Shop Hop-a-loo-bop!

I know that today is sock update day, but you're going to have to wait until the end of the post for that. I have got yarn p*rn galore for you first!

Look what the mailman brought a couple days ago:



That's what was in a little box of goodness from Wendy over at Intertwinement. She's hopped on the sock yarn dyeing bandwagon and created a lovely line of bug-inspired sock yarns. The greens are Katydid, and the pink and blue is Cootie Bug. Look for some Intertwinement yarn, coming soon as a prize for a knit-along near you! Thanks for your generous donation, Wendy! I am keeping a couple for myself...at Wendy's request, of course.

I also had ordered the kid's book Wendy wrote with her husband (it is SO cute) and she threw in some adorable stitch markers just because she's so nice. There's a cat, a sheep and a fish (which is very appropriate since my daughter is currently totally obsessed with Finding Nemo...). Thanks, darlin'! Go check out her store for yarn, stitch markers, the book, and other goodies.

Which reminds me - I want to start a list of links in my sidebar for sock-alongers who are selling hand-dyed yarn. If you have a link you'd like me to include, please let me know. I am loving all these little cottage industries popping up everywhere!

Yesterday, I attended the Tigard Knitting Guild's Eastside Shop Hop. I may have already mentioned that I was going to meet up with fellow knitblogger Amanda (she's the one who convinced me to go), but sadly Amanda's grandfather-in-law passed away last week and so she couldn't go. Now, I'm not a huge fan of going on group outings where I don't know anyone. The thought of skipping it crossed my mind fleetingly, but I figured, hey, they're all knitters. That's an instant conversation starter right there. And even if nobody wants to sit with me on the bus or eat lunch with me, I'm covered because I can just knit! Another reason I love knitting...

I went down to the spot where we were scheduled to meet the bus, picked up my passport and goodie bag, and was standing around (more than a little bit awkwardly) reading the schedule booklet when this cute little thing came up and said "I'm not a stalker, but are you Knittin' Mom?" Turns out it was Katrina from Here In Topeka! She recognized me from my blog pictures.

I'd just started reading Katrina's blog recently, after she left a comment and told me she was making my Winter Branches sweater. She has a fun little movie line contest, and I managed to win last week. However, I thought (because of the title of her blog) that she lived in Topeka. That's why the fact that she mentioned she was going on a shop hop in her last post didn't even register with me. Anyway, we hit it off immediately and didn't stop talking for the rest of the day. I think that's one of the neatest things about blogging - you can become friends with someone you've never met and when you do meet them, it's like you've known them forever. The two of us together had WAY too much fun - much more than I would've had by myself, for sure!

After checking in, we all walked across the street to our first shop, Cozy Ewe, in downtown Oregon City. I think there were close to 50 people on the bus, so each shop was utter insanity. Nobody was actually fighting over hanks of yarn, but we kept bumping into each other and constantly had to be moving aside to let people through. The first stop was a bit awkward as we hadn't really gotten into our groove yet. Here is what I managed to snag (with a 25% discount):



Those two luscious hanks on the right are Cherry Tree Hill Cashmere and Silk (80% cashmere, 20% silk - no fillers!). I don't know what they're going to be, but I had to have them. I would've taken all three of the available hanks, but at $36 a pop, I just couldn't. When I checked out, the shop owner said that she was so glad I was buying them - she'd had them for a really long time and couldn't understand why they weren't selling. Um, well, it could be the $36 factor, no? Anyway, I told her I'd love them and take good care of them. I also picked up the little Vogue Vintage book due to the fact that it has an argyle sock pattern and a simple man's vest (both things I need for my Master's Level 2), and Beth Brown-Reinsel's Knitting Ganseys which looks to be an excellent technique book. The shop generously made up a bunch of needle rolls for everyone, which is what the yellow thing on the left is.

Our next stop was Wool 'N Wares, a little shop in West Linn. The discount at this shop was based on drawing out of a bowl, and you had a chance to get between 15% and 50%. Of course I was REALLY hoping for the 50, but of course I drew 15. So this is the one shop where I didn't purchase anything. It was a great little store, though, and I got to chat with a local knitting celebrity!



