to be any point to celebrating here with family and friends when Sachy himself wouldn't be able to eat any of the food around which so much of a bar mitzvah winds up centering. A kiddush, a seudah todaah, any kind of festive meal seemed ridiculous. With Sachy firmly in remission of his eosinophilic gastroenteritis, though, the door was opened for him to celebrate with his friends. The calendar of course threw a few problems in; his actual birthday is the day after Yom Kippur. This year that day was a Sunday, and the following two weekends were both holidays for two days followed by Shabbos so that there was no way to celebrate with people from out of town on Shabbos until this last weekend. So he had a whole three weeks of celebration, first leading the evening prayers for the Boy Scout troop, then being called up to the Torah at school (and celebrating with the other boys with Krispy Kreme donuts that morning), then reading the Torah at school all week last week, then this week having his guests-invited-in celebration.

with the Boy Scouts

at the Torah at school

that's my Sachy!

We're taught that the rainbow should be a sign of mourning and heartache for us; when we see it, it is because G-d is reminding us and himself that whatever our sins, no matter how deserving of punishment, He won't bring another flood to wipe out all of mankind on the Earth. All the same, when seeing it we are always first impressed with its wonder and beauty and rarity. Sachy's celebrations are a bit bittersweet in the same way, since we are always unsure about his medical condition; is he done with eosinophilic disease forever, or will it come back at any time? Is there anything we can do to try to ensure it doesn't (no one knows)? Sachy himself though always sees the wonder of the rainbow while understanding its deeper meaning; he learns, he enjoys what life gives him, he accepts limitations and celebrates his successes. If there's improvement to make, he makes it; if there are lessons to learn, he learns them. We're so proud of him and happy to have been able to celebrate in all these ways.

Hogwarts Library, Children's Section

2011-10-30T20:05:00.001-04:00

Welcome, students and staff from the Harry Potter Knitting and Crochet House Cup, to the library. As librarian, I have prepared 2 partial bibliographies for your use in this term's Librarian's Challenge. All books below can be found on the shelves here in the children's section, which we keep for reference purposes.

The first bibliography is of children's books related to magic, science fiction, fairy tales and fantasy. These are books we use for Muggle Studies in learning how Muggles view the wizarding world and their occasional exposures to it; secondly, of course, many of these are actually wizarding history texts presented for the Very Young. These include:

Natalie Babbitt, The Search for Delicious
Cressida Cowl, How to Train Your Dragon
Roald Dahl, The Witches
Edward Eager, Half Magic
Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
ibid, The Thief Lord
Eva Ibbotson, Island of the Aunts
ibid, Which Witch?
Brian Jacques, Redwall
Tove Jansson, Finn Family Moomintroll
Crockett Johnson, Harold and the Purple Crayon
Norton Juster, The Phantom Tollbooth
Noel Langley, The Land of Green Ginger
E. Nesbit, Five Children and It
ibid, The Enchanted Castle
Terry Pratchett's Tiffany Aching titles
J.R.R. Tolkein, The Hobbit
E.B. White, Charlotte's Web
Patricia C. Wrede, Calling on Dragons

Next, we have a partial listing of Muggle books for children which are science-related fiction, for a better understanding of how Muggles approach things:

Mitsumasa Anno's various math titles
Stan and Jan Berenstain, The Berenstain Bears Don't Pollute...Anymore
Jan Brett, Hedgie Blasts Off!
Andrew Clements, Frindle
Madeline L'Engle's various science-oriented titles, beginning with A Wrinkle in Time and later continuing with The Arm of the Starfish and others
Margaret Peterson Haddix, Running out of Time
H. Beam Piper, Little Fuzzy
Jon Scieszka, Math Curse
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who
Robert Kimmel Smith, Chocolate Fever
Dr. Seuss, Horton Hears a Who

Students are encouraged to add suggestions of titles below, or in the Ravelry Thread related to the assignment. Happy reading!

Thoughts approaching Sukkos; very Jewish, very philosophical, sorry

2011-10-11T09:39:00.000-04:00

Sukkos starts tomorrow night (can I panic NOW). So allow me a moment to get philosophical.

The sukkah is inevitably and by definition built out of very impermanent, permeable walls; wood, twine, thin plastic, even Persian rugs I've heard in some places. The roof is even more inherently unprotecting. Living in the sukkah, eating, sleeping, playing, learning, is itself a demonstration of our dependence on the natural order of things and outside protection. By just being there we place ourselves in G-ds hands physically.

So at this time, maybe we can each remember even more consciously that this is really the case every moment in every activity. Our health, our children, our success; everything is really out of our control on that level. We can have the illusion that our actions directly influence outcomes, but it's just that, illusion. Still, it's our duty (and the only way we can keep our sanity) to take responsibility for acting in those ways to bring a desired outcome; we just have to fundamentally accept that ultimately, it's not in our hands how things turn out. Accept congratulations, accept reward, accept responsibility, accept judgement, accept blame, but know that it's our job to move forward in life and at the same time to be aware that what we do is no more permanent or effective than building wooden walls meant to last a week. There's a certain freedom in that.

Now back to the regularly scheduled cooking panic.

Princess Persnickety

2011-10-02T11:15:00.000-04:00

Last night I tucked Addie in first, then Gilad. This means that I sit on Addie's bed at the foot with Gilad on my lap, while Addie says her bedtime prayers. Apparently in doing so I slightly dis-arranged the comforter so that is was ever-so-slightly pushed up for about 6 inches.

When Addie was done I kissed her good night and shooed Gilad out, went and got him settled and tucked in and so on. As I came out of the boys' room, Addie was waiting by the girls' doorway with her hands on her hips, and she called me in.

She pointed to her bed and shouted, "Look at this. I can not sleep like this!"

So I smoothed out the foot of the blanket (mind you, she's so small she doesn't even reach the foot of the bed), and she was willing to return to bed.

Jeffrey asked if I double checked for peas under the blanket.

who, what, when, where

2011-09-19T08:14:00.000-04:00

Where have I been? Helping with homework. School has begun and with it the various homework crises. The first grader has homework for the first time (and has already learned not to bother lying about it, the teachers post the assignments on their webpages as well as send home sheets with it written out), one has too much, one won't do it, and so on. Soccer has begun, track has begun, along with the requisite impossible schedules. K is finally starting physical therapy. And Gilad has eye surgery scheduled tomorrow, just to add a little excitement to the mix. Addie, though, has adjusted to being a big 4 year old in the oldest pre-K class.

Very fine Corriedale wheel spun (about 2100 yds)

Some of the same fleece being spun on a Russian spindle now

I've been doing some spinning, and chugging along at my knitting which seems to be going glacially.

I know I have funny stories of my children's behavior....they're just somehow not coming to mind yet. Maybe this should just be considered a place-holding post.

The Cheese Mitter Story

2011-09-02T08:12:00.000-04:00

I figured I should explain the whole "mitter" story since I keep mentioning parts of it to different people.

Just a couple of weeks ago, Kayla was reading a Sandra Boynton alphabet book to Addie. For each letter, there's a common (mostly) animal. Keep in mind that Addie can read and can sound words out. So when they got to "M" Kayla pointed to the picture and told Addie to name the animal, which was a mouse. Addie looked at it and said she didn't know what it was. Kayla told her, "It's little, it squeaks, and remember it starts with 'M'." Addie thought for a moment, then answered happily, "A 'mitter'!" Kayla rolled her eyes and replied, "Addie, it squeaks and it eats cheese." So Addie answered right back, proudly, "A CHEESE mitter."

And ever since then, Addie has been known as the cheese mitter of the household, whatever that is. Incidentally, since around here wombats go, "WOM," and pteranodons squawk loudly, there has been a great deal of discussion about what noises cheese mitters make.

Now is that fair

2011-08-21T13:56:00.003-04:00

It's not a rant here, just more of an amused knitter's thoughts.

I picked my things up that I entered at the county fair. I did win 2 blue ribbons and I think 5 second place ribbons plus a 3rd place and a 4rth place, but it's not as much as I won last year; no rosettes or Best in Shows. That's fine, I'm still pleased.

What amuses me are some of the comments. Two different yarn skeins both have the comment that the yarn would have won at least a blue ribbon if my presentation had been better. My presentation as such is exactly what they require, and what was also accepted at MDSW without comment. Still, obviously I'm missing something there, but frankly I'm happy to know that the actual spinning was good enough to be blue-ribbon quality and I'm not going to worry over the actual ribbon. The really funny one is my black shawl, though. The comments say that the knitting is exquisite and perfect but that the piece was downgraded because the yarn is "seriously overspun" and the piece was entered in spinning goods. The funny part is that this was blue ribbon/rosette winning yarn last year at this same fair, with a comment last year that the yarn would be perfect for knitting lace! So another validation not to take fair comments but so seriously, all of you.

My cashmere Orenburg yarn and my Sea of Azov scarf knit in commercial cashmere both took the blue ribbons.

Doesn't this go on at your house?

2011-08-13T21:26:00.001-04:00

Jeffrey wasn't home for Shabbos, but all the rest of us were so we were sitting having our weekly formal Shabbos dinner. Inevitably after our discussion of religious topics, somehow Kayla (of course) mentioned vampires.

Addie, who sits next to her at the table, turned to Kayla and asked, "Are they these?" while lolling her head, sticking her tongue out, putting her hands right in front of her, and muttering, "Brains! Brains!" No, Kayla reminded her. That's zombies.

"Oh," Addie said. "These!" and she put her hands by her mouth and sticking her forefingers out as if they were canines. Then she began advancing towards Gilad.

He looked at her. Then he held his hand out and yelled, "Stake! I'm staking you! Stake launcher! I have a stake launcher!" He chased her around the house. They thought this was the best game ever.

I never thought I'd need to yell "Don't stake your sister" at my children.

Possibly big news on the autism front

2011-07-29T15:11:00.000-04:00

Researchers from UCSD, CMU, and Weizmann may have found a way to identify autism in infants and toddlers fairly definitively, by identifying abnormal brain wave readings during sleep. The journal article is to be published in Neuron; the abstract is here already.

No, I don't have access to the full text at the moment. And no, I don't know how this will relate to ACC.

So tell me, how much could you have taken?

2011-07-23T21:43:00.000-04:00

I know I'm a high-stressed, high-strung person. That just seems to be my nature. Every person has a level of internal stress they seem to gravitate towards, for good or bad, and I know my level is way up there. Still, last night I rose so far above it I couldn't see ground, and I'm fearing more evenings (or days like that).

Okay, first, it's summer, which means everyone's around almost all the time. I love my kids, but they do need structure, and in summer it's up to me to provide all of it for all of them mostly. Last week I headed out to the beach with them, courtesy of my generous parents who take us all, and we spent all week at Bethany Beach mostly just hanging out in the sand and surf or lounging at the house. Still, it was me responsible for the 6 kids; I didn't want my mother or sisters to feel that they needed to take on my kids. So now fast forward through the week to Friday.

We had the drive home. Me and the 6 kids, in the minivan I hate to drive since it has a huge blind spot, and as it is I feel like I shouldn't ever be driving at all because somehow I just develop blind spots myself and feel like I don't see cars until they're almost on top of me. One of those 6 kids in the car is of course Feivel, who never ever stops talking or arguing, and who spent the whole ride fighting with 4 year old Adele. I got to spend the whole ride listening to him, which is something I never have much patience for, while managing, you know, the actual driving (which went fine).

We got home. My wonderful husband ordered pizza for lunch for everyone, which was a blessing. Still, we spent a good portion of the afternoon preparing for the Sabbath and fighting with the kids to get their stuff put away from the trip, not to mention all the stuff they'd left out around the house.

Kayla began yelling from upstairs. The toilet was overflowing and it was as bad as you can imagine. What was worse, the kids had let the bathroom floor get absolutely covered in everything that should have been thrown away: tissues, empty cardboard tissue boxes, paper cups, worse. So I got to wade in, clean up, mop up, throw out, and sanitize. That was point 1 at which I didn't know what to do with myself.

Over the course of the day, I'd managed to spill tea, coffee, soda, and ketchup on my white top. Finally, while cooking for Shabbos I spilled spiced potatoes all down my front and that was point 2 at which I didn't know what to do with myself.

