Baby Landon & his Sweater

About this time last year, I had asked my old college roommate to be a bridesmaid in my wedding.  A little bit later, Kellie told me she wasn't going to be able to do it. Why? Because she was pregnant with one of the cutest boys in the world (and she wasn't sure if he would be a good baby at the wedding).  Not only was she super sweet about telling me, but her family was still able to attend the wedding (with Landon who was so well behaved).  Landon is now 5 months old and is amazingly cute.  I don't care if he has an acid reflux problem - I would still hold him even if he threw up on me.

At Kellie's baby shower, I promised her a sweater in the colour of her choosing.  I chose the pattern (Baby Yours) and she chose the colour - Winter Solstice. My first attempt making the sweater was horrendous. I used the BMFA Sock Candy and it looked like clown barf (to put it nicely). I really should have known not to combine a vary colourful yarn with a very, complex stitch pattern.  Now?  Now I love the sweater. I could just see a young prince wearing this around the castle. The check pattern stands out and the cable, in all of its intricacy, lays there so beautifully.  I really can't wait for the sweater to be done.  I know that Landon will most likely spit up on it, but I don't care. I'm just entranced by it all.

See? It's so tiny and cute and will still fit a 6mo. (Yes, I know that gives me less than a month to get this done in addition to 3 socks).

(And yes, I still have a few blog posts to catch up on: Sock Summit, the Knitspot/CookieA party at Verb, and camping with banana slugs. They'll be up as soon as I post near my camera, I promise.)

SS11 - Less than 10 days!

I can't believe that Sock Summit is happening in a little over a week.  I didn't get to go two years ago and I still cannot believe that I'm going this year. Not only am I going and taking amazing classes, but I'm also teaching! It still thrills me and leaves me with goosebumps.

I still need to make stitch markers for the swap, finish my handouts and pattern for class, grab my boarding pass, pack....

Figure out how to pack a Spinning Wheel! Eeek....it might be a long week.

Sock Summit 2011

Holy Teacher List, Batman!  The list of teachers is finally up, along with the list of classes and vendors.  There's 60 teachers, 130 classes, and a whole crap load of vendors.  I didn't get to make it to Sock Summit in 2009, but I am so not missing it this year.  I don't want to miss it because Anna Zilboorg will be talking about her free sole socks (which is mind blowing) among other wonderful classes, but also because I have a class.  Three hours of Friday will be devoted to trying not to pee my pants in public. I'm teaching It's Hip to be Square - Bosnian Toes.  It's a one hour wonder that repeats three times in a row.  It's a fun little class (or I really hope it to be) that takes away the cumbersome toe-up cast on. I really love it for baby booties, but it always looks so fun on adult socks too.  We're not just learning the plain Bosnian toe either....we're going to mutate it too. 

The list of teachers is amazing.  There are very few that I don't recognize immediately (but upon clicking on their name, I feel like a dumbass for not knowing).  There's a teacher dinner where I'll be in a room with these amazing people.  I'm quite worried that I will not get all of my freaking out done ahead of time.  (I did okay at Sock Camp, but really was speechless when Anna Zilboorg started talking to me out of nowhere).

Sock Summit 2011.  Amazing.

Hooping

In March, I attended my first ever Sock Camp.  It was amazing and I loved every second of it.  There were times where I didn’t like a particular food or thought something was really weird/odd, but the truth is that I wouldn’t change any of it.  I was able to meet so many wonderful people.  I flew into Seattle where I met up with Hizknits’s mom and we were picked up by a super friendly, calm, and caring knitter from Canada.  The weirdest thing that I’ve taken from camp isn’t leaving little hats or chickens around, but hooping…hula hooping.  After a bizarre and embarrassing afternoon, the amazing JC Briar told me to try her hula hoop.  I hooped. I couldn’t believe it, but I did.  Plus, I have two witnesses.  It’s a fact.

I came home really wanting to make my own hoop.  JC made it sound so easy.  I went off to our local hardware store with my beloved, who was trying really hard not to tell me I had gone bonkers.  He really believes in that whole exercise thing so anything that will get me off of my knitting chair and sweating is a good thing to him.  Sadly, we couldn’t find ¾” or 1” tubing….we did find 5/8” and thought it should be dandy.  It was quite dandy, until I filled it with some water and made a lovely little fountain out of tubing in the living room. Yep, I did continue to pour water for a second or two after seeing it fly out of the other end.

I made a hoop, but it was a little leaky and little woobly for it to be any good.  A week of inactivity passed, but I convinced beloved to take me to the sports store. I would try to hoop in the store. I found a weighted exercise hoop, I hooped. Then I followed him around as he looked at hiking things and exercise equipment, hooping for a bit in each spot.  It felt like forever, but was only a few minutes.

It’s day four of hooping. Day 1 consisted of 5-10 minutes of trying to pelvic thrust like a pro.  Day 2 was good with some steps and consistent hooping for 30 minutes.  Day 3…well I procrastinated a bit and didn’t hoop until bed time.  I was able to hoop and floss the top teeth together.  The same cannot be said for the bottom teeth. Their tricky jerks and the hoop wouldn’t stay up. Day 4 will involve some turning, some hoop dropping, some Torchwood to keep me steady, and hopefully another 30+ minutes of hooping.

In other news, some VERY exciting things are beginning to happen.  I cannot believe they are happening to me, but they are.  Keep a watch out because I am so very amazed and excited to have these opportunities.

PRIDE

This past Saturday was the annual PRIDE competition for NorCal DeMolay up in Sacramento, CA. I used to go every year to support my brother when he competed but now that he's just another advisor, there hasn't been a whole lot of incentive for me to go and watch people I don't know compete. This year is different as it is my first full year as the Sweetheart Advisor for the Bay Area Division.  If my two girls were expected to go, I thought I should be there as well. 

Turns out - not a whole lot had changed. There were still last minute schedule changes, drop-outs, no-shows, and awesome ritualists. Being as I'm not actual a mom, I was a bit surprised to find how maternal I felt to the folks in my division.  Our Master Councilor (the Bay Area's president) competed in several different sections and I wanted him to win so badly.  I wanted him to make the judges cry, to pull at their heart strings with his Flower Talk (it is a wonderful speech that talks about how mothers are very important and how much they should be respected and loved) and to have them in awe of his Ceremony of Light (an inspirational speech geared to the boys to talk about the 7 principals they live by).  He did wonderful and placed 3^rd place all over the board.

One of my girls competed as well and while I missed her speech (I was flipping through the biggest book of wedding invitations I’d ever seen, thanks Mom), she scored great – a 936/1000. The section she did was something that was just re-written and changed around, so I think it’s pretty darn cool to score that well on something you have only seen done once.

In other news, steam hurts. A Lot. I now hate microwaving frozen broccoli while trying not to burn pad thai noodles. Lesson learned – serve with raw broccoli instead.