That is me with Marta McCall, designer of the infamous Weekend Getaway Satchel from the Fall '05 Interweave Knits. She had a table with a bunch of her design proposals set out, and it's always so much fun to see how another designer submits. She had a proposal that she's getting ready to send to Vogue for a beaded, embroidered jacket, and it was just incredible. I had a great little chat with her, and then it was time to get back on the bus and head north to Abundant Yarn and Dyeworks.

I had heard great things about this shop but hadn't made it down there. Ironically, I will be meeting Shetha there on Tuesday night for a little designer-to-designer chat, so I'll be there twice in one week! Anyway, it's a great shop - big, open and with a little cafe in one corner. Great selection, and I came away with this:



Those nicy shiny hanks up at the top there are Lorna's Laces Lion & Lamb. So yummy! I have the notion that I'm going to make a mini-Clapotis with them. We'll see... I might just keep them around the house so I can pet them now and again. I also picked up some Cascade 220 for a design idea I want to swatch, a size 4 Addi Turbo circ, and a little Skacel needle gauge (which I need to size my smaller Addis, which are frustratingly not the standard US sizes even though they pretend to be).

This was also our lunch stop, and Katrina and I headed up the street to a little bistro called Lili's. Here we had the most amazing brunch (biscuits and mushroom gravy - yummy!) and Katrina regaled me with the fascinating tale of her duties as jury foreman for a very interesting case. Here we are with our gigantic plates of food:



Guess who almost cleaned their gigantic plate? We had a very nice lunch, and then headed back to the bus. Now, it's quite the job to get 49 ladies (and one guy) onto the bus in a timely fashion after each stop. The schedule is written in stone, and woe to the person who delays departure. Well, for some reason I had it in my head that the bus was leaving at 1:00. Katrina was foolish enough to rely on my rememberance. We headed back to the bus and saw it waiting by the curb, with no other shop hoppers in sight. We got on the bus, took our seats and the bus immediately pulled away from the curb and headed north. I checked the schedule, and it turns out we were supposed to be on the bus by 12:50! Oops! Fortunately the trip up to Yarn Garden was quick and we arrived 5 minutes ahead of schedule. Whew!

Yarn Garden is a frequent stop of mine, but I still made a couple new discoveries.



The hank on the right I've fondled before, so I guess it's not really a new discovery, but it's a new type of fiber for me - it's Classic Elite Blithe, 100% baby camel. Yes, camel! It's incredibly soft and lofty. I couldn't resist with the 20% discount. The big pile on the left is a new Debbie Bliss yarn - Pure Silk. It's just amazingly soft, reasonably priced (for silk, anyway - around $10/hank for 125m) and (gotta love DB) machine washable! I think I'm going to design a lacy little sleeveless top around this yarn. It is really nice.

Next stop - The Naked Sheep up in NoPo. I was starting to get a little shopped out by this time and didn't pick up anything until late in the stop.



On the left is some boring old cream Cascade 220 for my master's swatches. On the right is a little ball of Elsebeth Lavold Hempathy (hemp-cotton blend with a little synthetic thrown in for good measure).

Our final stop was my neighborhood shop, Close Knit. Here is my final purchase of the day:



A hank of Manos, a book on Domino Knitting, and a ball of Baby Cashsoft. The box on top is a sushi wallet kit, which you can use to make a little felted wallet in one of three designs:



Aren't they the cutest? The kit is from Pick Up Sticks. Whew! What a haul! In addition to everything I bought, all shop-hoppers got entered in a couple of raffles and got a grab bag full of goodies.



The yarn is Noro Sumile, which is a cotton-silk-nylon chenille. We also got this, which I thought deserved its own pic:



It's a little beaded bracelet kit - cannot wait to make it (esp. since it will be nice and fast). Here are my raffle winnings (there were enough raffle prizes for everyone on the bus - the chance factor came in as to whether or not you got a really good one, like a set of hand-blown glass stitch markers or an entire sweater kit):



There are two balls of Filatura di Crosa 501 Tweed, a ball of Crystal Palace Musique and a ball of Crystal Palace Deco-Ribbon. Not necessarily yarns I would've picked for myself, but they'll be fun to swatch with. The sweater stone was won for filling out the surveys at the end. To top it all off, every shop had a great spread of goodies laid out for us, so it was quite the nosh-fest as well.