Next came the evening and the perpetual arguing and that was sort of point 3 at which I didn't know what to do.

And finally, both Sachy and Feivel began vomitting in the middle of dinner and that was point 4. Not to mention that somehow it came with more arguing.

So now I'm so far at the end of my rope I can't even see the knotted end.

Free to be berried

2011-07-04T16:30:00.000-04:00

With the discovery of an excess of wild blackberries in the backyard and wild wineberries (raspberries) up the block, my natural instinct this July 4th was...to take the kids to pick more than 4 lbs of blueberries of course. Fortunately, Kayla has committed to making a blueberry pie to take to camp tomorrow and we can all just eat berries to our hearts' content. We might need Josie to come visit very soon to help, though, since she's the family's champion berry eater.

So we're into summer. Feivel is spending a lot of his time at the pool, hanging out with friends or swimming. He did have a second swim meet last week and finished 2nd in his race. He was very proud and we were too. The younger two boys meanwhile have finally really learned how to swim; Sachy can do all four main strokes, and Gilad can do a crawl complete with side-breathing. Adele is making herself comfortable in the main pool now that she's tall enough to go halfway into the shallower area, and last week I even managed to ignore the kids long enough to swim about 8 laps. The really exciting part for Sachy...he can jump off the diving board comfortably!

Kayla is loving archeology camp again. Just one more week and she turns 16 and transitions from LIT (leader-in-training) to full counselor. She's just doing really, really well there. Tirtze's having success working at Aish's Montessori preschool camp too, her first real paid job.

I went ahead and made Dinosaur Train pillowcases for the 2 little kids, breaking out the sewing machine. I realized it's a slippery slope in my life. I started knitting and that led to spinning. Spinning led to weaving. Weaving led back to sewing, where all my fiber obsessions started. And now here I am perusing sewing pattern websites again. Adele is pushing me to sew her a sunbonnet this week. But the pillowcases are really cute just because Shiny Pteranodon and Buddy Pteranodon the T. rex are so awfully cute:

I've finished some dyeing, some spinning, and am working on a huge spinning project meanwhile.

Dorset wool from a rescue farm nearby, mordanted in copper and dyed with bindweed

Ribbon lace scarf pattern from Knitty worked in commercial alpaca yarn

First finished plied skein of Black Welsh Mountain wool, eventually for a weaving project

I think I better leave anything else for another day. At the moment, Adele is asleep on the sofa where I sit to spin, but sooner or later she will wake up and want Mommy. I have errands to run, too, but both big girls fell asleep for naps even before Adele did. Enjoy any fireworks tonight.

And now he's swimming

2011-06-22T20:06:00.000-04:00

Feivel had his first-ever swim meet today with the Manor Woods Swim Club team.

Feivel did really well at the meet, but he was very nervous. He was supposed to swim the 50M freestyle and back stroke. He did the first race, had a great time (he may have finished first, I couldn't quite see), but he was disqualified on a technicality related to his turn.

He had been so nervous and felt bad about the DQ (he wasn't angry, he just felt he'd let the team down even though many other swimmers all told him they constantly DQ'd when they first started and often still did), so he scratched from the second race and said that for the next few weeks he just wants to concentrate on getting the freestyle race right so he gets a fair completion.

I was as proud of how he handled that as I was of how he actually swam. His coaches also told him that after seeing how well he swam tonight, they know what they can expect from him in future practices.

He's done

2011-06-14T11:14:00.000-04:00

Feivel is all through with middle school!

Now on to high school. He'll be attending Rockville HS with Tirtze and Kayla. He starts technically in ninth grade, but then grades get somewhat fluid as his program keeps the students through the school year when they turn 21, unless they achieve a full diploma. Then they transition directly into supported services. More pictures of the CJMS special education graduation are here.

Well summer is a comin' in

2011-06-12T16:34:00.000-04:00

I've been crazy because it's one of those over-busy times of the year: when summer preparations need to all be made, while at the same time winter/spring activities are still continuing. Tirtze found a summer job, Kayla's set to spend the whole summer working with the archeology camp, and Feivel's joined the swim team at the pool club, which means daily practices right after school. This week I'm working, tomorrow is Addie's birthday party at school, there are daily swim practices, Gilad graduates kindergarden, Feivel graduates middle school, Kayla finishes at MJBHA since she's attending the public school next year, Feivel has his class trip to Kings' Dominion, and then most of us are leaving Thursday for a trip to Jeffrey's parents'!

We did finish the Special Olympics track and field season today; there's a full picture album here of the day's activities (as badly photographed by myself).

I did get some spinning

eight ounces of 2 ply wool, silk and rayon from Crosspatch Creations Batts

and some knitting done (but the knitting is a gift so I'm waiting with the pics).

Couldn't sign in!

2011-05-27T12:01:00.000-04:00

I spent the last few days unable to sign in here on Blogger, so I didn't get to share the news until now...lookit, lookit, lookit!

My new Schacht Baby Wolf loom! Eight shafts, castle, the works. Thank you Victoria!

Until I get weaving on it, though, I've been weaving away on the rigid heddle loom. I wove a spaced scarf (4/9 wool, simple tabby weave), and I've been spinning away. I also finished another hat a couple of weeks ago I don't think I ever showed:

This one used the colors better, but not the stitch patterns. Meanwhile, I have on the needles a lace sweater, a baby blanket, and a scarf for the shop. I have the RH loom re-warped full across for yardage of some rayon 5/2 (gorgeous), and you know, nothing else on my hands.

It's not acceptable: Spread the Word PSA

2011-05-27T11:55:00.002-04:00

Where have I been? 2011 MDSW!

2011-05-09T10:31:00.001-04:00

I've been MIA for a few weeks; the moment we finished Passover, and then the county Special Olympics games, the only thoughts in my mind were the 38th Annual Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, held this last weekend in West Friendship, MD. I took 2 classes with Charlene Schurch, both of them fantastic; the first was on Wednesday when she taught color theory and application (here are some of the samplers all we students made during class; I have been continuing mine to keep adding color combinations, some successful, some not, and eventually I can categorize and analyze all of them):

The next day, Thursday, was a class in Komi knitting patterns and their use, based on her book, "Mostly Mittens;" in the morning we learned about her studies of them and then practiced knitting some of the smaller (fewer row) patterns; in the afternoon, we began knitting hats. I finished my first hat, the one begun in class:

and I've already cast on a second, in the hopes of using the colors and the patterns more (well the patterns in this one are fine because I just followed Charlene's written chart, but I'm using different color combinations and a different stitch set for the second hat).

Friday I bit my lip and entered 2 skeins of yarn and 2 shawls in the Skein and Garment Competition.

Well, then came Sunday, the big shopping--meeting--pickup--and everything else day. Apparently Saturday was packed as always, but the shoppers then had left us plenty to choose from except in the case of Folkwear sewing patterns; all the ones that are specifically designed for hand-woven fabrics had sold out at EarthGuild (I should have called ahead and reserved what I wanted, live and learn). That wasn't an issue really, though, because it's a standard sort of product, not one I really have to handle in person in order to choose. So what did I get? Ahem:

2 fleeces, both incredible; an unbelievably long stapled and soft Corriedale, and a phenomenally long lustrous Clun Forest (they don't typically have any luster). The former is huge and I have to share it so I hope someone wants some great local Corriedale roving in a few weeks; the Clun Forest was quite tiny and I'll be happy to keep it all. I flaked out and didn't photograph them before I dropped them off with Singleton Fiber Processing, though.
Multiple one-of-a-kind beautiful spinning batts from various vendors.
A ball winder, to replace the broken-and-missing one (now I don't have to wind all my yarn at The Yarn Spot or off of Jeffrey's chair).
Brown-and-white and tan cotton top, organic, undyed, and wonderful.
Chinese cashmere roving.
3 stick shuttles.
2 high speed Schacht bobbins.
8 oz of luscious longwool/angora top. Sooooooo soft.
Wool scour.
A festival long sleeve t-shirt with last year's motif on it (which I like better than this year's) since they marked them down to $10 and the one I bought last year is ratty and stained at this point.
3 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill lace yarn (Cherry Tree Hill yarn at $12/960 yards of beautiful lace weight!).
and I picked up the two fleeces I had dropped of previously at Singleton; one was just some Dorset from the rescue farm here, nothing special; but the second was my first-ever Black Welsh Mountain fleece:

You may now commence drooling. Incredible, no? It's from Desert Weyr, naturally, since they're pretty much the only ones selling BWM fleeces in the US. I can't wait.

Oh, and you remember I mentioned above that I entered 4 items in the competition? One shawl just had a note that they didn't like that I dyed it black and then didn't block it even more than I did (I think I blocked it as well as it could have been blocked, but oh well); one skein just had a note that the spinning was even and nice. One skein took a fourth-place ribbon in a big category (the fine wools prepped by the spinner, probably one of the categories with the most entries), so that was nice especially with the other skein saying that even if I didn't win anything my spinning was good and didn't particularly need any improvement. And my Faroese shawl won a blue ribbon!

So that was MDSW in 2011. Today I went grocery shopping, because after I spent 4 out of 5 non-Sabbath days doing all of this, there was pretty much nothing left in the house except vegetable oil, ice cubes, and oatmeal. See you all next year at the Howard County Fairgrounds!

National Libraries Week

2011-04-13T14:00:00.000-04:00

It's National Libraries Week. Please remember first of all that BOOKS = KNOWLEDGE = POWER = (FORCE X DISTANCE) ÷ TIME and thereafter remember the three rules of the Librarians of Time and Space:

Silence
Books must be returned by the last date stamped
Do not interfere with the nature of causality

A good library is, after all, just a genteel black hole.

With infinite thanks to Terry Pratchett, creator of L-Space and more

I'm so glad this is as "sad" as it gets here

2011-04-12T19:24:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had to go to Target. It's the week before Passover, after all, and 100% of my time should be spent either cleaning or shopping. Don't tell anyone I spent this whole morning going up to Frederick, 45 minutes away, to bring 2 fleeces to a new fiber mill. But anyhow, while I was at the store yesterday I realized Gilad needed some more briefs, and went to the boys' undergarments section. Another mother had to move her cart out of my way so I could see the little boys' underwear, and I mentioned that I had to buy something new for him because Thomas the Tank Engine was just no longer cool in his crowd. Her comment (my sentiments exactly) was, "That's so sad!" It was just last year that he made a special point of wearing his Winnie the Pooh sweatsuit for class picture day because that was his coolest outfit. Now I'm buying Star Wars briefs and he's wearing Yoda on his little butt.

Since I shouldn't be doing anything except cleaning and shopping, of course I've still been spinning and knitting. I spun some wonderful silk,

and I finally finished my Covers and Soles set to go to their organization for servicemembers.

Sunday was the Annapolis Special Olympics games, and I've posted a photo album here for anyone who wants to see our athletes, including Feivel, and volunteers and coaches, including Kayla.

And who are we today?

2011-04-05T09:25:00.000-04:00

Addie has to tell us every morning just who she is: Addie, Austin the purple kangaroo from Backyardigans, Shiny the pteranodon from Dinosaur Train, or Dora the Explorer. Mostly, she's Shiny (which is very cute and cuddly), but it does vary. She has a new Dora nightgown, so she's very happy to be Dora at night. In the Austin vein, though, I seem to be knitting only purple these days:

Sample toddler tank for The Yarn Spot;
Addie already has one just like it

simple scarf in leftover Lamb's Pride

Test knit top for Addie; gorgeous pattern
but so very complicated to shape!

Did I mention that I've only got 1 room completely cleaned for Passover, and this coming Sunday I'll be gone all day in Annapolis for a Special Olympics track & field competition, along with Feivel and Kayla, both of whom still need to get their rooms cleaned? Yeah, next week is not going to be fun. I have started a little shopping, and put in an order for some odds and ends (meatballs, salads, a potato kugel, a pound of charoses) with a local kosher caterer who's going to deliver for Passover orders (hooray!). But expect some panic between now and Passover, okay?

