Jacquie's Journal

What We Should've Done...

... is what Gary says when things don't turn out as expected and instead of looking forward in a "no use crying over spilt milk" kind of a way like I tend to do in a probably equally annoying way, he looks backwards at ways in which the situation could have been avoided if only we had foreseen this particular outcome.

The situation I am currently concerned about could have been neatly avoided if only we had had all three babies closer together instead of having Edward seven whole years after the other two - or had another one a year or two after Edward, or (strike this one off the list straightaway!) not had Edward at all.

The problem is that now that Lucy has left our nest and Sam is likely to in the next few months as well, poor Edward will be left on his own with no day to day sibling support/rivalry.  He and Sam seem to have been getting on really well together lately too - they enjoy the same computer games and movies and whatnot and it's been really nice.

You might be thinking that Edward will be looking forward to the undivided attention of his parents.  Well he and Gary still play World of Warcraft a lot together and have long unintelligible conversations about that which is good, but now he is a teenager most else of what we do is officially boring and he would rather stay home and play on the computer than be seen out with us.

We have always enjoyed family holidays but in recent years it has just been us and Edward and sometimes Nanny which has been fun, but now he is growing out of enjoying those trips too.  We have booked a trip to Washington DC for over the Easter break and we are worried about him enjoying that even though there is tons to see and do there.  Let's hope when the time comes he will secretly find things impressive even if it doesn't show on his face!

After our break we only have another four-and-a-bit years to go until he graduates from High School.  If he follows the example of the other two then I don't think he is going to be a bad teenager, but I think it is going to be a bit harder for him without his big brother and sister there ready with advice on how to ask someone to the Prom, or what classes he should take and which are the nicest teachers and so on. ("and so on" covering the issues of teenage life that you might need advice on but would never, ever in a million years ask your parents about !)

So, dear readers, do you have any advice for us for getting it right with that one last little fledgling?   Have you had one of your own, or were you the last one left at home?  I would love to hear from you!

Questions, Questions! The 5 Questions Interview

This is a kind of a meme with a difference.   Miriam  asked to be interviewed by Carole who asked to be interviewed by Susan  and so on.  So I asked Miriam to interview me (as did several others).

Here are the questions she sent me:

1.  What is your favorite food?  (I'm asking everyone this because I find it very interesting).

If we are talking going out to restaurants type food then I would have to say British Indian food, but not too spicy - I find if it is burning my mouth then I can't taste it.  Salt Lake Indian food is OK too, very tasty but in a different way.  If we are talking preparing at home food then you can't beat a Sunday roast with roast potatoes, yorkshire pud etc.  If we are talking about special treats then dark chocolate would be highest on a list of mostly chocolate favourites.

2.  What is the most disgusting thing you've ever eaten?

If you were to ask my sons this question they would any say any vegetable, but especially mushrooms they hate vegetables.  I don't know that I have ever eaten anything that would be generally considered as particularly disgusting, like Bear Grylls eating termites or snake straight from the  desert or jungle on one of his survival adventures.  I remember in year 4 or 5 (3rd or 4th grade) at school for months we were made to eat potatoes that tasted really bad because they had been accidentally sprayed with some horrible chemical - we were never told what it was but it was vile and I am sure not good for us.  As far as I know no one seems to have suffered any long term effects, thank goodness.

3.  What is your very favorite knitting object (knitting by yourself or someone else) and why?

At the moment  my favourite thing that I have made is Lucy's Wedding stole,  a) because it was  for such a  special occasion b) because  I designed it and it actually turned out really well.  My favourite thing that someone else has made is the scarf Lucy made for me last year.  Despite not having knitted for long she was totally undaunted by the lacy pattern and she chose gorgeous Noro yarn in great colours.

4.  Who taught you to knit?  How old were you?

My paternal Grandmother taught me to knit when I was 7.  I used to spend a week with my grandparents every summer and we used to do loads of crafty things together.  Those weeks are some of my most precious childhood memories.

5.  If you could go anywhere in the world, where would you go and why?

I have been lucky enough to visit quite a few different countries in my life, but of the places I haven't been to I would most like to visit Japan because I love oriental design and because it is so completely different culturally from anywhere else.

I hope you like my answers!

If you would like me to interview you please ask in a comment, and I will email you 5 different questions.
 