I returned home exhausted but exhilarated. What a great group of knitters! I am definitely going to make the drive across town to the next Tigard guild meeting. Everyone was welcoming, friendly and just pumped up about knitting. So fun! I am also quite proud that I made it through the entire day without being tempted by a single hank of sock yarn. Okay, that's not entirely true, but I did do a pretty good job of ignoring it. So I am not a SYAC failure! Yay me!

Well, today is going to be yard work day (okay, I just typed yarn instead of yard...wishful thinking, perhaps?).



This is our front dandelion patch - I mean, yard. We are planning to get rid of all of our grass and convert everything to garden beds and gravel. However, in the meantime, Bill is going to have to break down and mow one of these days. I'm sure our neighbors hate us. Their yarn (I did it again! I don't think they have yarn, and I was, of course, going for the word YARD) is perfectly manicured and green, with not a dandelion in sight. I hate to think of the chemicals they're using to ward off the onslaught of seeds from our yard every time the wind blows in their direction... In our defense, we do live in the land of lawns au naturel. Our neighbors moved here from the suburbs, so they have a bit of assimilating to do. We'll see how their lawn looks next summer.

I'm using this as an excuse to put the sock updates off until tomorrow. That and the fact that I expect a few last-minute entries and want to post all the April updates at once so I can do the prize drawing at the same time. So get those socks in before midnight tonight, and I'll do the update and drawing sometime tomorrow. I am going to do my own sock update now, though. That's the privilege that comes with running your own knit-along! Hah!

My Sockapaloooza socks are done! Hurray!



They're a little short, but they're knit how I would've knit them for myself. Also, the color in that picture looks like some horrible brown when in fact it's a quite lovely dark green. Everyone worries so much (myself included) about their sock pal liking the socks, but I figure that you've got to keep an open mind when having a complete stranger knit for you. I can't wait to see what my sock pal comes up with - I sure hope she doesn't flake! Now I've got to start planning my SYAC swap socks. My pal has bigger feet than mine, which will be a new challenge for me. I'm thinking Fixation. Is that cheating?

Just one more thing...

I know, I know, I promised, but...

If you agree with me on the gay marriage issue as discussed a few posts ago, please go sign the million for marriage petition. They're up to 719,654 signatures with a goal of 1 million. Let's help them get there!

Now I really am done. I swear!

Back to business

SYAC mom Abigail tactfully mentioned in a recent e-mail that she hasn't seen much knitting on the blog lately. She's right, and I think I'm ready to get back to business! Thank you all for putting up with my ranting and raving, especially those of you who don't necessarily agree with me politically. I know how hard it is to listen to people talk about things that you are absolutely dead set against! Thanks for bearing with me.

Anyway, back to the knitting. Here is our long-overdue sock update. Let's see if I can git 'er done before the boy wakes up from his nap...

Congrats to pixeldiva, who finished her first pair of sock-a-month socks!

Lisa finished her sockapaloooza socks - so pretty!

Cece gave away some amazing Child's First Socks for a sock swap (but got a gorgeous pair in return).

Abigail (the same one who gently reminded me to get back to the knitting, sister!) finished up a couple pairs - a lovely pair of stripey Mine Shaft socks and a pair of Confetti socks. For those of you who are dying to take a guess in her "guess which pair" contest, she'll have all seven pairs of socks up next Tuesday and will be posting the winner the following week. I'm going to tie a string around my finger so I remember to vote!

Jennifer finished some Peeps socks, just in time for Easter. I've got a package of Peeps sitting on top of the sofa that's just about ready to eat now. I like them nice and stale!

Helga finished some fabulous Aprilsocken out of some funky Austermann Step yarn that has jojoba and aloe in it! Craziness!

Siri knitted some gorgeous Panamanian socks. And yes, she knit them on a trip to Panama! How awesome! She also gets a brownie point for a pair of Fuzzy Green Spring Socks.