Parting shots of Adele trying on her new shirt, before she spilt chocolate milk all down the front:

Parting shot of Gilad the goofball, who has decided he is now a big kid, and when he's not studying dinosaurs he's reading up on his new rock collection (and thanks again, Jacque F., for sending him the great rocks and the book!). Now I have to check his pockets for rocks before I do his laundry; he keeps favorite pebbles with him at all times it seems!

Yes, he likes to play with the camera, too

Well, Purim is passed

2011-03-24T07:12:00.000-04:00

And we know what that means...I'm already behind on Passover cleaning! At least I'm ahead on the lower floor, since I did the massive clean-up this last winter down there.

We did have a visit from Austin the purple kangaroo (that was Addie's costume, but no pics) and Ash when he turned into a Pikachu (that was Gilad), stuffed ourselves, and are still on a sugar high from Purim.

Kayla's recovering from her broken foot, and the MDs are consulting with the bone density "guru" at Children's National Medical Center about what to test her for since this is at least her 8th fracture in a few years. She may just be an outlier on the normal range, but we want to know whether there's something else going on. They've started her on vitamin D supplements meanwhile, since no matter whether that's contributing to her breaks they're sure she's deficient given lifestyle factors (no sunshine, no milk drinking).

test knit mitts in Lamb's Pride

I have been doing some knitting and spinning.

Ginevra's Pullover in Cascade 220

test knit hat in black-bean dyed wool

2 ply mohair weaving yarn

And Gilad just woke up and tried to sneak up on me but sneezed just as he was saying, "boo!"

Playing with the new toy

2011-03-11T10:59:00.000-05:00

Yes, I've been playing and spinning with the new Schacht Matchless. Two yarns finished already:

2 ply lace weight 600 yds

2 ply fingering weight 320 yds

Plus I pulled out the smaller rigid heddle loom and wove some wash cloths and a towel, to try out a pile weaving technique.

2 cotton wash cloths and a hand towel

The last few days Adele has been coming home from school and falling asleep for 3 hours. The first night I almost bopped her; at 10:30 pm she was still up and I gave up and took her into my bed with me so no one else had to deal with her. Jeffrey was having a bad day and night; he got some water in his inner ear canal while doing a sinus wash to control his allergy symptoms, and wound up so dizzy and nauseous he couldn't do anything except lie in bed completely still for all of Wednesday evening. Now out of nowhere Gilad announced to the school nurse that he has an ear ache. On the plus side, the two older boys are off to a boy scout campout for the weekend!

Good Gracious!

2011-03-03T16:43:00.000-05:00

Can't believe it...this is what Jeffrey just had Victoria bring over as an early birthday present to me (they were rushed because I'd been saving money to buy it for myself):

A Schacht Matchless. I'm already spinning frog hair (that would be yarn so fine you can't see it), using one of the slower whorls...I can't wait to put it through its paces on high speeds!

I already knew I had the world's best husband, but he just keeps getting better and sweeter!

February is short, so are we

2011-02-24T08:13:00.000-05:00

Well, most of us are short. Adele has sort of, kind of, almost maybe outgrown a beautiful, favorite dress I knit her last year (in the sense that the sleeves are maybe 1/8" too short) so I knit the largest size in a sleeveless option. I figure she can wear it for a couple of years as a jumper, then as a tunic, and she should get wear out of it until she's maybe 6 years old! It's not just that she's tiny; the design with the round, ribbed yoke, lends itself to easy size accommodation. It really is a wonderful, beautiful pattern, nevermind that it takes over 900 yards of yarn to knit a single baby dress.

skirt panel detail

Otherwise, there's not much happening. The boys survived the boy scout camp out up north despite getting 8" of fresh snow the last night; the park ranger had them all plowed out by morning and they had no trouble departing. Gilad has a new interest: dinosaurs! Sachy is quizzing him on which are carnivores, omnivores, and herbivores; which are which species, and so on. It's quite cute and age-appropriate. Gone is the interest in trains. Pokemon never seems to get old to them, though.

Oh, and I scored big at the Borders going-out-of-business sale; 3 Gerald-and-Piggie books, a Boynton, and to my delight, "Diary of a Baby Wombat!" Sadly, they didn't have the original ("Diary of a Wombat" if you don't know it).

A far better test knit experience

2011-02-15T18:53:00.000-05:00

My last test knit ended in disaster thanks to an impossible designer. It turns out she has a reputation for being difficult and disagreeable and for publishing patterns which still have major errors or unclear directions because she won't listen to or cooperate with her test knitters. Live and learn.

So this time I worked with someone else and had a great time, though I had to really push myself. The results are delightful, though, so drumroll, please....

presenting my Winterchild shawl!

However, being the Terry Pratchett addict that I am, I can't keep from thinking of it as my "Wintersmith" shawl (that's the title of one of his books, which is one of our favorites), so I think that's what it shall be known as.

The yarn is a little more than 1200 yards of 2 ply hand spun CVM (of course it's CVM, right?), the whole shawl was dyed in Cushings dyes color "silver grey" at higher-than-standard concentration since the irregular striping of the natural CVM wasn't attractive in a shawl knit in multiple directions. The finished piece is 42" square. And I'm happy!

Another Sitcom Episode

2011-02-11T08:47:00.000-05:00

Welcome to the household where teenagers announce, "Oooh, I get to use a semi-colon." Kindergardeners dance around naked yelling, "Ugh, ugh, ugh, ugh. I'm Tarzan who says too much." Three year olds can write their names and leave little clay "wormans" in the carpet. Much chaos generally ensues.

This weekend it's just me and the girls for Shabbos; Jeffrey's taking Feivel and Gilad for a cub scout camp-in (they camp in tents in the school gym), never mind that neither one is actually a cub scout, Jeffrey's the cub master. Sachy's got yet another bar mitzvah out of our neighborhood. At least we'll get to see Jeffrey and the boys since they'll be here at the school/shul. Adele is okay with her father not being at the house, but she gets very confused if she goes to synagogue and he's not there.

I got really annoyed at seeing an article in the Baltimore Jewish magazine about how great the local yeshiva students are at chessed with the elderly and with special needs young adults. Say what? I know several young adults from Orthodox families in the area with hidden disabilities who are completely alienated from the frum community and have never been shown chessed. When I mentioned this on Facebook, incidentally, several of my non-Orthodox friends all sympathized; not one of my friends from the Jewish community asked if there was a way they could help or if something could be done. So yeah, this community frankly could use a real kick-in-the-tuchas chessed-wise as far as I'm concerned. We and others spent so many years asking for, looking for, begging for not just help but just plain companionship and inclusion for some of our kids, I've given up. There are the few popular (what we call "sexy") cases, people whose families are very popular in the community or whose disabilities are very sympathetic, who get a lot of attention, and then there is everyone else who gets completely ignored. There was one time many years ago when one family had so many volunteers they were turning people away; when both I and the heads of the incipient Bikkur Cholim organization requested that the people not needed to help that family please contact BC about volunteering for other families, not one single person did. They wanted to be able to say "I was the one who stayed up at family X's house last night helping with the baby," not to do actual chessed for its own sake to anyone in the community in need. So yes, I'm beyond cynical or jaded, I'm pretty disgusted when it comes to this.

But Gilad lost his first tooth!

Now he's even cuter!

Last, here are a couple of little projects I've been working on last week. Most of my time has been going into working a huge lace shawl I hope to finish soon.

North Star Tam in handspun 2 ply lace weight baby llama

Simple Rikke's Hat pattern in Tonic yarn

Starting Off Feeding_Tube_Awareness_Week_2011_(640x480).mp4

2011-02-05T20:59:00.000-05:00

Living "The Snowy Day"

2011-01-31T13:53:00.000-05:00

Walking home from synagogue on Saturday felt like we were living the children's book "The Snowy Day." First the little kids are making tracks in the snow, then Gilad picks up a stick and drags it to see its track, then hits a tree branch with it, and then, best of all, Addie tried to bring a snow ball home in her coat pocket to keep. It was SO extraordinarily cute and perfect.

Not cute or perfect was the 2-day power outage in the cold weather, or the fact that the 2 kids in public school who most need to be in school only had one day of school all of last week, or the fact that we have more ice and sleet on the way for the next 48 hours. Boo.

I was able to keep knitting on my sweater, since it was stockinette in the round, and so that was fine, and I finished a baby dress

cabled baby dress in Baby Ull

and also a hat.

Another hat for the Larkin project for homeless teens

Anyhow, if I disappear again, it's the ice!

January marches on

2011-01-17T19:05:00.000-05:00

The reality of mid-terms sinks in, in different ways for different kids. I will be grateful to get through the next couple of weeks. Fortunately, other than that, it's not too crazy around here, so I'm doing some spinning teaching, and knitting like mad on various projects (a shawl, a sweater, a baby dress) and I've finished yet another Knotty but Nice hat, having cast on after blanking out on how darn much time this pattern always takes me to get through those long cabled rows.

Knotty but Nice variation in Tivoli yarn

Feivel got caught using his email address and computer time very inappropriately, so he's lost his computer privileges for a week. He was doing exactly what he had been told not to do and had agreed very clearly to avoid doing. He went right from a discussion about online behavior to watching "Elmo in Grouchland" very eagerly. Parenting an adolescent with developmental disability is going to be a real challenge. I mean, we knew this, but it was sort of encapsulated in that whole couple of hours.

Addie went to a birthday party today, the first real one I think she's ever gone to (she got sick and missed at least one already this school year). She ate the lunch nicely, but then didn't want cake, had a potty accident while playing, and was the only child out of about 25 who was completely freaked out by the magic show and didn't warm up to it until the last 5 (out of 45) minutes. She was also completely mystified by the concept of goody bags; she was amazed that the birthday boy would give her treats just for coming to the party. She was quite happy to accept her goody bag, once I explained it, though. I'm not sure if all of this counts as a successful or failed experience, but everyone has to go to a first party.

And we had a really yummy dinner tonight, but Jeffrey went out, Kayla slept through it, Gilad wouldn't touch it (he pretty much makes pb&j every night), and Addie wouldn't even come to the table.

We all have the flu, flu, flu

2011-01-10T08:43:00.000-05:00

(to the tune of "We're going to the zoo")

We all have the flu, flu, flu,

How about you, you, you?

You can cough too, too, too.

We all have the flu, flu, flu.

Seriously, it started with Adele as we drove down to Jeffrey's parents' last week. Then it was me and Gilad simultaneously. Now Kayla has it. Either we have a different strain from what was in the vaccine this winter, or else it would be even worse than this without vaccination (no one has yet wound up with pneumonia, ear infections, bronchitis, sinus infection, etc, so that may be it). Many plans have been changed, many cups of warm drinks have been drunk.

The kids all got new Wii games at their grandparents'. Since most accidentally got left behind (the fault of the shop, not ours) and just arrived now, I don't know how many of them will go, but I can report that the new Nickolodeon kids' WiiFit game is a big hit with Feivel, Addie, and Gilad. Go, Diego, go!

I've finished knitting a scarf for the shop (pattern if Raha from Knitted Lace of Estonia; yarn is Spud and Chloe Fine wool & silk):

And a hopefully indestructible sweater for Feivel (he'll find a way, I know):

Carodan Farms wool undyed, dyed in coffee, and dyed in osage orange; sweater pattern is original

We did go, or blow, or float

2011-01-02T19:48:00.001-05:00

We made it to Norfolk and back for the weekend. They had a foot of snow (almost unheard of) last week, so the biggest concern we had heading down was whether there would be parking dug out, but that was no problem. The weather was in the 60s the last few days there. The kids played at an indoor bounce playground (pictures as taken by Jeffrey are here), spent a lot of time with some of their cousins, saw their grandparents the whole time since we stayed there, and we all got to go out to a cool frozen yogurt shop they have down there (I want a kosher frozen yogurt shop here too, especially one with parve options!). The kids were really genuinely well-behaved, too, which was especially important as we drove home today through pouring rain in parts of VA.

The only fly in the ointment was Adele, who started having a croupy cough on the drive down there, was sick the whole time, and was sicker today than she has been. I expect to have her in my bed at some point tonight. She pretty much has slept all day.

Thanks, Grandma and Tatty's Tatty for a great visit!