I Hear Thunder

I am sitting here watching the rain and listening to the thunder and am so glad to be inside in the warm with a nice cup of tea snuggled up with the dog.

Yesterday it was sunny and warm - as it has been for a while now - and today it has gone cold again.  We might get snow later but at the moment it is just rain.  I think it is because Lucy and I went to buy a picnic table yesterday to go on our deck we built last year.

It is one of those very plain straightforward wooden picnic tables with benches attached that you often see in parks.  We tried to get one last year but it was too late in the season when we went looking, so we thought we had better snap one up the minute we saw one this year and that minute occurred on Sunday when we visited our brand new and controversial branch of Lowes.  There is also a brand new Wal*Mart and the controversy was that the nearby residents had been promised that the land they are built on would be turned into a park, but instead there are big box stores and a whole lot of other building going on.  I don't really see why we need another  Wal*Mart and another Lowes (especially when they closed an  existing  branch nearby)

Anyway we went to pick up the table yesterday as we needed Lucy's truck and couldn't use it on Sunday.  I paid for the table and three assistants were dispatched to assist in loading it up.  The truck and table were measured and it was deemed possible to fit the table on the truck although it would have to be tilted (the table!) and wasn't ideal.  The guy in charge then had to go and take a phone call, and while we waited I tentatively (realising that I wasn't the "loading a table onto a truck" expert here) suggested that if we flipped the table over the top would slide neatly in between the wheel arches and the legs would only slightly overlap the top of the truck bed.  The other assistants disagreed with me and as I assumed they knew what they were talking about let it drop.  Then the male assistant came back and said, "Well the other way to do it would be to flip the table over and slide the top in between the wheel arches and just have the legs overlapping the sides a bit at the top."  "That's what she said!" the other two said and he said I was smart and we all had a laugh.  And that is the way we did it.  It is now sheltering against the garage wall waiting to be treated before we set it up on the deck.

I am gong to make some long thin cushions for the benches too before the summer begins.

We will have to decide soon what climbing plants to have on the pergola.  Something pretty and nice smelling but doesn't attract too many bitey or stingy things would be ideal.  We also have the boxes to plant up as well, but I think they will just be annuals like our window boxes at the front.

I have finished my Mountain Stream Scarf but still have to block it.  After I posted about it last time I messed up the grafting of the final stitches and messed up even more undoing it again.  That was a good thing really because I should have made it longer but I was just too impatient to get to the top border part.  So I ended up undoing all of the top border and knitting on the main body for another ball of the yarn.  I looked to see how far I had got with the first ball and knitted that number of repeats and hoped that would mean I would have just the right amount to knit the final border and it worked perfectly.  I found out how to kitchener garter stitch properly from my Vogue knitting book and I think it has turned out very well.  Now I know how to construct a shawl the Orenberg way which I have wanted to know for a long time.  I will post pictures when I have blocked it.

Skateboard Fun

Just a couple of pictures of family fun in the sun.









Also went to Unravelled Sheep to buy yarn for our Spring Colors and Cables SnB Swap.  As usual I had a plan in mind and came home with something completely different and had to leave lots of gorgeous stuff behind for another time.  I am thinking of another bag for my contribution.  These colors remind me of bluebells in the woods in May in England.  They are so pretty!

Fox

I don't know if you have noticed but a few Fox programs have someone or something named Fox in them:

1. X Files - Fox Mulder
2. Prison Break - Fox River State Penitentiary
3. Are You Smarter than a 5th Grader - host Jeff Foxworthy

I thought I would email Fox and ask them if this was deliberate - I know, I should get out more!
They replied within 2 hours to say that it was just a coincidence.  Oh well!

I made another ambigram today.  It was for a competition set by Nagfa and to be judged by John Langdon who designed the Angel and Demons ambigram for Dan Brown's book.  I am not sure if I got my entry in in time - he said 22nd March but he is in Singapore and they are a good few hours ahead of us.  Anyway the word we had to do was "Singularity"  I have interpreted this to mean The Singularity - the point in time when super artificial intelligence takes over from humans at controlling the world - here is a reference Wikipedia Singularity  There are other interpretations, so I hope this one is acceptable.

