All knitting today

I am so excited. My (our) company will be selling our yarn at the "Sheep in the City" yarn festival.

We have been working really hard to get everything ready for the festival this weekend, Yarn Con. We have over 80 skeins of yarn dyed and ready to go. That is for only a one day festival here in Chicago. Since each skein is dyed by hand one at a time it takes a while to get them done.

Sheep in the City is a three day event!!!!!

We have added three new color ways for Yarn Con. They are solid color yarns. Hopefully they will sell well. We are also going to try to set up a sock club. Where people sign up and pay, then every month they are sent a different new yarn and a new sock pattern.
We are going to take names and email addresses to see if there is interest.

I am also going to work on writing patterns for knitted games that we can sell as a kit. The pattern and yarn together.

I hope this will keep me busy.



This is a little something I knit for Mim mim. It is not our yarn, but the top is knitted.



This is the other one from the same pattern.

I noticed that I have knitted a few things for Mim mim but, only a snake for the dude. So I am working on a vest for him. I will post pics when it is finished.

 
This blast was taken by Magnolia, who walked with me for a big part of the Komen 3 Day Breast Cancer walk. She is an amazing woman raising four children on her own. She chose to do the walk because she wants to give back to the community and wants to set an example for her children. If you didn't know, that is Mim mim I am holding.

Too Cute

I received an interesting phone call yesterday. It seems my identity has been stolen.
Don't panic! It wasn't someone wanting to steal my money. Mim mim decided that she was Zadie (her grandfather) and The Dude was Bubbie. The way I hear it they wouldn't answer to their own names. They wanted to be Hubby and me.

Now that's cute!

I woke up this morning listening to the sound of the wind and rain. There is nothing quite like an early morning storm, when you don't have to get out of bed.

My plan for the day is to skein the last of the yarn and put labels on everything.
Yarn Con is only a week away. So there are last minute things to do.

Re-inventing myself is taking some odd turns, but all in all not so bad.
I find I am making more lists when I have several things to do. I also have "ideas" for new things too. But, getting to sleep as long as I like is nice. It's like an extended summer vacation. I may decide to stay "retired" and just work on the yarn business.

Wonder

Sometimes people tell you (me) things and I wonder what they really mean. For example; tonight someone told me that I should write a novel. I have been told this before. I have never really thought about it. But, a few people have said I should.

Do I take them seriously? Are they just being nice? How do you know.I am not sure I have anything to say that people would read. I have been writing this blog on and off now for a few months. I will admit it's not regular. But, I have a grand total of 7 readers. Most of the time they don't even respond to what I have written. They consist of both of my daughters, my husband, one son-in-law, son- in- law's mother, a friend through my daughter and a daughter's friend. That's not a lot of readership.

So how do yo know when someone is being nice or they really mean what they say?
Sometimes when I ask people if they meant what they have said they tell me they were making a joke. But this idea of me writing a novel seems to keep popping up.

If you are reading this please let me know how you tell when someone means what they say. I just don't know any more.

I have been working very hard to get all of our yarn dyed for the upcoming festival "Yarn Con". It has been a while since Froebe Fibers did much of anything. So I have been very busy. We still need to update our website. But, you can find it at k2p2.net/store if you would like to see what we have. We also have some new solid colored yarns. Since I still do not have a teaching job I have time to work on this. If you like to knit or know someone who does please share our web site with them. You may not be able to order on line because we are working on the site, but contact me here and I will take care of everything.

Yarn

I am working on dyeing yarn. My daughter and I have started up our business again. We hand dye yarn. Not a big deal to most people but a really big deal in the knitting world.
We did this about 3 years ago, before the babies were born. Now that I am unemployed it just seemed to me a great time to start things up again. What does one do with all this time on ones hands. So wish us well and keep an eye out for our updated website.
The old one is at k2p2.net/store

Sometimes the cosmos like to play games. I had a tough day today trying to get the state of Illinois to do what it is supposed to do. I stood in line for over two hours after having driven around to get the paper work they said I needed. Then I found out that I did not need that paperwork but something else. So I drove back to where I started to get the new paper work and when back to the state office to do everything over again.
After spending my entire day doing all of this, I was feeling very put-upon. I felt I needed some pampering. Hubby agreed. So he offered to take me out to dinner.
While driving to dinner we got a call. A good friend had had a heart attack. He had surgery and is going to be alright.
But, my world was brought up short.Here I was feeling sorry for myself. Compared to what my friend and his family was going through I had had a minor inconvenience.