The Librarian says, "Yep."

2010-12-29T11:40:00.000-05:00

Some Va. history texts filled with errors, review finds

By Kevin Sieff

Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, December 29, 2010; 12:06 AM

As a librarian, I find this a perfect example of the rapid recent deterioration of academic research skills standards. Reference librarians around the world are now familiar with the attitude that expects everything to be available online, and accepts every online statement as verified fact. It's frustrating when high schools recommend students just find answers online, especially on Wikipedia, and it's appalling how little understanding there is in higher education of the difference between research and looking for answers.

I can only hope that this might encourage a return to some more vigorous standards of research education in the curriculum, but I'm not holding my breath for any state to reduce the amount of to-the-tests-teaching in favor of this actual academic rigor.

It figures

2010-12-28T20:52:00.000-05:00

In the middle of the night the other night, I wrote a whole long, lyrical, philosophical post about a friend's pain, my own experiences as an outsider in some situations, and how it all connected to faith. Of course, I only wrote it in my mind, but believe me, it was quite brilliant. Unfortunately, as these things always go, during day time the last few days I never seem to be able to capture that same brilliance and get it down through my fingers into the keyboard, so the only thing I have to post is the usual nonsense.

I've been a really bad blogger since I joined Facebook, haven't I? It seems like I post all the little things regularly there and on Ravelry, and then I'm irresponsible about really posting here. I need to be better about that in 2011.

Gilad and his birthday cake

In our house, everyone's fine, though we've had quite a ridiculous winter of viruses (nothing serious whatsoever). The big snow that hit the US East Coast completely missed us, we had nary a dusting. The kids are all on winter break and wish they did have snow to play in. Gilad celebrated his 6th birthday in typical Gilad style (see above). Tirtze had the opportunity to try an art program, but found it was too reminiscent of her school art class, so that wasn't a big hit. Sachy's excitement is that he's registered for a 2 day program through the Parks Service to do his BSA Geology Merit Badge, including a day spelunking; and then he and Feivel will do 2 other badges at a merit badge fair on Sunday after we return from a weekend in Norfolk.

And Adele has recovered from a bout of the sticker measles.

Made it through, did some stuff

2010-12-03T10:17:00.000-05:00

We really had a lovely Thanksgiving. All the little cousins played, they were sweet, the food was great, everyone was good and had a lovely time. The next day, of course, several people came down with a stomach virus, and more the day after that, but you can't have everything. Unfortunately, my parents still both don't feel great, but I guess that's the price of having all the grandchildren over, with all their germs from around the country?

Faroese Shawl

I did get a few things knit in the end of November

Test knit pansy socks

910 yards, 1.8 oz of cashmere and silk

cashmere off the spindle

and I sent off some hats and scarves for the Larkin Street project for homeless teens:

Now if I could kick the depression, things might be okay. I just still keep hearing about everything I've done wrong all my life, especially with my kids, without anyone having a single suggestion for anything that would actually be any better especially that would work globally in the context of our whole family. If you have a solution for surviving with 2 teenagers with serious mental illness, 1 teenager with developmental disability and behavioral problems, 1 preteen requiring continued monitoring for the life threatening GI disease that manifested the first 10 years of his life, a 5 year old who needs speech therapy, and a 3 year old who periodically the doctors worry about having a liver disease; and then getting all the regular stuff like orthodontist visits and house cleaning done, then pitch in and speak up and I'll be grateful. If you want to tell me everything I have done wrong raising my kids and how our religion and beliefs are the root of all the family's problems (apparently practicing Judaism affected our genetics, according to the thinking I get from some people), or how if we just changed the past would fix everything (good luck with that), or how other people I can't control I need to change (yeah, good luck with that too), or anything else along those lines, you know what you can do with your thoughts much less your comments. I can't cope.

Thanksgiving Looms!

2010-11-22T09:08:00.000-05:00

I mean figuratively, though I know that around this blog it could go either way.

Julie and family arrive Tuesday evening, Margo and family Thursday morning. Wednesday night some random grouping of my children will be sleeping over at their grandparents' with Julie and crew. Thursday will bring waffles, parade, play, cooking, and turkey. Hopefully it will bring less drama than last year when Feivel got lost.

Right now though I'm just very depressed. Any one thing might be manageable, but it's just too much: kids behaviors are not unique in a vacuum, they're experienced cumulatively and simultaneously. So are other peoples' comments and feedback and opinions. Along with those come all the other things going on and it's snowballed into an avalanche I can't avoid. I've really emotionally had it and am completely worn out. I don't need anyone else telling me what I'm doing wrong in any one area unless they personally plan to step in and fix that area, and fix it in the context of our whole set of lives and our household.

Sorry to be a downer. Hopefully the rest of the week will bring photos of pretty knitwear and yummy baked goods.

The Wheel Ratios Lecture, Part 2

2010-11-17T21:47:00.001-05:00

As long as I’m giving my ratio lecture, I’ll add part 2: what it means to your yarn (part 1, above was “what it means to your wheel”). You can infer it, but I’ll be explicit because it’s not so obvious when you’re already trying to figure out what your wheel is doing for you.
Your ratio is telling you not just how many times the flyer is spinning, but how many twists are entering your yarn for every treadle. Now, this doesn’t provide you with useful information until you consider exactly how you are spinning your yarn.
For a very broad but possible example, if you are spinning with a wheel set at a ratio of 5:1, and every time you treadle you advance your yarn forward exactly one inch using a short forward draw, allowing it to feed into the orifice at that same 1”/treadle rate, you will have 5 twists/inch of yarn. Now I don’t often draw forward exactly one inch, but I do sometimes spin very bulky yarns with a short forward unsmoothed draw (don’t laugh, it’s lofty that way, and even), at something like 2”/draw and attentively drawing with each treadle (thank you for your class, Maggie Casey), so if I have my wheel set at 6:1, I know that I will get 3 tpi in my singles fairly consistently.
At the other end of the spectrum, if I have my wheel set at 17:1 and I use a long backwards woolen-type draw and draft back 18” at a time like I often do, and it takes me 2 treadles to draft and even out my draw of fiber, then I only have around 2 tpi at that point--nowhere near enough to make a stable fine single. Not only that, but every treadle is only adding about 1 tpi for that length of fiber. This is why usually when you are spinning in this style you are taught that after evening out your draw, you must treadle several times without allowing the fiber to draw into the orifice; you need to build up adequate twist to make a stable yarn.
Now is there going to be a huge difference to your yarn between 5:1 and 6:1? You can probably produce an identical yarn with a little work. One or the other will probably feel more natural to you, though, in producing any one particular yarn. Your grist, your fiber type itself, your desired look and feel, your plans for plying and for use; all of these will help dictate what ratio you ideally will use for any particular yarn you spin.
About the extremes; there are wheels which spin in the 3:1 neighborhood, and a very few which will work at 40:1. There are only a tiny handful which will operate nicely at either of these extremes, though. The ones which work at very low ratios are often specifically designed to spin bulky or art yarns; they have extra large orifices or no orifice at all; they have extra large bobbins available; they have space on the wheel and flyer for a reasonable amount of bulky yarn. Very high ratios have their own issues, and the biggest one is what I mentioned above; the basic physics which requires more force to produce more energy to spin the flyer that fast. In some wheels, this makes treadling such a chore that while it’s possible, it’s just not pleasant enough to be useful. In a very few like the Schacht, the wheel is so well engineered that treadling even at those high ratios is not onerous. Then there are wheels like the Spinolution Bee, which solve the problem by using a different track for the bands to spread out the physical work and a different treadling motion which while easier to the muscles seems less efficient physically to me (just opinion; I can tell you that if you enjoy the treadling on the Bee, treadling at high ratios is not at all difficult as it is on many other wheels, but I would never tell anyone to buy that wheel without sitting at it first; personally, I like the Bee a lot and it’s a wheel I would consider getting since it can spin at higher ratios than my Fricke, which few others can). It’s not difficult to engineer the whorls that allow those ratios from say 13:1 to 20:1 and above; most wheels just aren’t comfortable to treadle for beginners at those moderately high ratios, and I think that’s the primary reason why most wheels don’t go that high without add-ons.
For those higher speeds of twist transmission, electric spinners, charkhas, and supported spindles are all good alternatives too. Charkhas (and other spindle wheels) and supported spindles like taklis or Russian or phang spindles are tools specifically designed to put a lot of twist quickly into delicate, fine fibers like cotton or goat or camel downs. I comfortably spin lace yarns from short (2-4”) fibers on my wheel up to about 4500 yds/lb, using a 17:1 ratio to spin the singles and a 12:1 to ply. Above that fineness I typically would choose a supported spindle unless I was using a strong, longer wool or some other variable factor dictated a preference for using the wheel.

The Wheel Ratios Lecture, Part 1

2010-11-17T21:44:00.002-05:00

I was explaining all of this on Ravelry, and realized I'd done so before because I'm weirdly passionate about understanding spinning. For this reason, I figured I'd paste it to the blog here for posterity...

I was asked how to measure the ratios on a new Fricke wheel. First, FYI, if you have a Fricke or any other standard wheel sold on the market today, the materials with your wheel will tell you the approximate ratio; with a Fricke it’s from about 5:1 to 19:1. Any individual wheel will vary from that somewhat though, and even the drive band you choose can change it, so it’s a good idea to test your wheel for real.
To find out what your ratios are, you need 2 people, one spinning wheel and 2 little flags of masking tape (or those little sticky note flags, or anything like that which you can stick on your wheel). With your wheel at rest, stick one little flag on the big drive wheel (that’s the big wooden one) and one little flag on the flyer whorl you’re testing (on a Fricke, this means stick it on that metal whorl at the top directly over the big wooden wheel); both flags should be at 12:00 position. Now one person sits on the outside and slowly turns the big drive wheel exactly one turn around, 360 degrees, so the flag comes back to 12:00 and the other person sits behind them or next to them or in front of the wheel and counts how many times the little flag on the flyer whorl passes the 12:00 position, and that’s your ratio; for example, if the big wheel goes around one time and the little whorl goes around 5 times, your ratio is 5:1. If it goes around 19 times every time the big wheel goes around once, your ratio is 19:1.
It’s just like bicycle gears; it’s a mechanism by which you transmit the energy of your single treadle into your fiber. The higher the ratio, the more twist enters your fiber with every treadle; the trade-off due to basic physics is that the harder it gets to treadle.
Higher isn’t necessarily better. You can spin any yarn at a low ratio, it just may be inefficient to spin a high-twist, fine yarn that way; however, it will be almost impossible to spin a lofty, low-twist bulky yarn at a high ratio. That’s why many spinners value having a variety of ratios available to them, and why it’s important to know what you want to spin most when you choose a wheel.
It also is valuable to know fairly exactly what your available ratios are. You might be spinning a fairly bulky soft yarn and find that 5:1 is just not working right for you; if you know you have a 4:1 or a 6:1 ratio available, it’s probably worth experimenting to see if one of those works better to give you the results you want. On the other hand, if the next ratio available is 10:1, chances are that’s just too much higher to work well for that type of yarn. On a similar note, I know that my highest ratios are about 12:1 and about 18:1; that means that there’s almost a 50% greater amount of twist available to me if I choose that highest ratio in exchange for a little harder treadling, which is worth it to me often when I’m spinning a sock yarn or lace yarn single which I’m going to ply and want it to be fine and highly twisted.
I know it’s a lot of information, but the more you understand, the more use you’ll be able to get out of your wheel.

The Talk

2010-11-13T21:13:00.002-05:00

No, not the one you're thinking of. I had to have a "Feivel talk" with 5 year old little-brother Gilad. Gilad was hiding under the table, unaccountably upset when I asked him to get dressed this morning. It took a while to find out from him what was really bothering him, but it turned out he was distressed by how Feivel had woken him up in the morning for no reason and then behaved, well, like Feivel all morning before leaving for synagogue with Jeffrey.

