A Baseball Star!

Today was closing day ceremonies for Murphy's Tball league. It's been a blast and I'm going to miss it, though I admit that not having to sit in 101 degree sunshine is a relief. Murphy is already champing at the bit for soccer, but he'll have to wait for camp in July.

There was a Home Run Derby, in which each player was pitched 8 balls, and each hit was worth 2 points, and then if the ball went a long distance, more points were added. Murphy scored a 12 in the first round, which qualified him for the final round! The top six players hit 5 balls each in the second round, and Murphy scored 8 which won him THIRD PLACE!! We were all very proud and very happy!

Here's a close up of his trophy (he wants you to see his name, so you know it's really his!) and a close up of the 3rd place medal for the Derby. It's really cool!

We had a wonderful visit this week from two of our favorite people. Mammama and Merridee came to visit and got to see Murphy and Dad sing and play in the school's Spring Sing. Then Mammama bought Murphy his first ever Banana Split. He never knew such delights existed! It was so wonderful to see them, and we hope they come more often.

In other news, the critter in the attic seems to have been scared away by the man setting the traps, so the holes were repaired and there's no more critter noises to drive Mom crazy. Thank goodness! Eric has finished this year's college and is looking for a job (anyone have one to give? Anyone?) I'm spinning color and trying to finish the socks I'm knitting, for which I Love love love the finished product but am not so thrilled with the actual knitting; it's mostly purls, and somewhat tedious. One sock is complete, and I just started the heel flap on the second, so now it should pick up a bit. Then I"m trying to knit from stash. Reduce reduce reduce is the mantra. No more yarn purchases till my stash is reduced at least by half!

Off to knit that heel flap!

What's Going On?

It's been a crazy couple of weeks. First there's the critters in the attic. Loud. Large. Busy. Critters. In the attic. Neighbor thought she saw squirrels going in to the house, but the Pest Control Specialist we finally called in (when the noises brought Mom to the brink of insanity) thinks it is a rat. A FOOT long rat. Sigh. So the traps are set, and he comes back to see if they've tripped this week. So far, the noises indicate they haven't found the traps yet. I'm so very happy. Not.

Then there's the overwhelming chaos in my house. I just have too much crap. Too much fiber. Couldn't use it all in a lifetime. So I'm packing it up. Giving it away, donating to the Mission, sending some to a needy person, throwing some out. Mind you, this is just the acrylic stuff, and I still have boxes. I'm keeping the natural fibers stuff (and putting it where, you ask? Good question.) And I've made a vow to do the stash busting thing this year. No new purchases of yarn or fiber till I've greatly reduced the current stash. However......

Prior to this vow, I'd been working on spinning this:

A full pound of lovely moorit brown merino, which I hope to make into socks. I spun half of it a bit ago, only to find that my "fingering weight" somehow bloomed to worsted weight when plied and washed. Not what I wanted for socks. So I'm doing the other half, and aiming at a much smaller grist.

Then there's this:

Four lovely ounces of beige silk spun cobweb fine. It's beautiful, soft, and I love spinning silk. So? What's the problem, you ask?

Color.

I want color.

Bright beautiful bold gorgeous color.

Everything I've spun recently has been a neutral. Moorit, beige, lots of white. Some black.

It's spring, and I want color.

So before the vow (phew, under the wire!) I bought this:

A pound each of superwash merino (again, hopefully for socks!) in the brightest colors I could find. The pictures really don't do them justice. The blue is electric. The yellows so vivid it's like looking into the sun. Thanks to Christina at dyepot.com for brightening my day.














In mind of the stash busting idea, I knit two hats this weekend, using up balls of commercial but still lovely 100% alpaca. Used up two skeins that otherwise would be languishing in the stash, and learned some fair isle. Pretty cool! I'll try to get pics of those later.

Then the family. Here's our slugger, at his latest game:

A big HIT! The Catcher















It's funny; he's pretty good at baseball, but soccer is still his thing. We're already saving the pennies for soccer camp this summer. An athlete. My son. Whoda Thunkit?

The rest of us are fine, hanging in. Hot weekend, up in the triple digits. Today should be 90's. Then the 60's by Wednesday. Bizarre.

Stay cool. Oh, and the contest is still open... Can't even give my stash away, apparently.