Selbuvotter

Or mittens knit in the style of Selbu (a Norwegian area/village). They are highly patterned, and a lot of fun to knit. I took a class with Terri Shea and some other W squared knitters. It was so much fun. During the class, I made it all the way to the thumb opening. Last night, I finished the hand, and this afternoon, the thumb. A quick steam blocking, and I can see what the real finished project will be. I love that the inside of the thumb is the same as the palm. The back of the hand is pretty cool, too. And a nice, ornamented cuff which is long, so nice and warm.
Dancing girls, around my wrist. Maybe next winter won't be so cold.
I've cast on for the second mitten, but I need to decide if it will have boys or girls on the cuff. I'm leaning towards boys.

Um, Yes

It's been almost a week, and I haven't blogged. I've been doing a lot, but nothing that is particularly interesting to anyone else. I'm knitting a Christmas Stocking to show my class that starts on June 9. I finished the body of my sweater, so all I have now is to pick up the stitches and knit the sleeves. I've been riding my bike (306 miles this month!), and that's mostly interesting to me. We had a great Memorial Day (slept* until 7:30, woohoo!) and drove to the Tri Cities so we could get some pots for tomato plants (yes, we have them here, but we wanted to get out of town a bit) and check out REI. There's an REI only 45 minutes from our house. We're just a bit pleased about that.

The boys have school for two more weeks, then they are out. The summer is looking very busy, but it should be nice.

Since I don't have much, here are some pictures of plant life around our house:
one of the roses we whacked back this yearone of the roses in the front flower bedanother one of the whacked roses (they were about 7 feet tall last year)and homegrown rhubarb, from our own back yard.

*slept meaning we laid in bed until 7:30. The sun comes up at 4:30, and Lulu thinks we should get up. But we did not.

Bike Geek Post

I've been riding a lot more this year--and a lot of it is because I have more choices. Another nice aspect is that I do NOT have to worry about mean dogs chasing me. Mean dogs are all over in Kentucky, and they all live at the top of a hill.

I've been getting faster and mostly adding mileage. I missed one week due to back pain, but that's gone, so I'm happy.

Here is the data (I made a graph, but I can't get it to post!):

Week	Speed	Miles
15-Mar	11.6	38.76
22-Mar	11.3	16.64
5-Apr	13.8	47.3
19-Apr	14	54.49
26-Apr	14.2	38.70
3-May	14.6	54.39
10-May	15.1	64.49
17-May	15.2	89.12

I started off pretty slowly, but have picked up speed as I've been riding this spring. My goal for the summer was to be able to reach 50 miles a week. I think I need to think of new goals. I'm quite pleased that I'm riding over 15 mph over an entire week, especially when I'm adding mileage. I'm already over 200 miles for the month of May. Not bad at all!

Finished Socks

I finished a knitting project!This pair was bothering me. I started them back in October and took them to Seattle, and where ever I was waiting for/on something.

They are done. Finished. Washed even.

They were knitted from Trekking XXL. They are just plain stockinette socks knitted on size 1 needles over 64 stitches. They are man-sized, so that's part of why they took so long. (Of course, it's mostly because I only knitted them when I was running around doing other things.

Now I'm working on simple Christmas stockings, so that I can show them to my class. Fun, eh?

Bikes are Us

We've been doing a lot of being outside on our bicycles these last few weeks. Wiz learned to ride last week, and is doing very well. We'll be able to ride more now as a family.

Game Boy has quit track (he hated it) and has switched to cyclocross. It's something he can practice year round, but only compete in the fall/winter. He likes to have one thing he does, so it is working well. He really loves it. It's very active--running across sand pits, carrying your bike over barriers, riding in tight turns. The only down side is he will need a new bike. He really needs a lighter one.

I've been riding a lot. I do not seem to think it counts any more unless I ride over 20 miles at a time. How did that happen? Today I rode down through College Place, and out of town, to Whitman Mission. On Monday, I rode to Milton-Freewater (with the Collar). Technically, I've been getting out of town, and the state. Tomorrow or the next day I'll write a totally geeky post about biking complete with a graph. You probably won't want to read it. :)

Weekend in May

It was a warm and busy weekend. Yesterday, Wiz and I went to the farmer's market. We bought local honey, radishes (which I prepared and Lulu the lab ate all of them but one), spring Walla Walla onions, greens, and asparagus. Wiz wanted a bar of soap, so I let him get one. (Wouldn't you buy your kid soap?)This afternoon, I was lazy. I sat in the back yard and knitted. (I want to get a table and chairs to put in the corner where it's shady.) We have irises (not many blooming) and the hydrangea is still going full tilt.
It's a cotton and silk blend, this yarn. It should be a nice summer evening sweater, when I finish. It looks like it's only going to be another few repeats before I'm finished with the body.
A close up in dappled light of the lace pattern.
This is a picture before I knitted this afternoon. I sat all by myself in the backyard with my ipod, water and knitting. I don't get to do that often.

Changes

From snow-covered berries to an amazing amount of flowers

From seeds to saladFrom a leafy shrub to glorious flowers (the view over the kitchen sink)a closer view of one of the flowersFrom non-rider to rider
This is serious business.

Firsts

Today there were three firsts (in order of when they happened today):

1.) I rode to Milton-Freewater and back. I also rode it averaging 15.4 mph. Go me!

2.) Game Boy had his first cyclocross practice. He made it across the sand pit twice--the only one who did. He's proud, and he LOVED it. Go GB!

3.) The Wiz took off and rode on his bike, all by himself, and I couldn't keep up with him. He is now in love with his bike. GO WIZ!

And now we're all tired. Good night!

Happy Birthday, Collar!

Today is the Collar's Birthday. He was a Mother's Day baby. Such a good guy.When we came home from church, he did his usual after church nap, but he got to do it in the hammock today. :) When it was time to grill the ribs, he did it and Wiz stayed in the hammock with him, apparently getting lessons on how to look like he's working without actually doing anything.Game Boy made his cake (he likes to bake, and is having a blast doing it at school in Home Ec).

He received some fun (and/or useful) gifts. A bag to carry to work from me (he's also getting a cycling jersey, but even though I ordered it 11 days ago, it's not here),a pair of pigskin gloves for gardening and a mini multi tool (Wiz calls it a spy gadget) from the Wiz,
a set of carpenter's pencils and sharpener from Game Boy, and also from Game Boy, Mr Bacon and Monsieur Tofu, which Game Boy found last November and has wanted to give his dad ever since. (They were sold out at Christmas, so when we found it later, we bought it. He's had it since February!)
I think he had a good day. :)

(P.S. We blew off Mother's Day. It's too complicated to celebrate both, so we'll just have a Mother's Day do later on.)

Early Morning Ballooning

We got up very early this morning (the sun comes up at 5:30 anyway) and walked to Game Boy's school. We wouldn't have been able to sleep in anyway, because we can hear the announcer from our house.
Who needs sleep anyway? We were able to see all of this (and lots more).
Tonight is Nightglow, and we will go back for that.