So how do you really explain to a 5 year old that his 14 year old brother is going to behave less responsibly and less reasonably than he himself is, and that he has to lower his expectations a certain way and expect that things he's always told about behavior may not have any impact on his oldest brother? I mean, I didn't make it too long or deep, but I did have to tell Gilad that sometimes he's just going to have to imagine he's the big one, just like 12 year old Sachy does, and reminded him that basically Sachy has to perform the role of oldest boy in many ways (which Gilad knows and recognizes). So it begins, I guess.

On the lighter, knitting note, I've been spinning some cashmere (oooh, cashmere) on a Russian spindle (yes, I'm addicted now), I knit some socks for Sarah,

I'm knitting some other socks now just because they needed a test-knit at The Yarn Spot, and I've cast on a real Faroese shawl pattern in some handspun 2 ply CVM laceweight, to make up for the disaster which was an attempt at a test knit for a designer who never should have imagined her design was ready for test knitting (which means I have about 800 yards worth of textured yarn knit into lace which has to be unknit and re-prepped for knitting some other time into some worthwhile project). It's okay. Faroese lace makes many thing better, and CVM makes everything better.

Fall, fall

2010-11-01T22:09:00.002-04:00

Since Gilad and Addie are such "helps," we sent Addie off to help elsewhere today. In other words, she and the whole MJBHA preschool took their annual trip to the autumn farm. She saw cows and goats (and a baby cow, she said), and brought home a cob of popcorn and a pumpkin. Naturally this meant fresh popcorn and pumpkin seeds for afternoon snack for everyone.

I've spun a whole 2 ounces of my cashgora/silk blend on my Russian spindle; now I need to wait for my 2/220 silk to arrive from India (!) so that I can ply it and have my spindle ready to tackle the (gasp!) cashmere. I'm almost tempted to suggest I spin that for my Charms OWL next term at Hogwarts rather than choosing a lace shawl pattern to knit, but I doubt that will happen. I have too many big lace shawls queued up anyhow. I'm so excited to have gotten better at the spindle though.

Gilad is reading in English and in Hebrew. This afternoon he sat with Jeffrey reading his Hebrew words, interspaced with knock-knock jokes they told each other.

Meanwhile, back in our lives

2010-10-26T18:30:00.005-04:00

The knitting and spinning continue with some Finn/Dorset sock yarn, some Corrie X lace weight yarn, a dress for Adele now that she's grown a tiny bit

and Aunt Hedy's socks!

In further household news, Adele continues to NOT potty train (she's the only girl in her class not trained); Gilad read me 4 "Bob" books this weekend, Feivel's making progress in his First Responder training; and now the two little kids are both whining because Feivel is eating the last Tofutti Cutie and they're not getting any. Gilad is also inviting penguins to come stay by leaving the freezer open.

Book Review: We Were Europeans

2010-10-26T08:19:00.002-04:00

We were Europeans: A Personal History of a Turbulent Century, Werner Loval, Gefen Publishing 2010, ISBN 978-9652295224

Werner Loval was only a boy when his parents realized they had to leave Nazi Germany. They were middle-class, successful Germans as far as they were concerned, until suddenly they found themselves not Jewish Bavarians but simply hated Jews. The family escaped first to Latin America, then to the US and eventually Loval made his home in Israel. After a long series of successful careers, he has now chosen to publish this critical memoir.

Loval doesn't just chronicle his own memories. He dug and travelled and called and cajoled, and was able to document photographs, identities, letters, diaries, and more, all of his own immediate family from the late 19th throughout the 20th century. He documents their identities as Jews and Germans, their business activities and personal relationships. He also adds individual separated pages on historical events tied to the times which affected other families during the Holocaust (such as ship-torpedoings and un-used refugee opportunities) to give a broader sense of the experiences of Jewish refugee families of the time. Still, while wide-scoped, this remains a very personal narrative.
I highly recommend this volume for any Holocaust, European, Jewish, or 20th Century library collection. I would add that this book is probably more suited to a group-library (school, public, or private) than a private individual's one, unless you have a strong interest in Holocaust documentation. In that case, this is a critical addition; an eyewitness account or in fact a group of them, well-placed in historical context and experience.

It's "know your enemies" not "knit them"

2010-10-14T08:02:00.002-04:00

Everyone by now knows I'm rather addicted to knitting lace. I've spent the last couple of years knitting a lot of Estonian style lace, and I love it but it's time to broaden my horizons. Very modern and very simple things don't tend to excite me, so what did I consider next? Sure, Orenburg lace.

I loved knitting this scarf, and Orenburg is a very different, very interesting type of knitting and construction. My only problem is that Orenburg lace originates with the Cossacks of the Ural mountains. I realize this is the 21st century, but it still feels a little weird to be knitting something that originates with the Cossacks when many of my personal ancestors were Jews of the region and surrounding areas who fled due to the Cossacks. I'll assume that the originators of the knitting traditions had nothing to do with that, and prefer to just move on.

Okay, my second problem is that being me, I want to spin my own Orenburg yarn as well as just knitting lace shawls. And I am having a terrible time learning to spin on a Russian spindle! I worked last night for a little while with some llama from Victoria R.; later today I may also try some flicked CVM (because I always like to try CVM).

What I did in September when I wasn't sick or celebrating

2010-10-03T23:16:00.004-04:00

I did manage some crafting, too...I finished my sock yarn (merino, bamboo rayon, and nylon) and made some socks for mom.

I spun some corespun fine weight yarn in very bright superwash BFL (not my first choice for corespinning, but so pretty).

I wove a towel on my new beloved loom.

I spun Orenburg style alpaca, cashmere, and silk lace yarn to knit an Orenburg style shawl.

I worked on Aunt Hedy's cowgirl socks, though I don't have a picture (coming soon), and I did start another Orenburg scarf, to get the hang of it (I'm not getting the hang of it yet, but I hope I really will).

finishing off the BIG month

2010-10-03T23:11:00.003-04:00

We've had Rosh Hashanah, which I approached with aseptic meningitis and mildly torn knee cartilage, and during which Addie got a tick bite on her tummy and Jeffrey got a nasty 24 hour stomach virus. Then we had Yom Kippur, which passed without incident and in fact quite nicely. I can only assume that somehow we had a certain amount of tsoris (yiddish for pain, suffering, usually in a whiny way) leftover for the year that we had to get out of the way! I can't complain, all got over everything quite nicely and satisfactorily.

Sukkos passed fairly uneventfully too; we had rain off and on but were able to eat in the Sukkah. It was quite hot, but no one really suffered. The bugs were minimal given the weather. No one got sick this time, and everyone really enjoyed it. The kids had a ball on Simchas Torah, though at one point Gilad did admit to having eaten so much candy he had a tummy ache.

Now we're done and back to life as usual. Gilad has an eye doctor appointment first thing Monday morning; we'll see whether he's going to need any patching in the upcoming months. We have many errands, calls, and odds and ends that have been left hanging during the holidays.

And we love everybody out there!

a new year, a new post

2010-09-15T14:00:00.002-04:00

School started! AKA "Project Sanity." Feivel's in special ed, Tirtze's at the public hs, the rest of the kids are at the Hebrew Academy as planned. Weirdly, Tirtze is very happy and comfortable and settled right in. I got a call today to start planning to get her a redone IEP, but honestly I don't know that she needs anything, except I don't want to wait until she falls apart and not have one on the record.

Then came Rosh Hashanah. Monday last week my knee bothered me. Tuesday I thought I honestly was going to die of aseptic meningitis. Wednesday I felt somewhat better, Thursday my knee was all blown up...I'm really honestly feeling a lot better now, but my knee is still bothering me. MD says probable small tear in the cartilage, possibly due to the injury, possibly due to the illness, or some combination. But I can't treadle my spinning wheel properly so I'm not happy. I am already out and about again, though, so it's okay. I'm just still babying myself.

Before all of that though, I finished my first ever weaving project, whoo, hoo, and now I'm planning on weaving a jacket!

Kayla says she's chutzpadik (got nerve)

2010-08-24T15:39:00.002-04:00

Kayla has taught herself to weave:

Following the success of the pink scarf above, she warped her loom today with blue yarn and has woven a good portion of a new scarf. Addie asked Kayla what she was doing and Kayla explained she was making herself another scarf like the pink one. Addie responded, "Then I will say, 'Yay, thank you.'"

Um, no, it's not for you, Addie.

Sunday catch-up

2010-08-22T15:11:00.006-04:00

We had a visit from the Bridge cousins:

l to r that's Kayla, Adele, Lila, Rena, Bekka, Shmuley, Tirtze, and Gilad; somehow Sachy and Feivel are missing.

And I have a few more photos of the stuff I took to the county fair that won:

the scarf above had a note that they seriously considered it for the rosette, and wished they could have given it a reserve rosette

the shawl here is what got best in show for knitting

Now I have to head out to take Feivel to his first-ever Special Olympics tennis team practice. Meanwhile, Sachy and Kayla both have soccer team try-outs today. And it looks like Tirtze will be in public school beginning next week; she refuses to go take the 2 tests she has to take and pass in the next week to even have a possibility of graduating from her current school, so that's it, tomorrow we register her with the local HS and make arrangements for them to re-evaluate her and hopefully send her to a self-contained special ed program for emotionally disturbed or mentally ill students. Further updates there when we've got them.

This is how it's supposed to be!

2010-08-19T10:08:00.002-04:00

We eat a lot of pasta in our house; a LOT of pasta. Jeffrey has a long-standing aversion to spaghetti and traditional macaroni, though, so we rarely have bought those shapes. Gilad firmly believes that there is no point whatsoever in eating pasta without mozzarella cheese, so we always cook pasta of any shape in milk pots.

Recently, though, Kayla and I have had a craving for angel hair pasta and similar along with some sauce and cheese, so I bought some thin spaghetti last week. I was cooking some for lunch and offered to make enough for 5 year old Gilad, and showed him what I had. He pushed his lower lip out into a pout and then began to sob. I couldn't figure out what was wrong. Eventually he blurted out, "It's supposed to come with meatballs!" Apparently in his world, that's automatic; there is no spaghetti that doesn't come with meatballs.

Eventually he accepted he could just have thin spaghetti with mozzarella cheese.

The Cohens Have Done the County Fair.

2010-08-16T18:51:00.003-04:00

There's a whole album of photos here, including a lot of shots of the kids on the rides.

But I did go ahead and enter some of my knitting and spinning and did well!

The spinning skeins I submitted won too, but just a blue and a white ribbon.

The kids enjoyed the fair; they definitely got their money's worth (well, our money's worth) out of the rides. Feivel did get himself sick but only disappeared twice. He wasn't happy that he wasn't being bought every toy he saw and allowed to play every game he passed, so he insisted he didn't enjoy anything...until he was fed some ice cream (thank goodness for kosher ice cream at the fair), and realized life wasn't so rotten. Kayla was fantastic taking Adele everywhere and going on all the rides with her; Sachy took Gilad around, too.

The ice creams were huge, so Feivel, Gilad, and Adele were covered (Gilad still has chocolate ice cream up his nose now). Adele was so worn out that she fell asleep as soon as we left the parking lot coming home. She woke up, ate a popsicle to re-hydrate a bit, and had a shower, and has been in a very good mood since; she even ate two bowls of chick peas for dinner, which is a huge meal for her.

Book review: A Place for Delta

2010-08-11T12:53:00.004-04:00

Eleven year old Joseph travels from Georgia to Alaska and back, encountering smugglers, anti-environmentalist forces, and 19th century gold along the way. In addition, he befriends a number of new children his age from North and South America, assists in animal research, and helps establish a southern polar bear refuge.
This new novel for pre-teens is easily read. It is a bit slow, but always clear. For older readers, there is very little suspense, but for the younger ones there is probably just the right level of mystery and new ideas. There are leaders and main characters of a variety of races and backgrounds. Settings are very rural but portrayed as backwards.
I would definitely recommend this for the younger reader interested in a bit of suspense, or who has an interest in animal rescue stories. It's also a good choice for group reading or adult-child co-reading.

Publication info: Melissa Walker, author; Whale Tale Press, 2010; ISBN 978-0982478400; Amazon page is here.