Helene finished some Mr. Big Feet Socks for her son.

The awesome Karen finished 12 more pairs of baby socks and sent them all off to warm the feeties of needy babies. Wow! She is now happy to be working on some adult socks for herself. You deserve them, for sure!!!

Stariel finished a rockin' green pair of Elfine's Socks.

Jenn knit up a pair of Pomatomi and a stripedy pair of Star Gazer Lily socks.

Adrienne knit up three pairs of socks this month, two big and one small! Very nice!



Dave knitted up some Basket Case socks and gives us all the pattern as well. I love them!

Kris models a pair of Cedar Creek Socks which is one of the exclusive patterns for the Blue Moon Rockin' Sock Club. Too cool! Maybe one of these days, you lucky folks in the sock club will see one of my patterns (hee, hee!)...

Lara finished an extremely cute baby sock and hat set.

Nelda finished up a pair of Booty Socks for her daughter.

Monica, another crazy baby sock knitter, finished up 11 pairs and is trying for four more before she has to mail them out. These will surely keep some needy baby feet nice and cozy!

Brianne finished two pairs of ankle socks in March and April Project Spectrum colors.

Jessica finished her first sock-a-month socks - a lovely pair of Jaywalkers for her Sockapaloooza pal.

Hege finished some cool Sisu socks.

Sheri's got another pair of brownie point socks done - her Ma-In-Law Ma's Day Socks!

Jessalu finished some gorgeous Embossed Leaves socks.

Khris has some Gentlemen's Fancy Socks (which I saw in person last weekend and they are AWESOME) for a brownie point.

Jamie knit up a top secret pair that cannot be shown!

Sara finished some totally funky Fixation anklets. Love them!

As for my own knitting, I'm furiously working on my Sockapaloooza socks.



The date for sending them out is next week, and my sock pal is across the pond. Eeek! One good thing is I am knitting them toe-up, so I can always bind off and mail them out when it's time. Hope my sock pal doesn't mind short socks! No, really, I'm going to try to get them nice and done before it's time to send them next week. My sock pal might have to wait a bit, but she got totally flaked out on last time and that is certainly not the case here. She will get socks! But they may be late, just like everything else in my life seems to be.

In designing news, I've got the Mag Knits pattern completely written (finally!) and just need to do a photo shoot. I'm taking it down to the wire, but that's typical for me. Thank goodness this isn't something that needs to be mailed out! I'm starting to work on the Y2Knit design, which is due May 15th (fortunately it's on size 9 needles and is a tank top, so it shouldn't be too terrible), and swatching for the Blue Moon designs.

Also, if you haven't seen it yet, my Spun design is finally up!!! Thanks to all of you who have made such nice comments about it. I love you guys! There are a couple of cute designs in this issue. I am totally in love with the Licorice Bullet Skirt, although I am opposed as a general rule to knitted skirts due to the clingage-to-parts-that-shouldn't-be-clung-to-on-girls-like-myself-who-aren't-heroin-addicts factor. Go check it out if you haven't already.

Happy knitting, y'all!

We're back up!

For those of you just joining our program already in progress, please start with the previous post.

I'm going to interrupt the saga of the Knittin' Mom family in So. Cal. to bring you this little bit of breastfeeding news. As in, my friend Chris made the evening news! Here is the story, which includes a video clip of the actual news segment. I got chills watching it. Too cool!

It's interesting to read the comments on her blog (Reluctant Lactivist) from people who think that breastfeeding advocates are all about having their boobs flapping around in the breeze. I have to say that I am one of the most modest people around. I wear shorts with my swimsuit because the bottoms are too spare for my taste. I breastfeed in public, but it's always difficult for me and I try to do it out of notice of most people. Chris is the same way - she wasn't trying to shove her boob in people's faces. When you've got a cranky, crying baby (who yanks his head away from your boob in order to scream), it's almost impossible to stay covered up even if you do have a blanket over you. Plus those blankets get darned hot. And as for suggestions about going to the restroom to nurse - um, would you want to eat your lunch in a public toilet?

