Well, it has only been two years since I posted to this blog. LMBO. I thought I'd have time to describe life with infant twins. BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Actually, I did spend a lot of time online, I was just never (rarely) able to use my hands to type. I even have a remote mouse now so I can nurse and surf at the same time.

So, now they're two, and while life is still pretty crazy, I have a little more space. I've gotten into reading a lot of blogs (with my remote mouse) over the years--better create a blogroll--but right now I'm really excited about getting back into knitting, plus I'm learning to spin! So I will have to get my digital camera out and take lots of pics of the kids and of my wonderful fiber creations.

I'm also just about to join the shapely tank knitalong as soon as I'm done sending out a survey mailing from another window (which makes my return address look funky). I've cast on using some ribbon yarn that has been languishing in my stash for at least 5 years. I had started another tank with larger needles, and it was just dreadful. When I swatched it for the shapely tank, I realized that I was in the right gauge for the yarn and it was perfect! I no longer hate this yarn! Plus, I got the exact gauge in one try, which is always a good sign. I did the edging in seed stitch, and I'll start the short rows--er--shortly. :)

I have been knitting for almost 20 years (hard to believe, but I'm 34 and started at 15 or so!), and I've made short-row socks, but this whole wrapping thing is new to me. I *am* familiar with the little holes that wrapping is supposed to eliminate, but I'll be doing something new to me, so that will be interesting. I'm also excited that this pattern has adjustments for the well-endowed! Since nursing twins, I am a 34-G, which is just a weird size and no clothes are made for me. I either look like I should be nabbed for solicitation or I look like I'm wearing a tent. So now I can do short rows for the bust and not BUST out of the thing when I try to wear it. Hooray! I'm a little concerned that the variegated yarn is going to show up with weird stripes around the bust (making it that much more accented) but I'm hoping that the color changes are short enough (only about 2 inches apiece) that it will come out in more of a "popcorn" look than stripes, if that makes sense. So far, based on the swatch and the edging, that's what's happening. I should remember this for yarn design.

As far as spinning goes, as a beginner, wool is the fiber of choice, so it's hard to get really inspired in late June to do anything with the yarn that I'm creating. I have about 8 oz. of gray romney, and I have spun about half of it. My spinning teacher also sold us a big bag of various fleeces, and one of them is gray shetland, so I have probably 4-6 oz of that. Both of them seem to want to be cabled cardigans, but if I was going to combine them, it should have been in spinning, not now, so I would need to get a lot more of one or both of them to make a sweater (I guess it is usually about 2 lbs for a LS). That seems like a lot of carding (if I buy the teacher's fleece) and spinning for something that's a little boring. Also, I'm learning slowly, and the teacher's fleece has a real variety of colors, including a bunch of dark brown undercoat. Had I been thinking, I would have carded that in with the longer silver locks, but I didn't, so now my yarn has really long sections of dark brown, and long sections of light silver. I didn't even notice all the brown, so I spun a whole bunch of just the silver, then found the brown, spun that, then realized that *duh* this was going to not look so good in a sweater. Sigh. So I'll have to figure out what to do with it. Thank goodness for having short people around to knit small sweaters and tiny socks for! Though I'm not sure how they'll feel about scratchy shetland, and if I make something and they refuse to wear it my head might just explode! Happily, they seem to appreciate the cardigans I just finished for them (top down in variegated Plush).

I got a package from a woman doing some stash reduction on the spindler's list this past weekend. It has a bunch of really cool fiber, including silk sliver and flax. I don't think I've got the chops for either of those yet, but if I could spin those, then I'd be cooking with gas, and I could knit something for summer. But for now I'll just spin wool aimlessly (not that I'm complaining!) and knit from my stash. Maybe a pair of wool socks with the handspun....

Well, that was a lot of fiber content, huh? The kids are great. Bedtime is still a nightmare. Part of me keeps telling myself I need to provide more structure, etc., but when it comes right down to it, the conventional ways of doing these things backfire every time. In our house, there is no better way to get them riled up than to bring them to their bedroom and ask them to lie down. So Eleanor goes to sleep nursing with me on the couch (how many times have we had to abandon the bed and go downstairs to get her to finally drift off), and Henry snuggles up with a mama in the bed. Every time I have stressed out about something like this (especially sleep), in hindsight it would have made so much more sense to relax and wait for their development to catch up to my expectations. But it would be nice to have them go to bed at 8:00 like they used to! I blame daylight savings time.

Henry has been very into KISSING lately. He gives these lovely, soft, non-slobbery kisses, and he will hold your face while he kisses each cheek like a French paysan. Then he kisses your forehead. It sends me.