Should have figured this out years ago

2010-08-10T13:40:00.002-04:00

Feivel went to a new camp (just for this week), an aquatics and sports camp run through the county. We were able to have them set him up with a buddy/aide, particularly so he's "flagged" to the adults in charge as special needs. He came home exhausted, well-behaved, and even cleaned his room on his own happily, which is a first in his life! Hopefully this afternoon will go as well as yesterday.

We spent last week at the beach, which is why I've gotten nothing else done. The kids had a great time, except that by Tuesday Sachy had sunburned his face so badly it was swollen and blistered, so he was not a happy camper. The younger 2 kids loved being with all their cousins. Addie pretty much spent every waking moment on the beach; she absolutely adored the ocean side. They both complained heartily when it was time to leave, and tried to insist that we'd go back this week to DE again.

Other than that, seriously, I've gotten nothing done. I've been working for about 4 weeks on one never-ending scarf, and not even knitting a single other thing, but it's not finished yet!

Next up: plague of locusts

2010-07-29T08:12:00.004-04:00

Update a few hours later--we lost power again, but only for an hour and a half, not a day and a half this time!
Our little corner of the country has experienced so far in 2010 2 "official" blizzards; one earthquake; and now this week a rainstorm that could have qualified as a hurricane, which moved across the area at 55 mph and had 75 mph sustained winds. That was Sunday, and now on Thursday people are still cleaning up and many still have no power (we got ours back at about 1 am Tuesday, which was quite a blessing).

We were at the swimming pool when the storm came in. When the pool closing announcement (due to distant thunder) was made, we went ahead and changed Addie as always, then headed out to the car. When we all got in the car, no storm. Josie had trouble with her seatbelt, so Kayla got out to help her; at that moment the rain started pouring. Just as Kayla jumped back in and closed her door, the wind picked up and buffeted the minivan. We drove the mile and a half home in near-whiteout conditions, avoiding downed branches all the way. By the time we walked in the door, just minutes after the rain and wind began, our power was out. Adele is still complaining when she sees clouds that it's going to rain and be windy and scary and dark. I guess it'll take her a while to get over it. Everyone was absolutely fine though and we had no damage. The kids happily played for a couple of days with flashlights and glowsticks, though there was much complaining over the lack of AC and FIOS (get over it, kids).

So now we spend a few days playing with cousin Josie, packing for the beach, and then heading out for the week!

Williamsburg in July

2010-07-16T07:54:00.002-04:00

Being a bit insane, I took Tirtze, Kayla, Gilad, and Adele to Colonial Williamsburg for a couple of days. It was only 95F and humid, so why not? My thought process was that Jeffrey and the big boys are away, it's the 9 days so this fit rather well in activity (being educational rather than recreational for the older kids and me, but pleasant and fun for the little kids). It wasn't too expensive either; we stayed one night at the hotel contiguous with the Visitor Center, the little kids were free to the Colonial area and the girls were half price, and these days they have a 2 day pass available for just a couple more dollars than a one day pass (and in fact they made our passes good for 3 days, even though we weren't going to stay around until Friday).

Gilad and Adele's favorite parts of the trip: the children's games on the Palace green, the Nursery Rhymes Tour and other activities (especially thumb-pot plant watering) at the Powell house, and the mud-play at the brick maker's yard. Gilad was so mad at us every time we pulled him away from the game playing on the green!

I didn't spend money on any tchotchkes or typical keepsakes. I did get the little kids a preschoolers' (very simple drawings) coloring book and crayons; they received little keepsake bags and postcards at the Nursery Rhymes tour; and they got sheep pins for getting their little "passports" punched at different venues. They're so happy with the coloring book that they're both still coloring now.

Anyway, all the pics are here in an album for anyone who wants to see and isn't already on Facebook with me.

Two weeks of camp!

2010-07-09T07:44:00.003-04:00

Feivel and Sachy are off to Boy Scout Camp in NY State. This is the first time ever we've had 2 weeks of Feivel away. I mean I love him (and Sachy obviously) but seriously, BSA has no idea how this serves as the only respite service we've ever had in our lives. The boys seem to be having a good time and doing a lot; Jeffrey heads up this Sunday to spend the second week with them.

Kayla is having a blast as CIT at the parks service archeology camp. She wants to go a 3rd week so we're seeing what we can do.

We've decided to head up to Colonial Williamsburg for a couple of days next week. Being nuts, we're making period costumes for everyone going (me, and the 2 big girls and the 2 little ones). Mine is done (shift dress, apron, pocket, shawl, and coif), and Gilad's (knickers and blouse), and Addie's (top, skirt, slip); Kayla's almost done with hers. We'll see about Tirtze's.

I finished my cashmere shawl!

and various other small projects recently. The socks are in my own handspun, btw.

Summer Begins

2010-06-21T21:09:00.003-04:00

We have a preschool graduate!
Where have I been? Well, summer vacation is upon us. This means basically that all the kids are home almost all the time, at Club Mommy. I have no time to myself, which is going to make me and them a little more nuts than usual. Feivel doesn't have camp for another week, Kayla has camp only this week and then the week of July 4th, Tirtze's working only this week for an art teacher's camp, and Sachy is only going to 2 weeks of Boy Scout camp. The little ones have no camp plans at all.

The good news is that joining the pool this summer is paying dividends already. Sachy has gone from fearing standing in the water to practicing floats and forward crawl (with his face right in the water); Feivel is leaving the house at 11 in the morning when the pool opens and not coming home until dinner time (he packs a lunch). Addie loves to go fight with other preschoolers over toys in the wading pool and jump around in the shallow 2' end of the big pool. Gilad is learning to swim too.

Unfortunately, Feivel is still Feivel in behavior (I mean I love him, but, well, you know what I mean about him needing care we just can't provide) . We had a 10 minute overlap of no parent/sibling supervision this morning due to various drop offs and the younger two boys' swim lesson. All Feivel had to do was wait about 10 minutes and then head out on his bicycle to the pool. Somehow instead he locked himself out of the house during that time, and instead of going next door where they have a key (and a phone), or waiting for a parent to get home in a few minutes' time, he figured the best thing to do would be to break a window to let himself back in. The only good news is that he didn't seriously hurt himself. I can't tell you how badly he needs wrap-around care, but we just can't have it. One of these days he's going to seriously be injured, or hurt someone else, but we can't physically watch him 24 hours a day.

Since I have no knitting time now, I've slowed waaaaaay down. I did finish the main section of my shawl

and a pair of socks,

but now I have no time to get much more done.

Ninja attack!

2010-06-03T13:15:00.001-04:00

I forgot to add these to the list of what I'd been up to:

Ninja bunnies! They've been flying around everywhere since I made them a couple of weeks ago. Also a nice pair of socks:

I had doubts at the beginning, primarily because of the very tight 9 stitches/inch gauge; they turned out fitting perfectly and feeling lovely, though.

June is just dandy

2010-06-03T09:04:00.003-04:00

Well, Jeffrey had his carpal tunnel surgery yesterday and everything went well. I wasn't getting started on anything much new until we got past that; now we just have a ton of dentist, MD and similar appts for everyone to cause chaos, but nothing huge and looming.

The two little ones are ecstatic today because it's TRUCK DAY at MJBHA; this means they bring in every variety of vehicle you can imagine and the kids get to climb all over them. Bookmobile, 18 wheeler, police cars, rescue boats, helicopter, and especially the ice cream truck are all big thrills there.

I've been knitting away; a top for Addie, socks for Julie, I don't know what else. And I don't think I showed a pic yet of my newest sock yarn; 2 plies of Romeldale and 1 of red (undyed) alpaca.

Other than that it's just HOT. We're spending as much time as possible at the pool. Addie keeps asking to go. She's a little overconfident; she's convinced that since she can jump in and stand at the 2' end, she can jump in anywhere. Needless to say, we keep a close eye on her at all times. The kids are all enjoying it at the pool though, and it's going to be great all summer.

Yearning for Har Sinai

2010-05-18T17:50:00.005-04:00

Toddler version:

Gilad made a mini Har Sinai (Mt. Sinai, where the Jews received the Torah, as we celebrate the next 2 days of Shavuos) out of cupcake, frosting, sprinkles, and chocolate-covered cookies, as a school holiday project. Addie won't stay away from it. When I told her to keep her hands away and only look, she told me, "I just want the chocolate." So I put it in the kitchen out of her reach, and she climbed up on the step stool to just stare at it longingly.

Spinning in Public, Wheaton edition

2010-05-17T08:46:00.003-04:00

So yesterday I spent several hours in The Yarn Spot's booth at the annual Taste of Wheaton event. Okay, I don't live in Wheaton, I live a couple of neighborhoods away in Aspen Hill (sadly more infamous for sniper shootings than livelihood or commerce), but the shop is in Wheaton. We had a great turnout and a lot of people were interested in the shop. Since I was spinning, I did get a good bit of attention, but there were two "stand out" moments.

Let me start by mentioning that in the US, commercially spun yarn has been widely available since before the Civil War. Remember reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's books? Ever think about how she mentions knitting and sewing several times, but never spinning? Even they on the edges of the frontier at times were buying ready-to-knit yarns. Certainly there were pioneers who travelled with spinning equipment, but in much of the US as commerce progressed there wasn't a big need for home spinning, and people took the opportunity to spend their time on other, more pressing, needs when they could buy yarn as a commodity and didn't need to spend the hours spinning it themselves. However, in much of the world, even today and certainly throughout the twentieth century, spinning in the home (or while engaged in daily activities) isn't and hasn't been uncommon.

With that explained, you won't be surprised to hear that both my special spinning encounters yesterday were with people who emigrated to the US from elsewhere.

The first was with two women who came to see what I was doing. One spoke English, her friend only Spanish. She happily but suspiciously asked just what fiber I was spinning and I knew I wasn't really surprising her when I answered that it was not sheep's wool but alpaca. Still, her companion was surprised; they were Peruvian, and couldn't believe that in the US we appreciated the wonders of alpaca. I told them the fiber I was spinning came from a local farm (we have several alpaca farms between Damascus and Thurmont, MD, in the foothills of our local low mountains; alpacas seem to do quite well there). They made sure I knew that alpacas really were "theirs" and came from Peru, talked about the spindles we had, and generally left delighted that people knew about real life and real animals and their importance even here.

The second was a woman who came over to our booth as she ran an errand from her own. She stopped to gaze at the various spindles on the table, and then began to tell us of her own childhood in Italy. Her grandmother, she said, spun all the time on a drop spindle; she demonstrated to us with her hands and an imaginary spindle her grandmother's thigh-flick, and talked of how fast the spindle would spin. She herself had tried to learn as a child, but all she remembered was her grandmother yelling at her that she was no good at it! Several times she showed us her grandmother's motions. I know that flicking a spindle in that way can give an extremely fast spin, and I'd love to have been able to see her grandmother in action (though not the part about her scolding!). I hope this woman does come in to the shop (the other two also), maybe to finally learn to spin now.

Mothers' Day Disaster Averted!

2010-05-09T13:57:00.003-04:00

Knitter wipes sweat off her brow, films at 11. Okay, nothing too dramatic, but I was happily knitting along at my Crown Prince Square Shawl, knitting in a relaxed and open fashion, when that relaxation reared up and bit me and my stitches for 2" fell off the left needle!

But all is well and I think I caught everything back.

Trying to rescue nupps and lace was not on my day's agenda.

Now off to go get Addie out of bed; I wish she were still taking 3 hour naps.

Busy, Hot, and Sticky

2010-05-02T20:21:00.003-04:00

We survived the great first Monday in May, despite humid weather at about 90F and an insane schedule. I left before 8 am for MDSW; that left Jeffrey to manage the Special Olympics track and field bunch. We all reconnoitered at home at about 5 pm, then everyone except Adele and I went to the lag b'omer bonfire and party at the school. Several of the kids then came home not only sticky from the heat, but from faces covered in marshmallow and cotton candy.

So....MDSW. I had a great opportunity to meet up with several other witches from the Harry Potter House Cup game, and then I met up with Mabel, my dearest, most treasured childhood friend, and we got to spend about 3 hours together for the first time in possibly a couple of decades.

I bought only a little yarn; 2 skeins of Cherry Tree Hill seconds, and two weaving yarns. I did buy 3 spindles, a Spanish Peacock Russian supported lace spindle and bowl, a 1.3 ounce Jenkins Canary wood mini Turkish; and a standard takli.