My big problem with this whole debacle is the fact that breastfeeding women are treated like they're doing something shameful and it needs to be hidden. I am as discreet as humanly possible whenever I feed Owen, and I bet nobody even notices what I'm doing. I did have an experience in the Minneapolis airport last summer (when Owen was three months old and we were there visiting my family) when I was trying to feed a screaming baby who kept pulling away (the better to scream, my dear), and even though I wasn't showing anything much unless you were really looking, I still got some nasty looks from an older couple sitting across from us. After about five minutes of glaring at me, they got up and sat in the next row of chairs behind us. Ironically, they sat so they could see me but my back was to them. I'm not sure what was up with that, but why was I treated like some kind of deviant for trying to calm my son down? These are the same kind of people who glare at any crying baby. Well, if you want him to stop crying, I'm going to have to nurse him! And it might take him a minute to realize what I'm doing and stop trying to get away!

There are also some people who aren't happy no matter how discreet you are. I mean, is Chris discreet enough during her news segment? I was nursing Owen at Multnomah Falls once, out in the middle of everyone, and was showing absolutely nothing. Some 20-something girls walked by and kind of scoffed and rolled their eyes when they figured out what I was doing. As for those who think that nursing moms who don't want to be harrassed are being selfish...huh? Feeding my baby when he wants to be fed is selfish? I think that the uptight prudes who don't want to see a baby eating the way God intended are the selfish ones...

Okay, okay, I'm done. I could go on and on and on, but I won't. Now, back to our trip!

After meeting up at Jillian's house, we carpooled over to Unwind in beautiful (ahem) Burbank. I got this:



The purple stuff is SWTC Optimum DK, which is super soft squooshy wool that they were closing out at $5/ball. I'm going to use it to make my own personal copy of my Knitter's sweater. Then, after I saw they had Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn, I decided to use my free day for the Sock Yarn Addict's Club and buy some Supersock.

We then toodled back over to a little coffee house near Jillian's and did some noshing and knitting. Before we left, we had a little photo shoot.



Khris managed to snap a really unattractive picture of me, which I pleaded with her not to post on her blog but she did anyway. Thanks, toots! After we'd had our fill of coffee and other good stuff, we headed to Monrovia to Unraveled. This is a lovely store with great seating and a huge selection. I came away with these little lovelies:



The bright red is some Opal Gems (which I have been craving but haven't run across around here yet) and the cranberry is some LL Shepherd Worsted. I am becoming a worsted-weight sock ho. Gotta love those size 3 needles!

I left totally exhausted and completely satisfied. To make things even better, Khris gifted me with a lovely little hank of hand dyed lace yarn in her Mermaid's Lair colorway. Go buy some of her yarn! Now!

On Sunday, we headed to Griffith Park at 7:30 am so Bill could run in the Jimmy Stuart Relay Marathon with some of his old co-workers. Ironically, the only person that he used to work with who ran in the race was the friend we stayed with. But it was still fun. Due to the grueling schedule of the previous three days (and all of his neck problems the week before), he didn't run as fast as he wanted to. But he still ran pretty good. Here he is, coming and going, at mile #3.



Sydney and Owen both ran in the Diaper Dash.









The last time Sydney ran, when she was 1, the celebrity judges were Chris O'Donnell and Robert Wagner. This time, we had Goofy and Pluto. When Sydney was getting ready to run, I told her to run down to Goofy and Pluto. Afterwards, she was telling everyone that she ran to "doofy and play-dough". She is still SO proud of her participant's medal and wears it everywhere.



On the way back to Northridge, we made a stop at one of our regular haunts when we lived there - Krispy Kreme! Mmm.



I think Sydney is part Krispy Kreme, I ate so many of them when I was pregnant with her...

After all this, Owen and I napped for most of the afternoon while Sydney ran around in the backyard and kept Bill on his toes by dancing around on the edge of the pool. All in all, it was a great, if exhausting, trip.

When I got home, I found some good stuff waiting for me in the mail. First, a box of sock yarn from Keohinani.



Wowza! And here is a close-up of the Wildfoote, which will be our sock-a-month prize for April.



