sara skates

The fingernail polish was on Toby’s face (cheeks, forehead and eyelids).

He was not so thrilled with my attempts to remove it – which involved stinky nail polish remover near his nose.

I thought Hannah’s age-three-or-so self-decoration with a Sharpie marker were over the top. She gave herself whiskers on her face and a nose, and stripes on her torso.  And exited the bathroom exclaiming "Look Mama!  I’m a tiger!".

And I fixed a picture in yesterday’s post – I had doubled a photo of the droolable yarn on the bobbin, and left out the photo of a close up of it on the niddy noddy.  Since I still can’t get enough of that yarn.

Oops – I had a bit of a sickie blog break there.  I was SO sick last week – ‘just’ a cold – but a doozey of one.  I was in bed virtually of of Wed. last week, and I didn’t get up til half past noon on Thurs. – bit by bit I improved from there but it was pretty ugly for a while.  Being the generous soul that I am, I shared the buggies with my whole family – while I think they’re over the worst of it, we all have days of congestion to deal with yet.  I am on the mend…

I have spinning to show off.  Cate’s wheel gets a ride to it’s home on Thurs., so I have been madly spinning from the stash whenever I can.  Check out this beauteous bit of it (all pikkies can be embiggened by clicking):


This is 3.5 ounces of a stunning blend from Foxfire Fibers


I divided it into roughly 12-inch long sections, then separated each section into separate color lengths

and pre-drafted each length

and spun them all in sequence

ending up with a bobbin-full of the same five colors sequenced in the single-ply.  I navajo-plied it to preserve the color runs

I LOVE this yarn.
Really really love it.

Yes, there’s a bit of angelina going through it so it sparkles.

It’s not perfectly plied (I was just getting sick when I did it, I should have put it away for the night as I wasn’t that coordinated), but still I adore it.

Last week was February vacation week for the kids.  Hannah and a buddy lounged in the snow:

Hannah, Wilkes and Pierce built forts

And they decorated Toby.  With not-so-washable marker, and fingernail polish.

Yes, he was decorated for days

Is how they take your breath away sometimes.

I’ve pointed to her before, but Christy writing about her three year old micropreemie son who has CP like Toby who also appears to be able to charm anyone’s socks off (like Toby) in about a nanosecond has done it again.  Taken my breath away.  Elias wondered allowed to his Mama:  "I don’t know where tomorrow is?"

Mama writes "Either do I.  But I know we’ll find it."

Which I just find profoundly moving.

Isn’t much of life spent wondering where Tomorrow is, and what it will bring? 

Way better than worrying about Yesterday.  Which we all do too, but…

I had a great test night at the rink last night!  I signed up to take both the Novice MIF test (third test from the top, the rest of the test stream is here*), and the American Waltz dance (standard track) test (one of the Silver level dances).  I pulled it all together and put out a great skate – and passed solidly   I got off the ice and told my coach that I didn’t care what the judges said – as I was happy with that skate. 

Ironically, I had almost pulled myself from the Novice Moves on Saturday – as I had the wackiest practices for most of last week.  Combine PMS hormones with pre-test anxiety and it’s a mess.  You know when you’re uncoordinated, bloated, and feel ugly to boot?  And then you have to get out on the ice ALONE in front of judges wearing a skimpy skirt?  Not a good mix   Timing is everything, and I pulled myself together on Sunday morning – while I certainly didn’t have a clean run-through on Sunday, I did every element well at some point (and I got a lot of mistakes out of the way).  I got through the day yesterday with lots of focus and mental checklists of what each element needed – and then went out and did ‘em all.

I passed by lots of extra points over the minimum passing required score – by all three judges (two out of three are needed for a ‘pass’ rather than a ‘re-try’) – with some really nice comments from them to boot.   One wrote a little smiley face (with hair on top of the head LOL) with "WOW!!!  That looks easy (I know it’s not)."  Ironically, that was for the hardest of the elements for me – the one that just came together a few weeks ago.  (Easy my ass!)

The dance test went fine too – I am so not a lover of waltzes – but I held it together for the two required patterns partnered with a coach, and then again for my first solo test experience (solos of the patterns are not required for below-Silver tests).  Only two of the three judges passed me for that one – but the third one’s complaints were fair (her complaints happened just to not matter much to the other two).

It took a while to calm down and get to sleep last night – so I’m running on empty today – but I’m going to the rink anyway.  I’ll probably pull out my patch skates – figures have been ignored for a while. 

*Plus there’s the adult track of tests,
which I took and passed to get up to my previous Juv kid level – back
when they had figures, I tested up through the second/Juvenile test,
and thus was grandfathered to start the MIF tests with the Intermediate
test, which just seemed suicidal… 

Tea questions abound from yesterday’s post

Teri queried re. whether the IngenuiTea can go into the microwave.  I have never tried it.  There is a fine metal mesh tealeaf strainer in it – so I don’t think so.  However, you could heat your tea cup of water in the microwave, then pour it into the IngenuiTea, when steeped, put it on top of your cup and it’ll drip into your cup.  (Ok, at the risk of using highly inappropriate food/drink metaphors, my kids think its like it "pees" into your mug.  Ahem.)  Another suggestion for Teri – try Rooiboos tea (a.k.a., ‘African Red Bush’) – it is reminiscent of coffee without the caffeine.

Katy wanted to know if it is made out of plastic. Yes, it is.  I believe it’s like the plastic used in nalgene (hiking, camping) water bottles – not the plastic that can leech out unsafe chemicals when hot.

And Toby stuff.  The kids had a snow (well, bitter cold) day the other day, and came into work with me for a few hours.  Toby is desperately trying to argue his case for an expensive toy – a Fly Pen.  He’s been lobbying since about Christmas.  His current idea is that hey!  He could do some of my job, and get paid for it!  So while in my office, he asked to do some "data".  I set him up with a raw data sheet – columns for names, # cats, # dogs, # other pets.  He started asking folks how many and what kinds of pets they had at home – we have 4 cats and a dog, etc.  Then we set to graphing it – I set up a grid for him – with units from 1-6 going up on the Y axis, and individual people on the X axis, and suggested we color code them – he picked pink for cats, purple for dogs, and green for other.  He filled in the grid … and Oh My.  Check it out:

There’s more raw data on the back of the page

The graph: 

We had a color key at the bottom of the page.  He then (by himself) decided to count all the pink squares – and he add the total number of each type of pet next to the key.  (Later, I copied that info at the top, and we added together for the toal number of pets).

We made a graph of that too:

Since the goal was financial gain, while walking around to the individuals who answered his survey in the first place, he asked the first person if they wanted to buy his data.  They took the bait, and paid him $2.00.  He accepted the offer, and then suggested that maybe he could walk around and show everyone else and see if they’d pay him more.  Since he had already pocketed the original $2, we quashed that one pretty quickly ROFL – Doney (the one who bought his data analysis) didn’t agree to giving it back for a higher offer

Data boy is now full of ideas of other "datas" that he can do for money.  We’ve been suggesting that he could add a chore at home to his plate of responsibilities in exchange for allowance – he has resisted the idea, until he came up with a data chart idea for it – now he is happily feeding our pets every night, and filling in his data chart.

I don’t think there’s any question that we are related…and while some were horrified that I was inflicting data work upon my six year old, the process was pretty Toby-driven…

If so – can you drop me an email?  (see left sidebar for my email address, below the picture of Tenley Albright doing a back loop).  A skating friend of mine is stuck on the couch recuperating from a skating injury – and could use a quick knitting lesson to keep her SANE.  If you have a half hour and could make a house call…it’d be great.  I’ll even send you some yarn and tea (or goodie if you’re not a tea drinker) as a thank you

Another work-in-progress of mine bites the dust – this hat and mittens set has been languishing waiting for one mitten top to be knitted, and two thumbs, and the ends to be woven in.  I started last night and finished this morning.  They are not yet washed and blocked, b/c I wore them to work:

I am LOVING participating in Cece’s and Amamda’s Stashbust – I haven’t bought yarn since last year*, and I have finished a number of projects that have been aging in the in-progress bin.

I also received my new Adagio IngenuiTEA teapot – I have one at home, and after Jess’ reminder of the bundle sale, I ordered one for my office.  I totally agree with her wish for a clear bottom on the thing – so you can see if you are overfilling the cup below.  Oddly, they must have shipped a new model to me – because the new one has a clear bottom (my old one at home as a black plastic piece on the bottom).  I have impressed the maintenance folks at work already with my tea technology – although they deemed it the ultimate toy for lazy tea drinkers ROFL.

*Admittedly, I had a rather obscene encouter with Fleece Artist while picking up my skates in Toronto last October – and my stash was substantial before that encounter.  It has been an interesting exercise — not buying more stash I mean.  I really don’t need it, and haven’t missed the buying process – except for the "ooh that’s pretty I want some" part – which is just that – a want not a need.

Do you think we might have a mousie or two in the house?  I snapped this yesterday morning, and meant to add it to my random post.  Two of our four kitties, staring intently at a corner under our kitchen cabinets.

As of this morning, there’s one less mousie in the house.  I’ll spare any morbid photos – I did catch one of it trying to fool the cat by playing dead.  Terry found the gory aftermath and cleaned it up – no photos of that.

First up, a few FOs:

Sunny socks, which have been waiting for a toe and minimal grafting for months now.  They’re out of some fleece artist sock yarn that I picked up back in October when I picked up my new boots.  There’s only one being modeled in the picture, but given the frigid temperatures in this neck of the woods, two have been donned.

A multidirectional scarf that I started nearly two years ago – while recuperating from knee surgery.  It’s out of this funky noro yarn – called Kujaku – it has a core that is wrapped with a rainbow polyester filament, that every so often is wound really tightly – so there are these strange bursts of color.  I had two similar skeins – that I inverted to knit – one started from one end, the other from the other – so the "end" (the green) met in the middle.

I didn’t have the directions with me as I finished it, so I winged it and ended up with the alternate ending suggested in the pattern, more or less. What’s really cool is how binding off at the diagonal garter edge results in a picot type detail:

It sort of happens on the cast-on edge too, although not as dramatically.  I wonder if it would be more similar if I cast on a little more loosely…

Next up, two works in progress:

Poppy’s body – nearly done.  In Noro Silk Garden and Cash Iroha.  I am loving it.  Yes, it looks suspiciously similar to Stef’s.  I saw her plans, I had the same Silk Garden in my stash, and voila.   Go admire her lastest FO too – wowza.  I’ll start with the upper bust and sleeves as soon as I decide upon a size for the upper part.  I’m combining different parts of the pattern to accomodate my curves.

And my quickest project lately, a new pair of socks on the needles:

I started them on the plane ride to VA Saturday morning, and that’s how far I got by last night – part-way through the gusset decreases (it’s a flap heel). 

There has also been some spinning – although I’m just giving a visual taste for now as it deserves it’s own post:

and for the truly random, office art:

You can’t possibly tell what the first one is without clicking on it to biggify (actually it’s even hard to tell big – as the books on the shelves are reflecting in the glass courtesy of the flash) – it’s a stunning photo of a huge hand sculpture rising from a desert somwhere in South America.  I’ll have to ask my friend Louise to remind me of the details – she snapped it while on holiday with her kiddos.  The other is of me and Debbie in our pairs program at Gay Games – stunningly in sync and looking like a pair.  I’m most sure it only lasted for a second, but the photographer John Gress caught the right second.  The mat around the picture is more light blue/gray (not green) – it picks up the ice and our blue shirts really well.

Lastly, pizza art, courtesy of Toby (I believe the one Hannah made had already been eaten by the time I got home):

It cracks me up and it was yummy to boot

Skating in VA was great.  I didn’t place highly at all (like, last in both groups of 5 or so people), but I skated better than I expected to skate AND I had a lot of fun skating to pots-and-pans bedecked in children’s cookware.  Which is SUCH a stretch out of my personal comfort zone.  I have a month now to really get in shape with the FS program – which I did ok at, but let’s just say – I’m out of shape   No falls, I hit elements everywhere there was supposed to be something, but I missed all of the combos in my combination jumps.  Oops

A friend of mind lives abutting a lake in Halifax, Nova Scotia.  Where it gets colder than Western NY even.  They get to skate on their pond in the winter – currently, the pond has an 8-inch layer of ice on it.

And this is what it looks like:

It looks like a mosaic to me.  While freezing, the ice layer had broken up, and then the bits in between froze as clear as glass.

I have lots to say about skating – this weekend is the first competition of the season (with 3 more to go later this spring) and I am *mortified* at the prospect of skating to pots and pans.  I mean, I have loved the creative process and working it out.  But the reality of getting out there to do it?  The point was to push me beyond my usual comfort zone.  Let’s just say that in that respect, it has been a total success.