I got a ton of different fibers; 1 CVM fleece from Marushka Farms

plus 1/2 oz quiviut (!), 8 oz Polworth, 4 oz Cashmere (from Wild Fibers' fund-raiser for the Ladakh cooperative), some fawn alpaca/tussah blend top, and 8 oz of Dorset/Finn blend. I won't bore you with photos, since they're all undyed, and you'd be saying, "look, it's more... fiber."

Then the incidentals; my mini combs finally (Indigo Hound 2 pitch); a long sleeve festival t shirt (the first time I've bought one) and a mug; alum, iron, and copper for mordanting; a little wool scour to try out; and 2 cards of pewter buttons.

Finally I did buy a few books (a big surprise). "Dyeing is not Alchemy,""Colours from Nature,""The Complete Guide to Natural Dyeing," and to break the trend, "Weaving Made Easy."

Over at the track and field meet, Feivel got gold medals in the 100 meter, standing long jump, and 4x100 relay, and a silver in the 400 meter (where he was outrun by a significantly taller, athletic adult athlete). He's given this set of medals to Gilad to model:

Double, double, coils and trouble

2010-04-25T20:52:00.003-04:00

I spun my first core spun supercoil yarn:

not perfect, but certainly fine. It's Romney wool, dyed in broom sedge last year when I was at John C. Campbell Folk School. It was spun into lightly spun singles Z twist; then wrapped over a core of laceweight commercial yarn I had left over from some knitting, with the core slightly retarded relative to the wrapping yarn and with the wrapping yarn held at angles varying from about 70 to 100 degrees relative to the core.

Close up:

Oh, and yes, Kayla is reading Macbeth in school; Tirtze's on Othello.

This coming week

2010-04-24T22:18:00.003-04:00

I won't be around much; I tentatively still have jury duty Tuesday, then have Sheep and Wool classes scheduled all of Wednesday and Thursday! Whoo, hoo!

So what's going on? The little kids are still nuts. However, Gilad is the one giving us fits. He cut his own hair at school this week (not too noticeably, fortunately), but more of a problem is that the teacher called a second time to report that he has been getting so physical with the other kids he's hurting others and is becoming the real class troublemaker. How did my little boy get to this point? They've recommended an OT eval for one thing, which I'm trying to set up, but irritatingly it looks like because he's in the Spring before he's eligible to enter kindergarden, the public schools in our county don't want to deal with him. He's too old to enter "Child Find" and too young for kindergarden so he's in that black hole even for evaluation, and definitely for all services other than speech, which is the only itinerant service they'll provide for non-public school students here. Still, I've started the paperwork process and trail.

Why haven't I been posting much spinning and knitting? Because I was spinning the killer yarn of lacy overabundance. Nine ounces wound up spinning up to 2000 yards of 2 ply lace yarn! Modeled here by Kayla so you can get an idea of just how much of this stuff there is:

I also finished an April hat for the Larkin project for homeless teens

But my real excitement has been my research on German torah wimpeln from baby bris swaddling clothes. I did my talk and now I'm hoping to submit an article for publication! Now I just have to get my act together and get my submission in.

Earthquake in China, largely ignored here

2010-04-14T21:17:00.002-04:00

This is courtesy of Linda Cortright, editor and publisher of Wild Fibers Magazine (yes, I seem to be spending today passing on other people's words) (and here are some photos Linda had taken before the earthquake):

...I have just gotten off of Skype with a man in Yushu Province, China. A severe earthquake struck his “backyard” several hours ago and has initially been categorized as a magnitude of 6.9-7.1. We chatted very briefly as he had to leave to take water and supplies to the WEAVERS and SPINNERS who create his yak yarn...

I have just spoken with my Clay Goforth at Jade Tree, the company that creates the yak yarn from Yushu where the earthquake hit. This is what he had to say:

The latest news is that 90% of the homes in Yushu have been destroyed. The casualties have risen to 400 confirmed and an estimated 200-400 more are presumed. The Chinese Government sent 3,000 troops in to help dig people out whom are still trapped. The airport is shut down so the only way in or out is through one road coming from Xining and it is a 14-16 hour drive to get any kind of medical teams in or evac people out.
I don’t know your realm of influence, but if you could reach out to people you know for support and donations, as money will be a huge commodity that would be great.

They can send donations to:
Yushu Earthquake Relief
c/o First Asia Development
PO Box 8668
Fayetteville AR 72703

This is the non-profit organization through which the Jade Tree Project does its fundraising for community development work in Tibet. I am president of the non-profit, so if anyone has any questions, send them my way and I will be happy to answer anything.

Thanks Linda,

Here is the link he just sent me to donate as well: http://jadetreeproject.blogspot.com/

Your Tax Dollars at Work (against YOU!)

2010-04-14T09:12:00.002-04:00

Courtesy of Bob Astrove:

Special education legal fees for outside counsel for January 2010 totaled $88,947. The year to-date total of $462,126 is $100,117 (28 percent) higher than the same period in the previous fiscal year.

Total year-to-date special education legal costs of $463,632 are $124,629 (37 percent), higher than the budgeted amount of $339,003.

Jeffrey A. Krew had charges of $85,197 in January, including work on ten cases, five of which involved administrative hearings ($59,217) and three of which are on appeal in state or federal court ($1,780) and two cases related to participation in Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings ($3,750). In addition, there was a $24,200 adjustment to the per diem hearing rate for the 2009 calendar year in accordance with the contract approved by the Board of Education.

Carney Kelehan had charges of $3,750 in January involving participation in the preparation of four individual education programs.

If you have any questions, please contact Mr. Larry A. Bowers, chief operating officer, at 301-279-3626 or Dr. Marshall Spatz, director, Department of Management, Budget, and Planning. at 301-279-3547.

http://www.montgomeryschoolsmd.org/boe/meetings/index.aspx#calendar

(Will the BOE ask any question about this cost overrun at their full day business meeting on Thursday? Doubtful.)

Book of the Day

2010-04-12T08:16:00.004-04:00

It is Yom HaShoah, the day of Holocaust Remembrance. I submit to all of my friends, Jewish and not, this book: The Yellow Star, The Legend of King Christian X of Denmark. Think of what people have done in every sense.

Next week, I give a talk related to German Jewish textiles. Think on that too.

Oh, the joys of insomnia

2010-04-11T01:37:00.003-04:00

I didn't know what to do so I figured I'd drop in and update. It my spelling and/or grammar are not up to par, please bear in mind that this is being typed at 1:40 am my time.

With Passover over, we switched the kitchen back to normal. Jeffrey boxed while I ran to Safeway to restock on cereal, bread, and similar necessities of life for our kids. By morning we had the all-important coffee machine ready to run, too.

The next day, we had 5 different appointments for various kids. I spent the day in the car going from Shady Grove to Silver Spring to Fairfax. Fortunately, after that I had a one-day break before any one else had any medical appointments. Unfortunately, I forgot that for the rest of the month I'm on call for jury duty every Tuesday, and of course we have a ton of appointments scheduled on the rest of the Tuesdays of the month.

Feivel had his first ever sleep-out at a friend's house, the other frum boy who was in his class. I say, "was" because as of their return to school Wednesday, the other boy left Feivel's school for a residential program, and Feivel's best school chum is gone, leaving him more alone again. Still, his class is FANTASTIC about making sure he can as much as possible participate in the meals out and the cooking both of which they do every week. It helps that there are several kosher restaurants right in the area the school is in (sort of where Potomac meets Rockville).

And I got into all 3 of the classes I applied for at the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival: one on different longdraw spinning techniques, one on spinning soft bulky yarns (easy to do badly, hard to do well), and one all day class on spinning exotic fibers (think camel down, llama, alpaca, mohair, cashmere, etc) for use in knitting socks. Yay. It leaves me with a dilemma though because now I have to work night and day to get done spinning the 11 ounces of laceweight yarn I'm in the middle of so I have the wheel and more importantly all my bobbins free for the classes at the end of the month.

Sing the Dora theme!

2010-04-01T12:48:00.002-04:00

We did it, we did it. We managed to get everything done for Passover and get through the first days. Jeffrey invited a young man from the Boy Scouts office to come for one seder; other than that we had no guests. The kiddos stayed up for the seders for the most part, they were good for the most part, and the weather finally cleared up. Today it was off to the store to buy some more groceries (though I forgot to get more apple juice) and start cooking for Shabbos!Now Jeffrey's taken the 5 older kids to the dentist; Adele spent the morning "helping" me. The weather is great so we'll have to find something good to do this afternoon. Botanic gardens; letterboxing; so many choices!

Passover looms

2010-03-18T19:49:00.003-04:00

So I'm in denial. Instead I've been knitting a hat for Larkin Ctr for Homeless Teens:

A sweater for new nephew Parker:

and a shawl just to knit using stash yarn and because I sometimes just need to knit lace:

I have cleaned the little kids' room, the boys' room, our room, the bathrooms (except for the final product checking and chucking); and I've done most of the shopping (and I did remember the bedika kit). Other than that, I am totally unprepared for Passover, because I'm far too obsessed with spinning, knitting, and general denial.

However, I'm horrified to read and hear that the state government is totally rejecting the possibility of a 10 cent alcohol tax increase (some funds from which would be earmarked for the Developmental Disabilities Administration and its decades-long waiting list for services) despite the fact that MD has the second lowest alcohol tax in the US; while at the same time 39 legislators are co-sponsoring a bag-tax bill. I don't mean that I'm against a bag tax or the use of re-usable bags; I myself use them almost exclusively and encourage others to do so and in fact I would personally probably support the bill. What infuriates me is that this comes right on the heels of the legislature clearly stating that they couldn't consider the alcohol tax ostensibly because they felt that any increase in taxation in today's economy would be inappropriate. Obviously the real reason was simply because they listen to lobbyists money and care more about the alcohol lobby's dollars than they do about their own constituents.

Cuties!

2010-03-07T20:41:00.002-05:00

I made a photo album of Kayla and Adele's antics this afternoon; you can see it here.

Incredible family textiles

2010-03-07T16:58:00.003-05:00

One of my new obsessions is German historic Torah wimpels, made by mothers and sisters of baby boys from the swaddling clothes from circumcision ceremonies into embroidered Torah wraps. I'm getting my hands on copies of a textile journal and a book on the subject, but meanwhile here are photos a cousin of my mother and her husband just sent of the one her grandmother made for her father:

These would be from about 1910; the tradition dates from the sixteenth century more or less, until the Shoah destroyed German Jewish life. There are still families today who have them commissioned to be embroidered. What's incredible to me is how modern-looking the ones dating from 1830-1910 which I have been privileged to see all seem. More coming as I learn more to share!

bad blogger, bad!

2010-03-05T08:36:00.005-05:00

So I am around, it's just that every time I try to sit and write what's going on, either a little kid comes up to me with a crisis (like Dora the Explorer is over), or there's a computer slow-down, or I really am supposed to be doing something else like de-disgustingifying the kids' bathroom or...well, you all get the idea.

I did have a great trip to Israel once we were finally able to leave the snow-deluged US East Coast. I didn't even have a camera along, but other family members' photo albums are here and here, plus there's an article about my uncle's project, the object of the whole trip, here. Every time Adele sees the photos of the playground, she complains that she's not there and wants to be there right now. I only wish I could take her!

We continue to have stupid issues with MCPS, but at least the current one is really stupid and not high on my "pick your battles" list. They sent home a copied letter announcing that the kids' Alt-MSA portfolios would be available for parents' review on a single day (and they got the date wrong in the letter); I'm sure 90% of the parents never saw the letter as they didn't even manage to get it into the students' communications folder, it was just loose in Feivel's backpack. Once I sorted out the actual time and date, Adele wound up sick at that time so I couldn't go and when I called to make alternate arrangements I was told that's not possible. So a great waste of time was had by all, and separate continues to not be equal. Way to go MCPS. Oh, and it looks like after spending $1.7 million for 2 years worth of use, MCPS is abandoning its online IEP system in favor of the *FREE* one provided by the state that every other jurisdiction in the state has chosen to use the whole time. Good thing they didn't try to spend that $1.7 million on actually educating the special ed students or anything wasteful like that.