I also got my copy of Aran Sweater Design by Aran goddess Janet Szabo (she's the FLAK mom). Can I just say, it is AWESOME! If you're at all interested in knitting Arans, get it. It is going right up there with Priscilla Gibson-Roberts' Knitting In The Old Way (another must on your knitting bookshelf).

Finally, I'll leave you with a picture that Sydney took when she snaked the camera today without me knowing it.



Isn't she just the artistic one?

Here we go...

I've got an hour until Blogger goes down, and I've got a gazillion things to talk about. So, let's get started, shall we?

First, I'm not going to be doing a sock update today. There's too much other stuff to talk about, so you're just going to have to wait. We've got a bunch of great socks, so I'm going to try to get to them in the next couple days, but...no promises!

If any of you have been wondering where the heck I've been for the past four days, we were in La-La Land on a mini-vacation. It turned out to be one of those vacations where you feel like you need a couple days off when you get home to recover! It didn't help that we had to leave at 6:40 am on Thursday and got back last night at 10:25...

So. Thursday morning, we dragged the kids out of bed and off to the airport at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am. They were good little troupers on the plane and we had our exhausted selves in the rental car at around 11 am. We decided to hit the beach for a bit, since we were right there. We hopped on the 405, drove by the old place in Manhattan Beach (it's still there, looking dumpy as ever - we were half expecting it to be torn down and a gazillion-dollar mansion built in its place), and headed to Uncle Bill's for a pancake breakfast. So good! Then down the street to Starbucks and the pier.





Then, it was off to our friends' place in the Valley for a little r&r. They've got a wonderfully remodeled ranch house in Northridge and just built a gorgeous pool in the backyard along with a sport court. Talk about kid paradise!



Little kid AND big...



Friday morning, we packed up the family truckster and headed to Disneyland. First, we stopped by our favorite breakfast place in Santa Monica only to find it had turned into something else. So sad! We didn't want to take our chances with the new place, so we went to IHOP instead. IHOP never disappoints...

We got back in the car and headed south.



Here's the family enjoying the traffic on the I-5.





When we got to the Magic Kingdom, our first stop (after the restrooms) was the teacup ride. A good time was had by all.



Next, we headed to the carousel.





Then we waited in line over an hour with two cranky kids to ride the flying Dumbos. I guess you could say WE were a couple of flying dumbos to do that to ourselves, but Sydney LOVED it. Here she is, in full-on tantrum mode, after being bodily dragged off the ride by Bill.





Quite the display, no? We finally got her calmed down and wandered around for awhile before riding It's A Small World twice, eating dinner in the New Orleans section, riding the train around the park and getting the heck out of there. What a day! The kids really enjoyed themselves (other than the fact that Sydney didn't think we should ever have to wait in line or get off the rides and had many, many tantrums to that effect...), but we were completely exhausted.

On Saturday, I broke free of the loved ones and met up with some fellow knitbloggers (Jillian, Khris and Jen) for a day of yarny fun. It was so great meeting these ladies in person for some yarn fondling, stash enhancement, Bush-bashing and knitting in public.

Well, Blogger is going down in 10, so even though I have many more pictures to share along with some other stuff, this post is TO BE CONTINUED...

Off on another rant...

Okay, here she goes again, off on a tear! I wasn't going to write about this, since I know that I have readers who are not of the same, um, political persuasion as I am. And I want to say that, as difficult as it is for me (I'm extremely opinionated, if you hadn't noticed), I've come to realization that everyone is entitled to their opinion, and I try to listen respectfully to all points of view. And (also respectfully) disagree while still allowing everyone their own point of view. I don't want to alienate anyone, but I still feel a powerful need to talk about things that are important to me here. Feel free not to read, and you can think I'm totally misguided all you want - I hope we can still be friends!

You may have noticed that I made a quick mention of the HBO documentary "All Aboard! Rosie's Family Cruise" the other day. And stated that I strongly support gay marriage. I didn't get into it any further, because (unlike breastfeeding in public) I know that this is unlikely to be an issue that the majority of my readers agree with me on. But I want to talk about this amazing documentary! So I'm going to. If you don't like it, don't read another word!