How full of ourselves we can be, I can be.

After my cancer I had a continuum I used to measure how important things really were. I guess I had forgotten. Is the problem a broken fingernail or a death in the family. (---|---------------------) My day was more of a fingernail thing.

Hug those you love. They are only with us for a short while.

Warning #2 Heavy reading ahead

September 11 seems to stop everyone in their tracks. Not just the year it happened, even today. People are remembering where they were when they heard about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center. Then they talk about the second plane hitting, the attack on the Pentagon,the twin towers falling and the plane that went down in Penn.
We remember where we were and what we were doing, just like the day Pres. Kennedy was killed. Or if you are old enough to remember, when Pearl Harbor was attacked.

So, today we think about how things used to be. How are lives are different today. We remember those who lost their lives in the attack and those who lost their lives trying to help/ save others.

Today, we must each of us look to ourselves and ask "Is what we are doing really going to create a better world? Or do we have an agenda of our own that we are trying to promote?" Religions seem to take the "us against them" approach. Countries do the same.

Killing does not create a better world.

So, I challenge everyone who reads this. Let's come up with a better way. Send me your ideas. Let's see if we can do better.

Starting the New Year

The Jewish Holidays are here. Today is Erev Rosh Hashana, or The evening of the Jewish new year. All Jewish Holidays start at sundown. So we start tonight. Tomorrow we spend the day in services. Then we have the 10 Days of Awe followed by Yom Kipper. The Day of Atonement.

I have just finished making the creamed herring for our break the fast 10 days from now. The sour cream and onions and herring need to sit in the fridge for 10 days so the flavors can blend. I tried using store bought creamed herring one year. But, my family would have none of it. It was home made or nothing. This is very funny to me. Because I really don't make it from scratch. Here is what I do:

One jar of herring in wine sauce
one or two onions
sour cream (how much depends on the amount of herring)

1.Take a jar of herring in wine sauce, drain most of the liquid off. Put it in a large bowl.
2. Thinly slice an onion or two, depending on how much you are making and how you like onions. Put that in the same bowl.
3. To that same bowl add sour cream. How much depends on taste. Mix it all up. Cover with plastic wrap and put the whole thing in the fridge for up to 10 days or how ever long you can leave it there without eating it.

When my girls were younger I would have to hide the creamed herring or threaten them with their lives if they didn't leave it alone.

This year most of my family is involved in the services. Reading, saying blessings and blowing shofar. I will be sitting with the babies. ;)

I am wishing everyone a healthy and happy New Year. L' Shana Tova to you all.

It's Labor Day. Here in the U.S. that means a day off. With the Jewish Holidays so close (Wed. night) it also means cleaning. Hubby and I went to the cemetery to trim the bushes at his Dad's grave. It is traditional to visit family graves between Rosh Hashana and Yom Kipper, the Jewish New Year and the day of Atonement. So Hubby will be taking his Mom there. We wanted it to look nice. We then came home and did work around the house. Cleaning and putting stuff away. The normal stuff.

I am still looking for work. The school year has started but, there may be a few jobs still out there. I have also started looking for jobs as a corporate trainer. My son-in-law and daughter think I might be good at that.


Thought it was time for a pic. That's daughter Becca and me before the 60 mile Komen walk. I am the tired looking one. Yes, I walked a little over 20 miles that day and the next and then one more time. 3 days in all. It was worth it.
I try to remind myself that if I can do the Komen walk 3 different years I can do anything. The last mile or so I kept hearing Mim mim's little voice in my head. She kept telling me " 'Most done, 'most done" She was right.

We had a wonderful trip to the Boston area. Of course 6 days in the car was a little hard on the babies. Here are a couple of pieces of advice for anyone traveling with very little little ones.

1. Stopping every two hours to let them stretch may be a good idea. But they will not want to get back in the car after a while.
2. Disposable diapers do not hold everything the say they will. We had major blow out problems.
3. Little ones who are potty trained do not want to use the potty just because you want them too.
4. Fruit snacks are crack for little ones.
5. Practice up on your kid songs and finger games. They really do help when the crankiest set in.
6. Yes that neck position looks uncomfortable. But if they are asleep, LEAVE THEM ALONE!!!!!
7. Remember the little ones are having a good time. You should too.

Pictures to follow.