I said..."I DO!"

This past week I did something important and life changing. This is something that will require much of my time and money. Much of my free time will now be devoted to this.

I'm already married and I already have three kids so it can't be either of those things.

After I committed myself to this, I started to cry, hyperventilate and I wanted to throw up.

This is really starting to sound like my wedding day. But it isn't......

What I did do was sign my life away.

I am now officially a university student. I will spend the next few years taking courses to get the old sheep skin. I realize that it would be easier just to put everything on hold and attend classes full time, but I can't do that. As much as I would like to, my family won't let me set them aside while I pursue my higher education.

So how am I going for the brass ring while I have a DH, three kids, a full time job and all the chores that a family and a house produce? Correspondence courses.

Raise your hand if you think that I'm a masochist.

OKAY, OKAY.........you can all put them down now.

Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic

A strange chain of events

Do you remember that I mentioned I work with a bunch of guys?

Even though I do, when one asks me what I did over the weekend I don't make something up to keep them in their comfort zone. No I didn't go to the races, I didn't go to a monster truck rally and I most certainly didn't go to a football watching, beer guzzling and butt scratching athon.

"I went to the Akwasane reserve in New York to buy fabric at the quilt store there"

How girly of a response can I give? I suppose that I could have also told him that I spent the weekend spinning or scrubbing toilets. But let's face it, one of those replies would have been a lie.

His reply??? He tells me that the supervisor's wife is a major quilter and they shop at that store all the time. Later that day I make small talk with the boss and we talk about cross border shopping for quilt fabric.

Now you may be wondering where I am going with this. The funny thing with chains of events, you never know where they are going to take you. If I had told to my co-worker, that I had done nothing all weekend, the following conversation would have never taken place.

Last Wednesday I walked into the office and the boss was there.
"There's a sale on at Akwasane this weekend." I know that he is referring to Dream Crafters. He even phones his wife to verify the dates of the sale. "It's from the 3rd to the 8th"

So on Labour Day,with my Visa and my passport in hand, I got into my car, headed along the 401 to Cornwall and crossed the bridge into New York. From there I headed east towards quilting mecca and a 25% off on fabric, notions, patterns and books sale. Did I also mention that since the store is on the reserve, there are no taxes?

I'm sure you know what happened next (sheepish grin)

Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic

Does anyone know CPR?

I'm not an anal person. I can live with imperfections. My standards are not exceedingly high. The proof...just look at my housekeeping abilities. I'm just doing my kids a favour by helping them to boost their immune systems with small doses of germs throughout their childhood.

But how does soap scum in the shower and dog hair on the carpet relate to my knitting? While I can let most things slide......I do have high standards with my socks. My hard and fast rule, when it comes to socks, is that they must be perfectly identical.

So when it came time to finally do something with this sock yarn, I quickly realized that I would have to deal with any sock anxiety and go with the flow. This sock yarn was not going to align magically for me no matter how much I wanted it to.

Big deep breath..... I plunged in head first making sure that both socks were separate throughout the entire knitting time. I didn't need any reminders of what I was doing. Finally they were completed (almost as I still have to weave in the ends).

Much to my surprise, I'm still here. Despite the need for oxygen and the constant heart palpitations, the whole non matching socks experience didn't kill me. I am however, not ready to repeat it again, anytime soon as I wouldn't want to take any chances.

Until next time

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

At least they can't confiscate these

I'll admit it...now that I've finally gotten onboard the information highway, IN THE FAST LANE, I'm addicted to YouTube. In my defence, while there are some crazy and wacked out people out there who think that a video of themselves ranting is publish worthy, there are some very usefull things thing on that site.

It has been almost 8 years since 911 and there is still talk of what we can and can't bring on a plane. Can I knit on the plane is the question on every knitter's lips as they plan a trip. Will they allow my teeny tiny sock needles? Will they allow my innocent circulars? Would bamboo or plastic needles be acceptable over metal needles?

Such questions weigh heavily on us but I have the answer. A quick trip around you tube land provided me with a solution. FINGER KNITTING!

1. you always have your fingers with you
2. the "I'm paid to rummage through your stuff" people can't take them from you
3. you always have the correct size of fingers
4. You can use and weight of yarn
5. you'll never drop one and be forced to start looking for it in the most cramped space possible (the economy section)
6. you'll never have to say to the person seated next to you "excuse me, could you look under your seat, I dropped my finger and I think that it rolled your way"

Finger knitting is easy and very fast to learn. My kids have been known to take an odd/partial/scrap ball and finger knit on a car trip. I've even been able to calm the "I'm bored" monster with a ball of yarn. I've even had the strangest conversation with my 8 year old DS as he was rummaging through my sock yarn scraps. He figured that since they were scraps, they were fair game so I had to go into the whole "there are different levels and categories of scraps" speech. He either understood or realized that mom will wig out if he touches the sock yarn. Regardless, materials for my sock yarn blanket are safe once again.

I taught kids how to finger knit and for awhile all three of them were addicted to finger knitting. This is something I embraced, something I encouraged and perhaps I even pushed on them until one day it occured to me:

What am I going to do with all these??????

Until next time

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

Pardon the Pun

For the longest time I have been quite envious of Bells' garden. In fact, I am green with envy. So this year I decided not to sit around bemoaning the fact that even with all my property, I don't have a decent veggie garden.

DH put up the fencing and helped with the digging. I even had 2/3 of the kids help with the planting of some seeds. The garden area is a work in progress and I hope to have the entire area worked and planted next year.

The first thing I planted were Roma tomatoes. I never expected them to grow so out of control otherwise I would not have planted the squash with them. Yes I know, it looks more like a tomato hedge rather than a group of individual plants.

Here are my zukes, cukes and more tomatoes.

I am pleased with how my beans are progressing. Even my jalapeno peppers are going well despite the cooler summer temperatures we've been having.

Today I harvested my garlic. Last year we were given a head of Spanish and Russian garlic by a co-worker of DH. When asked how we liked them he had to confess that instead of eating them, I planted the cloves. They did quite well but the only problem is that I can't remember which type is which. I've got to remember row markers for next year!!!!!

I once read a quote by an anonymous author "God created rainy days so that gardeners could get their housework done" Obviously this person was not a knitter otherwise they would know that even with rain we still have nicer things to occupy our time with than housework. Good thing that it has been a wet summer other wise I'd never get any knitting time.

Until next time

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

Wanted: A Life

It isn't just me, I think my whole family needs a life. I think this because I doubt if their reaction was motivated by a good blog post for me.

TURTLES:

"Spring is here and once again, turtles are emerging from their winter hibernation. Many of the slow moving critters will attempt the extremely hazardous trek across roads and highways in search of food and nesting sites. Unfortunately, a turtle’s thin shell is no match for motor vehicles. Highway fatalities are devastating for turtle populations. In Ontario, we are lucky to have all eight of Canada’s native turtle species. Sadly, seven of these species (the Spotted, Wood, Blanding’s, Eastern Spiny Softshell, Common Musk Common Map and Snapping Turtles) have been classified by provincial and national authorities, as endangered, threatened or of special concern. The good news is that there are now 700 turtle crossing signs installed on highways throughout Ontario, thanks to the dedication and efforts of Turtle S.H.E.L.L Tortue (a registered charitable organization). You, as caring citizens, can help by paying close attention to the road and shoulders in these designated turtle crossing areas and near any water-bordering areas from April to September."

The above is an excerpt from a post by this organization. http://www.turtleshelltortue.org/

With that being said (or written) let me continue on with my lack of life story. I was getting dressed for work the other day when I looked out the window.

Me: Hey there's a turtle on our lawn, quick go get the camera!

The whole family rushed out to see the turtle. DH had the camera and took several shots. Seriously, I have never seen four people move that fast. I doubt that they could move that fast if the house was on fire.

Yup, I definitely need some excitement in my life!

Until next time

Yours in Yarn,

The Fibreholic

No more smoke signals

This is a tale of two companies.
A few weeks ago ,DH decided that enough was enough. Dial Up was too slow and we kept getting disconnected after 10 minutes of activity. This is no tconducive to web surfing/downloading by any stretch of the imagination.

There are very few Internet companies servicing my area (aka the boonies) so there is little to choose from. The one company we did decide upon has two install contractors and this is where my story begins:

Installer number one was rather eager to make an appointment.
"Are you sure no one will be home on Monday?"
"Yes I'm sure"
"What about Tuesday?"
"Same thing....."
He shows up on Wednesday, because I'm not working that day and he has no other choice to accept this. After standing on my roof twice and calling to see if the nearest tower is undergoing some unscheduled maintenance, he tells me that the very tall trees surrounding my property are interfering and he can't even get a bar. He tells me that he'll put my name on the list if a much closer tower becomes available. He leaves with $30 of my money.

With head hung low, I shuffle back to my Neanderthal cave to once again send the equivalent of smoke signal emails.

DH is determined in his need for speed and, when he gets home, calls our neighbour to find out how she got high speed with the same Internet company. Answer: she used installer company number two.

Company number two asks questions when we make the appointment. They want to know they layout of our property and surrounding area, do we have tall trees....etc. All things that would affect us getting a signal.

The appointment is made. This time two guys show up and they bring an extender with them. They test the signal from the top of our antenna: two bars. They go up even higher: Five bars.

Moral of the story. High speed Internet is a wonderful thing, but people who know what they are doing are priceless.

Until next time
Yours in Yarn,
The Fibreholic