So, the documentary. It's about a cruise that Rosie O'Donnell and her partner Kelli put together for gay families and their supporters. They rented the biggest boat that Norwegian Cruise Lines has, and had no trouble filling it up with like 500 families for a two-week cruise. The show is basically a series of interviews with different families on the boat. There are several weddings, entertainment, ports of call (including coverage of the protesters who met the boat in Nassau), and seminars on issues facing gay couples and families. There was a session on adoption as a gay couple. There was a session where teen kids of gay couples spoke about their experiences (and, I have to say, what an amazing, articulate bunch of kids). And then just little interviews with various people on the boat.

Now, I know a few lesbian couples with kids, but I don't have any really close friends who are gay. So it was a really neat peek into the lives of gay families. The amazing thing is how similar they are to straight families, apart from the fact that they constantly face fear of persecution and rejection. It was heartbreaking to hear one teen talking about how her family is harrassed in their conservative suburban neighborhood (and how she lives in fear that one of her moms, who is not a citizen, may be deported at any moment because she's not legally married to her other mom and afforded any protection). Another recounts how she got into tons of fights when she was younger because of other kids dissing on her moms. I cried along with them at the end, when they were leaving after being in a place where they felt totally safe and accepted for two weeks and had to go back to the harsh reality of the real world. In fact, this show moved me to tears several times.

I've always been a strong supporter of gay rights, but this show really brought it home for me. There is no reason, other than some misguided view of "morality", to keep gay families on the fringe of society. The Bible is used for a lot of evil purposes, in my opinion, particularly when taken out of context (which is so easy to do, since it's a translated work that is full of contradictions, particularly between the Old and New Testaments). People really need to ask themselves, what WOULD Jesus do? Jesus was all about love and forgiveness, not hate and judgement. I know plenty of people disagree with me, but my God is perfectly fine with families who love each other and live in peace, even if they're headed by two mommies, two daddies, or one of each (or one of either). There are plenty of traditional two-parent families who are horrible to each other. Not to mention all the unwanted kids who end up in marginal foster homes until they age out of the system when there are loving families who would take them in a second if they were allowed to...

I hope that gay marriage becomes a normal and accepted thing in my lifetime. If one or both of my children turn out to be gay, I want them to have that path open to them. It's not special treatment, it's equal treatment. I can honestly say that the only sadness I would feel if one of my kids turns out to be gay would be due to the persecution I know they'd face. Other than that, a gay child is every bit as good in my mind as a straight one.

If anyone is still reading, get yourself to the tv and watch the show. If you don't have HBO, let me know and I can send it to you (copyright police be damned - I consider it a public service). And remember - "what the world needs now is love, sweet love."

I'm in serious sugar shock.

Well, yesterday was an interesting day, to say the least. I was up early, doing my sock update, and had Bill stay upstairs with the kids while I finished up. They come down about 10 minutes later, and Bill is rubbing his neck. Turns out, he somehow managed to pinch a nerve and was nearly incapacitated. After he couldn't manage to take his shirt off to get in the shower, we decided he needed to go to the emergency room. We packed the kids up, dropped them off at the grandparents', and headed to the hospital.

One good thing about going to the emergency room on Easter morning is it's a ghost town. We were in and out in under two hours. Our previous visits, which were with a sick kid in the middle of the night, were at least five hours long. Anyway, they confirmed that Bill has a pinched nerve in his neck and gave him Vicodin and Valium to try to get it to loosen up and stop hurting. Unfortunately, the drugs haven't been working too well (other than at making him nauseous and groggy).

We go back over to his parents' house and find out that my brother-in-law's wife was up all night with a severe sore throat. Everyone kind of goes back and forth on whether she should come join us for the festivites, but I finally put my foot down and say that we just can't take the chance that she's contagious. I love Katie to death, but if Owen gets a sore throat that keeps him up all night, his method of dealing with the pain will be to scream all night.