Here is the ambigram:
I have tried to show neurons (yellow) connecting to logic gates (the red bits) and circuits (gold thread).   It has taken ages to get the design so it has the motifs and the ambigramminess and be readable.  I cheated a bit with the applique and attached iron-on interlining to the back of the  letters .  The only thing keeping them in place is the gold stitching.

Small Packet

Today I took delivery of a "Small Packet" from the UK.  I guessed it was from my Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns Stitchmarker Swap partner. 

	I had instructions to follow!
This was the clue in the first parcel:

I think my partner may be expecting her own delivery of a "small packet"!

I know there are a couple of members in this "predicament", but I think only one is participating - Blossom, I am guessing it's you!

This was in the second parcel.  Double yum-yum.  I have just sampled some of the Divine 70% and it is just that.  Silky smooth and very tasty - dark without being in the least bit dry or bitter.  And made with Fairtrade  cocoa beans from Ghana too so can be eaten without any guilty conscience.

Finally the stitchmarkers themselves attached to a pretty card.  They are lovely and all made from Swarovski crystals and semi-precious stones - jade, goldstone, blue moon rock, amethyst, mother of pearl and rose quartz.  They are beautifully made and the three on the right are ingeniously double ended.  The smaller jump rings will fit neatly on tiny sock needles - what a great idea!

In the card Blossom fesses up that indeed they are from her!  Thanks so much Blossom!  We have such fun swaps on Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns!

Premonition

We have had the most fantastic weather this last week - it has been up to 80 degrees at times.  I am sure we will pay for it with more cold and snowy weather before the month is out, but until that happens it will be appreciated.  I love these warm spring days, the temperature is just right for being outside and walking or working in the garden with out getting uncomfortable and there are no annoying insects buzzing round yet.  We took Charlie for a lovely long walk in one of our off-leash dog parks yesterday morning and she even laid down in the shallow part of the stream to cool off - she's not usually bothered about going in the water.  It was one of our best walks with her - we took a ball and thrower and now she knows what it is like when other dogs steal your ball (Charlie is usually the villain in this scenario!) - we nearly lost it a couple of times but we ended up bringing it home, wet, muddy and slobbery though it was.  We met another Boston, a year old male, and she had quite a game with him.

When we got home we saw that the catkins were out on our quaking aspens.
Look at that beautiful blue sky!

Yesterday afternoon, totally illogically, we turned our backs on the beautiful weather and went and sat in the dark for two hours.  We saw the movie "Premonition" starring Sandra Bullock.  I can't say too much about it without giving anything away but it is a space-time continuum anomaly movie.   She has a whole week with the days out of order and her husband is killed in a car crash on one of them.  I enjoyed the movie and really wanted to know how it was going to be resolved.  I so want to say something about the ending but I just can't!  I didn't cry in this one even though there were sad bits.  I think I only cry at happy bits actually.

Please visit Natalya's Print Store set up to raise funds for the Clatterbridge Cancer Campaign in memory of Rose McGill.

I have been knitting. I have been working on my Mountain Stream scarf.  I haven't posted any progress pictures I am afraid.  I just have to graft the last corner together and block it and it will be done and I will show you it then.  The pattern was not as difficult as Pomatomus, but being all in garter stitch I had trouble at times working out which row I was on.  If the pattern is based on Stockinette Stitch you at least can tell pretty quickly whether you are on a right side or wrong side row - not so garter stitch.   I probably should have made it longer but I was impatient to see how the bottom corners and border were constructed.

I have also been working hard on my knitting chart maker and hope to release a new version soon.  This version will have resizable grids, build your own cable stitches, and multiple charts open at a time.  I am really excited about it.

Holiday

This month's Bloggers' Paradise theme is Holiday, where we share memories of our best ever holiday with you.  Well, I have been extremely lucky with holidays and really couldn't single one particular one out as being the best.   

When I was a child I spent many happy summers with my Grandparents in Brighton.  When a little older there were family holidays in a tin miner's cottage in Cornwall. 

Once I was grown up and married holidays became a priority, but we are (or at least I am)  not a camper, or backpacker. 

We have a lifelong mission to seek out new civilisations, to boldly go where at least enough men (and women) have boldly gone before to build and staff a reasonably comfortable hotel and a decent restaurant or two. 

We had our honeymoon on the Isle of Mull. We have had skiing holidays in France and Switzerland, first on our own and then with the children as they came along. 

Then we discovered Menorca and spent many happy summers there, sometimes just us and the children, sometimes extended family, sometimes just my sister and me and our children.  We loved it there so much we bought an apartment there.  I should do a whole post on Menorca it is a magical place and I miss it a lot.

There were Merry Christmasses at Center Parcs. 

Then when we moved to the USA and we started having vacations instead of holidays.  We have been to Disneyland and Disney World and all the other nearby theme parks, and Southern Utah and Las Vegas.  There were visits to my sister when she lived in New Hampshire.  Seattle, Washington DC, New York and Maine, Yosemite, Monterey Bay, and San Francisco have also been destinations for a weekend or few days.  Musn't leave out vacations at home here in Salt Lake City when friends or family have come to stay.

What has made every one of these holidays so special? - well lots of things.  Firstly the company - whether I have been with just Gary, or Carolinne, or my family, or Gary's family, or friends or any combination of the above these holidays have been with people who are very special and it is lovely to share fun time with them.  Secondly they have all been about discovery of new places, or new experiences.  Thirdly they have just been plain fun and a chance to play!

Please Blog-a-long with us and share your best holiday memories.

 

Parcels!

Mr Mailman brought me three packages yesterday!
Parcel Number 1 - came from Blessed Juno
If you have a scratch 'n' sniff monitor, now is a chance to test it!  Sunshine is all citrusy, Happy Together is peppermint, eucalyptus, orange, bergamot.  Tangent is spearmint and was sent as a little extra sample.  All of them are yummy, and I wish I could keep them!

Parcel Number 2 - came from Pancake and Lulu
There is Forest Berry made of mohair, wool, and nylon.  There is India made of all sorts of yummy stuff with a glint of copper.  It turned out that when I ordered from her last time I was her very first etsy customer so she very kindly sent me the   silky chenille in all the jewel colours as a special gift - that was really sweet of her.  Again all yummy and I am keeping some of it!

Parcel Number 3 - came from the Open University.  It is my Post Graduate Diploma - you may now call me Jacquie PGD CCI(Open)!  I need to do my dissertation to convert it to an MSc but it will do for now!

I have also been busy making stitchmarkers.  We have four birthdays at SnB tonight and also I am participating in a swap on Crafty Threads 'n' Yarns.

Pomatomi

Here  are my two pomatomi all done at long last.  The second one was much easier than the first luckily!
They are actually a lot greener and darker than in this picture.  I thought they were going to be much too big when I first tried them on, but now I have washed them they seem to be much better.  They are made from Lang Yarns Jawoll which is a superwash wool with a bit of nylon and acrylic thrown in.  It came with a matching reel of reinforcing yarn which I used on the heels, but forgot on the first toe, so didn't put it in the second toe either.  I mentioned this before but I'll mention it again so it is all in one place - I did the heel flap with slipped purl stitches in every other row to pull it in a bit as the first one I made was very baggy in the heel. 

I wish I could say they were a joy to knit, because I do love the pattern, and the yarn itself was lovely to work with, but they weren't.

Gary surprised me with a package from Amazon yesterday containing a copy of Nancy Bush's Knitting Vintage Socks.  There are quite a few gentlemen's socks in it and I think it is partly a hint that he would like me to make him some.  As luck would have it I recently purchased a skein of Mountain Colors Bearfoot yarn from Jon in Denver who no longer has a blog, but is very soon going to be the proud owner of a yarn store - lucky guy!  The yarn is in lovely gentlemanly shades of rust, brown and navy blue so he may well get his wish very soon:-)

Meanwhile I have started knitting Susan's Mountain Stream scarf.  Ever since Franklin made his mini Orenberg shawl (was that really a year ago!) I have been wanting to try out the techniques for myself and this little scarf is designed for that very purpose.  I am using the lovely Peruvian Cashmere Margene gave me for my birthday in a lovely  middle shade of blue with a touch of lilac - Wisteria is a good description of the colour I think.  It's coming along quite quickly - photos soon.

I am very sorry, but I have been unable to leave comments on Blogger blogs that use the visual verification.  All I get is the words 'Visual Verification' instead of the image.  I have tried restarting the computer but it's still the same.  Please be assured that I am still reading your blog and would definitely be commenting if only I could.