Proud Mama Moment

 Raising children isn't easy.  As any parent knows there are moments of utter frustration. Sometimes, way too many moments.  But when your child makes you proud, all of the frustrations are forgotten.  Friday was one of those days.

We traveled to Ann Arbor to attend Kristin's White Coat ceremony.  The ceremony was her official induction into dental school and the dentistry profession.  The event introduced her class.  Each student was presented with a white lab coat with their name and the Michigan M embroidered on the lapel.

Her dad and I are so proud of the hard work she has put in to get to this point.

As well as her sister

and brother.

After the ceremony we went over the dental school building for a reception.  Kristin showed us her lab space.  She'll spend a lot of time over the next two years at this workstation.

After the reception, we walked back to her apartment, stopping at a convenience store to pick up a few things for a little happy hour.  Later in the evening we walked into town for dinner.  The following day a professional soccer game was to be played in Michigan Stadium.  Ann Arbor had a small festival to celebrate the event.  As we walked around we saw many other dental school families.  We also saw other characters.  This one in particular caught a lot of people's eyes.  Since I am a graduate of The Ohio State University, all I can say to this is here's proof that rooting for Michigan is going to the dark side.

The long car ride there and back helped me make progress on the linen top.  The back (or is it the front?) is finished and I'm working on the other side.  I'm about halfway through it.  I haven't counted how many rows I have to go yet.  I'll save that for later today.  Once I know that I'll set a knitting goal for each day.

I have concerns that this top is going to be much too wide and not long enough.  A friend keeps reminding me that linen behaves differently after it's washed.  I'll have to play with it to get it to the proper dimensions. 

Destination Friday

Last week while cleaning out my inbox, I almost passed by a note from on the LYSs in town.  Fortunately I opened the email before deleting.  The message announced a trunk show by indie dyer Destination Yarn.  I have read Jeanne's blog and follow her on Instagram.  Her yarns are bright, colorful and named after some amazing places.  I knew I couldn't miss this opportunity to see her yarns in person.

After work on Friday I made a side trip to 614 Knit Studio to ogle the yarns.  I knew I was embarking on a risky adventure.  As soon as I walked in the shop, the fumes from the fiber overcame me and I fell in love.  Being from Cincinnati, I had to see and touch the yarn inspired by Rookwood Pottery.  The sample for the Rookwood shawl was there and it is more beautiful in real life.  I knew I had to make it.  There was some debate about which colorway to use, but in the end I decided I needed to be true to my birthplace and go with Cincinnati Ceramic and Ceramic Pink.  She also had the sample for the Fall Run Cowl.  It is also extremely beautiful and I loved the autumn colors.  Its vapors drew me in and I ended up also buying a kit.  For this one, though, I went with a different colorway:  Sea and Shark Infested Waters.  I'll admit the name was too cute to pass up.

Filling My Days With Fiber

My purchase order hasn't yet been renewed, so I'm still on hiatus from work.  I will definitely have to Monday off so I'm going to take care of some business.  My brother mentioned that he needs all of the siblings to sign some papers regarding our parents' estate.  A road trip to Cincinnati is on the docket for Monday.  I might add a stop or two at some yarn shops or the IKEA store.  We'll see what I'm in the mood for when I go.

The linen top is slowly coming along.  I had planned to have this completed for an anticipated trip to Norris Lake.  But that trip has fallen through and with it my motivation to work on this.  I won't let this go into hibernation though.  There is another project I want to start but I've vowed to not cast on before  this is complete.  Given my track record, we'll see if I stick to that plan.

Blake is getting excited about going off to college.  His excitement has motivated me to get back to his afghan.  I'm just past the halfway mark.  The red stripes will now outnumber the blue.  I'm getting a little worried about having enough yarn.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that I don't run out a couple rows shy of the end.

Along with Blake's afghan I'm making him a quilt.  The colors for the University of Cincinnati are black and red.  This will be big enough to cover his bed in the dorm.  I'm going to try a quilt-as-you-go technique.  This technique allows you to quilt smaller sections of a quilt at a time as you are assembling the blocks.  It helps to break up the monotony of the quilting.  I have sections of blocks completed and am ready to begin the quilting.  But before I work on this I am going to practice on something smaller.  My quilt group makes doll bed quilts for a local charity.  I'll make a few mini quilts for that while I get the hang of the technique.