So our Easter consists of Sydney eating nothing but chocolate all day and turning into a hyperactive little sugar monster (you know the cartoons where they show spirals in place of eyes? That was her.) Bill sits in the recliner all day, moaning in pain and pretty much unable to move or get comfortable. Chris (my brother-in-law) shuttles food back and forth between his sick wife and the rest of the family. The weather alternates between sunny blue skies and torrential hail. We managed to hide eggs and have a little egg hunt in a patch of sunny weather, but in the rush to the hospital, I forgot to throw the camera in the bag. I did happen to have the video camera in the diaper bag for some unknown reason, so I did get it on video. On the way home, the drugs make Bill so nauseous that he has to ride with a bucket on his lap. Fortunately he didn't actually have to use it... What a day!

I did get some cute pictures on Saturday morning, when we had our egg dying session. It was quite the process.





We also turned Owen into a bumblebee...



And Sydney into some kind of weird lemur (or a bat - we can't tell which).



I think this picture speaks for itself (and explains why I'm always exhausted):



Owen got turned upside-down...



...and took a little nap when it was all over with.



I must say, today is turning out to be a bit better than yesterday was, at least for me (Bill is still suffering and took the day off to try to recuperate - it's bad timing since he's supposed to be running in the Jimmy Stewart Relay Marathon this Sunday and we planned an entire trip to LA around that event...). I had my little excursion out to Blue Moon Fiber Arts world headquarters this morning. Can I just say one word? Wow!

I had no idea what to expect, but I certainly didn't think that Blue Moon was as much of a cottage industry as it is. Literally, it runs out of Tina Newton's house. Part of the house, which I think used to be an attached garage, is converted into the yarn dying area. There is literally yarn everywhere. It was crazy. And so pretty. Then you go through a baby gate and you're in her kitchen.

We sat down in her living room with Kaci, who is her business partner, and started talking about yarn. And we talked, and talked, and talked. Tina's youngest daughter, who is 9 (I think) and a total sweetheart, took Sydney to her room and kept her pretty well entertained the whole time we were there. Owen was roaming around, trying to pull knitting needles out of baskets (which were numerous). I'd brought a few of my other designs with, including the one I just sent off to Knitty, and they went absolutely nuts for it. So if it doesn't show up in Knitty (and, I think, even if it does), they're going to sell a Blue Moon version of it. I also brought along the sock that I knit out of the Mama-E yarn. They hadn't been so crazy about it in the pictures I sent them, but they loved it in person. It's funny how much better you can get a sense for something when you're able to hold it and stretch it, etc. Which is why I hope magazines don't start insisting on electronic submissions only. E-submissions are easier all the way around, but I think it's harder to make your stuff look how it really looks in person.

After we'd talked awhile, Tina started pulling out yarn for me to play with. As in, take home and swatch with. Check it out:



Yes, folks, they gave me 17 hanks of yarn plus an entire undyed cone. My head is still spinning. There is one unpictured because it was fresh out of the dye pot and I had to hang it up to finish drying. It's a lovely silk/mohair/nylon blend. There's also a boucle, three hanks of Socks That Rock, an undyed hank of Sock Candy (their cotton sock yarn), three hanks of wool for felting, their new bamboo yarn (which is SO nice) and a bunch of others. They're all spread out on my dining room table and I swoon every time I walk by. Tina also said that they're quite willing to give yarn as a second form of payment with the designs. I am quite giddy at the thought!

They're going to be offering more of their yarns on their website, but they're such a small company that they have to be careful what they promote and when. Otherwise, there's a run on the bank and they can't keep up with the demand! A good problem to have, for sure, until you have unhappy customers because they can't get their yarn. Anyway, they are a great bunch of women and such an amazing small business. I am just delighted to have a chance to work with them. Can you tell I'm a bit in love?

Time to stop gushing and get back to my knitting. The Mag Knits project is finally done, and despite all my reservations, I think it turned out fabulous. I wasn't sure I was going to like it at several points during the knitting of it, but I love the finished product. Stay tuned in June when you all will get to see it.

Also, my friend Chris (aka the indiscreet nursing mama who got harassed in Fred Meyer) has started a blog, The Reluctant Lactivist, where she's posting updates on the situation as they happen. Go check it out and give her your support. Flood Fred Meyer/Kroger Inc with letters telling them they should support nursing moms in their stores instead of humiliating them. We women can change the world if we take the time to do it!!!

Owen's awake - time to run!