Alpaca By Kai

The boy is such a suck up . . . I love it.

Alpaca
by Kai Malmgren

My fafrite farm animle is a alpaca.

I like alpacas because they give wool and there wool is relley soft. Next, alpacas are relley big. Third, alpacas are relley nice. Forth, you can pet a alapaca if you don't scare it. Last, alpacas can seem scarey but they aren't.

That is all about my fafrit farm animle.

Why I Smell Like a Sheep

We've been keeping pretty busy lately. Over the holiday we took the boys and met some friends at the aquarium in Salt Lake. Davis said his favorite animals at the aquarium were "the fishies, because they taste good (insert slurping noise)."

But what I really wanted to tell you is that right now I smell like a sheep, and not just any sheep-- a wet sheep. Yesterday was the first session of my spinning class and I came home with some very lovely things.

First because I can not go into a yarn store and not buy yarn, I purchased some wonderful blue sock yarn. With it I plan to make another pair fingerless mitts. You can never have too many fingerless mitts.

I also came home with a brand new drop spindle, some very poorly spun (by me) yarn, and some clean and carded wool with which I am supposed to practice spinning more yarn.

I was also given a bag of unwashed and uncarded wool that I have now washed. And even though my sink was full of dirt, hay, and other things I'd rather not mention, my wool looks pretty much the same as it did before I washed it. I never have been very good at homework.

Made With Real Sugar

Admit it. Right now you wish you were me.

Headband #2

Madison modeling the second headband. Oh and her new haircut. Except that you can't really see her haircut because it is being covered by the headband.

For The New Year

I wasn't going to make a new years resolution this year because my resolutions never go very well. However, I really have spent the majority of the last few weeks knitting so I decided I may as well try to sell some patterns and I may as well make it a new years resolution. I've been meaning to do this for a few years and have a few patterns in various stages of readiness. Here are a few things I've been working on:

I have a baby cardigan that is basically done. I need to knit it one more time to check my pattern (I even have the yarn) and then I need a test knitter.

I also have a fingerless glove pattern I'm working on. I have all but the thumb of the left glove knit, and just need to reverse the design for the right glove.

The last two days I've been working on a couple of headband patterns. Here is the one I am done with. I made Madison wear it for the picture even though it is too big for her. If you think she looks a little ticked in this picture, it might be because I told her not to use her fake smile. I still have a few little changes to make to this particular pattern, but overall I think its pretty cute. Now I just need a test knitter . . . anyone?

A Winter Hat

I realize I haven't been blogging as much as usual. It isn't for lack of fodder. For example yesterday Kai told Madison that after he saved up and bought a mini laptop she could store all the video's she makes on it. Then he paused, thought for a second and added, "even the weird ones."

So if I haven't been blogging what have I been doing? I wish I could tell you I've been cleaning, organizing or even exercising. But I can't because I've been knitting. I've been knitting gloves, scarves and hats.

Right now I'm in the middle of making a hat for my niece's birthday. I have a hard time sizing hats so they end up way too big or way too small. I'd really like this hat to fit her so I keep trying it on Madison (who is about the same size) and making adjustments. At one of these critical moments Madison wasn't available so I asked the boy to try it on. "Mom, this is the coolest hat ever! Will you make me one? I really need a hat with knitting needles coming out the top!" And no he wasn't joking. He really does want me to make him a hat with the needles still in it.

The Party Is Over

Today is the kids first day back at school. As I watched them finally get out the door I was reminded of the love/hate relationship I have with school.

I love that if planned on the right day at the right time I can go to lunch with only one child tagging along. In fact, today is one of those days and I can't wait!

I hate trying to figure out what to put in the boy's lunch box. However, he usually comes home with 98% of the lunch I send him to school with so if he isn't eating it, why am I agonizing over it?

I love that if I clean my kitchen in the morning it will stay clean until about 3 o'clock. Not that I do clean my kitchen every morning, it's just nice to know that I could.

I hate trying to get the boys to choke down breakfast so I can get them where they need to go on time. I felt downright mean this morning when I told Kai he couldn't have anymore pancakes because he still had to get dressed. Of course that changed when he told me he had eaten 8 of them. What kind of a 35 pound kid can eat 8 pancakes?!

I love that if I give the Dave a glass of milk and put him in front of Super Why I have a good 30 minutes of uninterrupted knitting time.

I hate homework. I didn't like homework as a kid and as I have gotten older and more mature my feelings for homework have remain unchanged.

Most of all I love the quiet. In fact, I'll put up with the morning rush and all the other frustrations for just a little bit of quiet.