Wished I Knew I Could Have Slept In

I'm still learning the ins and outs of being a contractor.  Working for the state means that I have to take off certain days even if I don't want to.  June 30 was the end of the fiscal year for the state.  All contractors, myself included, were told to not come into work after June 30 until our respective vendor called to say the purchase order was renewed.  Preliminary estimates were that all contractors would be back by July 11.  My vendor called me a couple weeks ago to say that she had my renewal and I was expected to be back in the office on July 5. This morning, after having a 4-day weekend, I got up at my usual 5:50 am, showered, dressed, packed my lunch and drove downtown.  After parking I walked the 8 blocks in the pouring rain to the office.  After being there about 2 1/2 hours this morning, the department admin noticed me sitting at my desk.  She said I wasn't supposed to be there since my purchase order had not been renewed.  Confused, I called my vendor who said she had just received word that in fact my PO was not renewed yet.  So, I picked up my things and headed back to my car.  Fortunately the rain had passed and the walk back to the car was not so bad.  

Not sure how long I will be out of work.  I'm assuming I'll have all of this week off.  I guess I'll get a few projects done around the house.

Since I had the day off, I called a friend and met for lunch.  After lunch we wandered over to one of my favorite LYSs.  She doesn't knit but I was tempting her with the fumes of some yummy yarn.  One of the ladies there was telling her about the beginner knitting class.  I bought a ball of Zauberball Sock for an upcoming Knit-along from Knit Purl Hunter.

Our 4th of July weekend was pretty quiet.  Blake has been away with his cousins, Kristin is at school and Trisha worked a lot.  Ed spent most of his time working on a project in the garage or binge watching a series on Netflix.  I did some yard work on Saturday, knit on my linen top and read.

The first divided section of the linen top is a bit longer than 5 inches.  I need to keep cranking on this or else it will be too cool to wear it when it is finished.

Might the Chaos End Soon?

My crazy life might finally be settling down.  At least it looks like it might.  It has been over a month now since my mom passed away.  I have been so busy that I don't feel like I've had any proper time to grieve.  The chaos should end within the next week if all goes as planned.

A couple unexpected events have added to the chaos.  Ed and I both had uncles pass away.  Their deaths weren't totally unexpected, but, like my mom, the final decline happened suddenly.  I wasn't able to get to my uncle's funeral,  I said a special prayer for him and kept him in my heart during that morning.

Last weekend we moved Kristin to Ann Arbor.  She officially started dental school and is on her way to becoming Dr. Kristin.  She's going to have a lot of hard work between now and then, but I'm sure she can do it.

Among the chaos I managed to get to the Mid Ohio Fiber Festival a couple weekends ago with a friend.  I was like a kid in a candy store.  I couldn't stop myself from buying a few goodies.

First purchase was this handy little knitting accessory kit.  My friend had gotten herself one at Stitches.

Several vendors had patterns that caught my eye.

I tried on a sample of the Vine Street Vest and fell in love.  Another vendor had a cotton/linen blend that will work perfectly for it.

As a side note:  this particular vendor told us that Rowan will no longer be distributed in the US.  Snatch up what you can from you LYS while supplies last.  Thank goodness of online purchases.

Another vendor was selling angora fiber.  Rizzo is the fur from a French Angora bunny.  The owner said she is "a bit of a bitch".  Oh well.  Doesn't matter to me. All I care is that she has the most Heavenly soft fur.

This lovely hank of sock yarn came from an indie dyer named Shirsty Cat.  It is BFL sock yarn in  the colorway "Garden of Good and Evil".

Valhalla Acres was there selling their roving.  I've purchased their roving before and it is great to spin.  I got 8 ounces of black and red to make Blake some University of Cincinnati items.

On the knitting front, I made some good progress on Sunset.   I am now working on one of the back and forth sections.  About 17 inches more of knitting and I will be done.