We had Purim, hosted by the perfect pink perky pretty poodle puppy

but it was the day my grandmother's z"tl burial was held, as she passed away last week at the age of 90, so the girls and I went to the burial in NJ while Jeffrey held down the Purim fort here.

And I have been trying to do a little knitting in the meantime, while waiting for yarn to come in for Feivel's sweater he's demanding:

headband in Kollage Luscious

fingerless mitts in yarn contact-dyed in cutch, plus a sheep

cashmere scarf in historic Estonian pattern stitch

where am I?

2010-02-14T08:09:00.004-05:00

Okay, the super good news is that Adele has been okay. I didn't realize I hadn't posted since the middle of her crisis. For now we're working with the "she's weird and had a strange series of viruses and somehow got the one-in-a-million case of toddler viral tenosynovitis" theory until proven otherwise.

I was supposed to head out to Israel on last Wednesday. Here it is Sunday and I'm still here thanks to the mid-Atlantic blizzards. Hopefully we'll be able to fly out today! So I'll leave you with an extensive gallery of all the knitting I've been doing and not posting, including the projects that were supposed to be for my trip!

crocheted (!) scarf for Tirtze

kappa socks for my HP OWL project set

600 yards of laceweight CVM yarn

my flower garden vest

a vest for The Yarn Spot in Glisten yarn

this and the following hat are my own designs, both hats destined for the Larkin Center for Homeless Teens' annual hat drive

This is a my "where's the sheep" hat; the yarns are yak, alpaca and mohair, and the only wool is some white CVM lamb plied with the mohair.

Fast Update

2010-01-27T19:47:00.003-05:00

The Swallowtail is finished:

But now Adele is vomitting (5 times in the last hour). The pediatrician says that since she doesn't have a fever and doesn't seem to be in an altered mental state, and she does have an appointment already scheduled for tomorrow morning, not to worry too much. We just have to keep washing pjs.

So I guess it was getting too dull around here

2010-01-27T08:33:00.003-05:00

I was just knitting along, and spinning up 7 ounces of 3 ply Finnish Landrace sock yarn, knitting hats, vests, and shawls, and apparently getting too complacent.

So yesterday Adele woke up and was crying all morning. We took her to school and after just a little bit they realized she really couldn't walk. The nurse took a look and saw she had swelling under her right knee and that it was somewhat warm to the touch. Pediatricians hope it's Lyme disease (yes, only my kids would be dx'd with Lyme in late January), and have ruled out injury, so now we wait until tomorrow when they have more of the bloodwork results back. Adele was WONDERFUL at all the appointments yesterday.

It's going to take forever!

2010-01-09T20:52:00.002-05:00

My Flower Garden vest, that is. Here's the first set of motifs done (yarns are bright pink cochineal dyed comeback type, brown tea dyed Corriedale, natural grey CVM and natural white Corriedale):

And I don't think I posted the pics from Gilad's 5th birthday party held at school:

Some finished objects

2010-01-05T09:10:00.002-05:00

Finished a pair of socks--yarn is Mountain Colors Bearfoot in Sun River colorway; pattern is Classy Slip-Ups from the book Knit Socks!

And an Estonian lace scarf and cowl to be donated to a service center for homeless teens:

and an extra picture of a cute Adele:

Hippo Gnu Year!

2010-01-01T14:25:00.004-05:00

It's 2010 and I'm still catching up on 2009.

Gilad is now officially 5 years old (the cake is evidence that it's all official and everything):

Adele just keeps getting cuter and goofier:

Jeffrey just keeps getting more wonderful:

And I keep getting crazier, as evidenced by the fact that I'm proposing to do two OWLs for this new Term over in the Harry Potter Knit/Crochet House Cup game, for the glory of team Hufflepuff:

The one above is actually 4 different projects representing 4 different magical creatures: 2 pairs of socks (blast-ended scroots and kappas); a lace shawl (dragons); and a hat and mitts (bowtruckles).

This one is a Fair Isle steeked vest, to be knit in some of my hand spun (natural colored or natural dyed) yarns as shown above.

We had a little snow

2009-12-21T19:06:00.002-05:00

like almost 2 feet worth in one day.

It's so much that the kids really can't play out in it; Adele would get lost, Gilad can't move, Sachy barely can. Feivel of course left his mittens which I just bought last week (he's lost all of his other ones and 3 pairs of mine) at school, too.

So we spent the day losing Adele some more

and baking rolls and chocolate cookies to go with southwestern style white bean cakes, rice pilaf, and broccoli, for dessert (I mean the cookies are the dessert; the rolls are for the main part of the meal, and the broccoli we may send to Josie).

My little prodigies

2009-12-16T19:27:00.003-05:00

Feivel, Gilad, and Adele are playing dreidel, having eaten their fill of latkes (served with chickpeas and green beans and rice and salad, this being our house after all). Oh, and of course brownies. On Feivel's first spin he got a "hay" ה which means he's supposed to get half of what's in the center. Gilad glanced at the pile of pennies and announced to Feivel that he should get six pennies. Sure enough, there were 12 total.
Then Adele spun, and proudly announced that she too had gotten a "hay" and sure enough she had.

The Ladybug Hat

2009-12-11T12:32:00.001-05:00

is live on Ravelry!

what's new?

2009-12-08T19:19:00.003-05:00

Very little. I've had Adele at home the last two days getting over a virus; she was a sick little puppy yesterday, but she was all better today with no fever, so she goes back to preschool tomorrow. At least with my not working now Jeffrey didn't have to try to watch her. Sachy was also home sick yesterday, but got sent back to school today. He just seems to have Sachy-itis.

Tirtze got glasses! Actually what you really should have seen was her get up yesterday. They're having colorwar at school, and her class/team has various themes, one of them being Asia...so yesterday she was a panda from head to toe, complete with face make-up. It was very cute. Her glasses are very stylishly cool, and she noted that she sees much more clearly with them on. So one complaint dealt with.

I finished Addie's second dress (same pattern as last time, with a few modifications made to get it to fit her better, ie, it's shorter than the other one):

and I'm trying to finish the matching (boring to knit) shrug. Then it's on to finish the Estonian lace scarf and hat set I started while I was waiting for the yarn to arrive to finish the dress last week.

I give up (funny, not pathetic)

2009-12-01T08:01:00.002-05:00

Apparently you DO keep the baby in the toy box and the toys are meant to run around the room. I am just going to have to learn to accept this once and for all.

I also finished my second Selbu Modern beret, this one in handspun. The light blue is 3 ply Dorset from Faye's fleece I bought last spring; the multi-colored is wool and silk from a variety of bits I spun to a 3 ply variegated yarn. I made this one slightly bigger because that's how I like it! As modeled by Kayla as always:

A Thanksgiving Tale: Feivel Goes South

2009-11-27T11:24:00.003-05:00

Here's the whole story. Feivel wanted to go out late on Thanksgiving morning. His Oma told him he could walk to the Brookville Market, 1/2 mile right down the road (no turns, no major roads to cross, etc) to buy her some paper napkins she needed, and that he could buy himself a candy bar with the change. He headed out and came back 5 minutes later saying he couldn't find the store. We told him he hadn't gone far enough; he knows right where the store is; we've walked there with him in the past and he's been there plenty of times. So he headed back out.

An hour and a half later, he hadn't returned. I walked up to the shops, checking the side streets and so on. The clerk had seen him come and buy the napkins and 3 candies by about 11:30, just when he should have arrived. No one at any of the other shops had seen him. No one coming from the other direction had seen him.

We drove the rest of the way down the road to Chevy Chase Circle. We went around the circle, down 1/2 mile of CT Ave in DC, and back up CT Ave in MD. No Feivel. At that point we called the police.

They had 10 units, and a regular K9 unit out searching and picked up his pillowcases for the K9 bloodhound unit search when he finally called 5 hours after setting out. He had indeed gotten lost, had gone the wrong way when he came out of the store, gone all the way to the other end of the road by the Circle, turned away from CT Ave (where he would have found shops and shoppers galore, and which was visible from where he came out at the end of the road) and instead headed down Western Ave into the residential area of Chevy Chase, DC. He just kept walking until finally he gave up and asked a nice lady out for a walk for help because he was lost. She told him no problem, people got lost all the time in their neighborhood, but she had no idea he was the object of such a big police search and was as lost as he was! He asked her to help him find his grandparents' phone number and knew their full names, so she was able to call 411 and get the number quickly; he was so good he even told her he wasn't allowed to enter a stranger's house so he stayed outside and she brought the cordless phone out. He called us, the police went right there to stay with him until we arrived, and we flew right out to get him.

So that was that. He was home just in time for Thanksgiving dinner (he needed to rest and relax for a while before he was ready to eat; he was scared, tired, and cold), and we had a Feivel to be extra thankful for.

And just for a more typical update, here's Addie in her Thanksgiving dress:

A hat I just finished knitting to mail off for a "Hats for Homeless Teens" drive:

And some yarn I finally spun this month after buying and dyeing the fleece last winter when I was in North Carolina at the John C. Campbell Folk School:

Sunday evening

2009-11-22T21:29:00.004-05:00

Well, tomorrow morning will be Monday and I won't be going to work for the first time. I'm still not sure how I'll react. Knowing me, probably badly, but my working was just not working out in the real world. As it is, I have multiple errands that have to be run, orthodontics appts that have to be made for 2 kids, various arrangements to be worked on, practitioners to be hunted down. And here I really wanted some down time (don't we all). I think one thing I have to do is take my blood pressure regularly and just see how it reacts.

I did finish Addie's socks so her Thanksgiving outfit is complete (we tried the socks on her, and they fit as you see)

and I knit the fingerless gloves my SIL requested for her 7 year old quite some time ago that I just hadn't gotten to, despite having the yarn in stash and this being such an easy thing to whip up.

Those are Gilad's hands modeling the mitts; he thought they were wonderful and wanted to keep them. Um, don't think so. Pink fingerless mitts are just not you, Gilad.

We let Kayla create a Facebook account, so everyone who knows her go find her there now. Of course we also found out that Tirtze had created a Facebook account without telling us or friending us. Yet another opportunity for us to be mad at her. Sigh.

The boys and Jeffrey went to a Boy Scout Court of Honor this evening; Feivel was awarded a badge he'd earned and Sachy was awarded his Tenderfoot (I think I have that right).

The bolero for Addie's outfit is done

2009-11-18T02:54:00.002-05:00

But I don't have a photo yet, and it's going to be hard to photograph since it's just a blob of fabric. I don't think I'll have a pic of the whole ensemble until Thanksgiving when I put it on her. I'm hoping that the socks will be done on time; they should only take a couple of days, they're just 2x2 ribbing to the ankle st st below that, and standard heel and toe shaping. I'll probably make them long-ish to cover the bottom of the leggings she'll wear.

Gilad can't stand the idea of a day away from his friends today when preschool is closed, so he called his friend Oren and invited him over this afternoon. I'm going to tell G that Oren can't come unless Gilad helps clean up around here; there's no where for them to play, especially given that Addie will be napping and they won't have access to that room and the Thomas set.

Mommy Told Addie "No"

2009-11-16T21:23:00.001-05:00

And this is what ensued.

The first part of Addie's Thanksgiving outfit

2009-11-15T20:54:00.003-05:00

The dress is done:

Now to work on the bolero and socks. It's a Dale of Norway Dalegarn DROPS pattern, worked right from the pattern, except that many people on Rav who had knit it said the neckline was way too tight for little kids' big heads, so I made the upper back yoke split and added two pewter Scandinavian type buttons. The dress is really, really long though; I'll have to see just how ridiculously long it is on her.

I was total slug today. Totally depressed and out of it, not quite connected to reality. Lisa B. was wonderful and picked me up for SnB tonight, which I really appreciate because I can't imagine what state I'd be in if I hadn't gone. Thank you, Lisa.

Embossed leaf socks

2009-11-10T20:26:00.002-05:00

As knit in Brown Sheep Wildfoote yarn and modeled and worn by the cutest sock wearer: