JenLa

Ready for the final set of clues? Now, because the DH and I are heading off shortly (Tuesday to be exact) Saber, Trixie and Sassy are all demanding more than their fair share of love and attention. So…they each insisted on giving the last set of clues. And who am I to stop them? Nobody, that’s who.

Email your entry to Jenla(dot)contest(at)gmail(dot)com by midnight Pacific time on July 4, 2008. Please include your Blog URL, Ravelry ID and your name in the body of the email. Please do not leave your contest entry in the comments section. Why would you want someone else to benefit from your cranial calisthenic? And again, only entry per person, please. Don’t forget to hit Fibercrack’d for the bonus clues, and check the contest page for the recap. Good luck!

eta…Andria just reminded me of something: The winner will be announced some time after July 4…duh. (Probably the 7th or 8th) And also, SOME of you have guessed spot-on correct, down to the city and the occasion. Others got the country right. Andria may or may not have been one of them.

Now the joke would totally be on me if the whole thing was canceled wouldn’t it? Well, we have still to receive final itineraries from the powers that be who are arranging the entire thing. And I’m all over here…I GET TO GO TO THIS FABULOUS DESTINATION AND I’M SO EXCITED ABOUT IT I’M HOLDING A CONTEST!!! And it would be just my luck, come Monday morning, to get a big old “sorry” in my inbox. So I guess we shall see what we shall see. Come Tuesday, if you see me logged in to Ravelry or online in Yahoo IM, you’ll know I’m hosed. Cross your fingers, will ya?

Thank you everyone, for your wonderful words of encouragement, your prayers, good vibes and super special healing mojo. Mama M underwent surgery Tuesday, was discharged from the hospital yesterday, and now is uncomfortably ensconced in a rehab facility, and will be there for the next 3-10 days. It seems like a lifetime has passed since she fell on Saturday…a rather stress-filled lifetime. Let me just say that the drama llamas in Raverlry and on the internets? Amateurs. It’s saying something when the DH is the most level-headed one out of them all, and what it’s saying is pretty sad. Of course, those of you who know me know, If La gets worried, La gets angry, then La gets busy taking charge…MUST HAVE CONTROL CONTROL CONTROL!

Of course, Mama M doesn’t like the rehab facility. Well, who would? “It smells bad, the food is awful, and the bed’s uncomfortable” are the most prevalent amongst her issues. Whew! If she’s feeling good enough to complain, then she’s definitely on the mend! Our response? “I guess that gives you even more incentive to work really hard at physical therapy so you can come home even sooner.”* I certainly hope she’ll be home soon. We all miss her terribly. SIL and hubby will be arriving Friday from Cocoa Beach, FL, so my workload should lessen then. I may actually be able to get to bed before 2 am. It’s been pretty much up to me and the DH to keep things up and running. Junior’s been no help whatsoever, but then again, that doesn’t surprise me.

eta - *OR she can just check herself out tonight without a single thought to her health…

hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

Also, Mama M won’t hear of us canceling our trip abroad, even though it’s less than 2 weeks away. She’ll be home by then, and we’ll get home care for her for the week we’re gone. So, to celebrate the fact that Mama M’s on the mend and the fact that we don’t have to cancel, here are the next clues!

9.

All of these pictures are of points interest in the mystery country, 2 of these are in the actual city.

10a. The country to which we are traveling has Europe’s second longest river as one of its borders.

10b. The city to which we are traveling is directly on the banks of that river.

Pretty certain you’ve got the right answer? Then email it me at JenLa(dot)contest(at)gmail(dot)com. If you’re not quite sure hold off guessing. You’ll have until July 4, and you only get to enter once, so make it count! Need more clues? Check out Fibercrack’d, my design/yarn blog for bonus clues, and visit the contest page for all the rules and clue recap.

In the meantime, I shall tease you with yarn…

Are only somewhat exaggerated. I’m still around. As I predicted, I’m working many hours at my real job and trying to keep up with the farm demands. That and sleep is about all I can manage lately, but I’m still among the living. Hopefully once Jared gets home in a few weeks there will be more free time for me. Especially since I haven’t gotten much knitting done. I did, however, finish the baby blanket:

Pattern: My own.

Yarn: Dale Baby Ull in sunny yellow and chambray blue, 4 balls of each.

Needles: Size US 3 knitpicks harmony circular.

Mods/comments: Well, no mods obviously. I just wanted a super simple blanket in colors that I knew the mother would like. I have an extreme bias toward very simple knits when they’re for babies. I broke up the monotony of stockinette with bands of ribbing and that’s the extent of the complexity. Oh and I actually finished this projects weeks before the baby is due, go me!

The llamas got their haircuts yesterday and it wasn’t a moment too soon with temps in the triple digits lately. They have been enjoying a kiddie pool under the shade of the persimmon tree to help cool off, but I imagine having a couple pounds less of warm llama fleece must be an advantage as well.

The lambs are growing so fast. They’re nearly as large as their mothers now. Absinth is becoming impressed with his own superior rammy-ness.

And even the littlest girls are nearly as big as mom now. The one on the far right is Anemone, who was the cutest baby and is turning into the ugliest sheep:

Eh. As long as her fiber is nice who cares?

We had one incident where Apricot was crying piteously and appeared to be blind and disoriented, though otherwise still in perfect health. Though I have no freaking idea what caused it, she did recover fully and additionally developed a further fear and aversion of me since I had to catch her and give her injections. I was fearful of sheep polio, though she exhibited only one symptom. We’re very glad she recuperated quickly as she’s a cute little thing and I didn’t want to put her down. Another incident involved a complete and total jail break. A neighbor stopped by at 10 pm to let me know my llamas were running down the highway. As it turned out, all animals had left the pasture through a gate that hadn’t been adequately latched. Luckily the people stuck around and helped me round them up, though the llamas were annoyed to be curtailed in their late night raid of the neighbor’s garden. Ouach wouldn’t be caught, but he at least followed all the other animals home. The sheep were merely waiting for someone to open a gate so they could pass through it again. For them, it’s about walking through gates, not the destination. I can’t tell you how grateful I am that someone stopped to tell me and that everyone was safely and quickly recovered. And that my neighbor wasn’t mad about the trampling and munching of his vegetables. Somehow I don’t think I’m missing a lot by not having children. The lady into whose hands I thrust leads full of llama as I caught them was quite shocked but handled herself well. She referred to them as “those things”, so I appreciate her all the more for doing it even though her hair might have been standing on end.

I don’t knit much when I’m stressed out, and lately I’ve been a bit on the worried side about things I don’t care to discuss at the moment. I’m working on Hyrna and though I’ve ripped it once it’s now going fairly well. I just don’t knit every day anymore and I haven’t touched my wheel in several weeks. My head clearing activity in warmer months is gardening and I’ve been hard at work out there. The area around the little pond is beginning to come to life and there are seven fish in my pond who will come to the top and look at me when I can tolerate the heat enough to sit on the bench out there. I didn’t name any of these fish this time. Slip and Slip joined SKPO in the fish pond in the sky just days before the weather warmed up enough for them to go back outside to live in a bigger, sunnier place. One of my new fish is a little sliver and black koi who swims really fast and likes to jump. I was thinking of naming that one Addi, but it hasn’t stuck yet.

All right, I’ll see you when I see you. It’s the best I can manage right now unfortunately. I’ve gotten several emails from people wondering what became of me so I knew it was time to poke my head in. Rest assured, it’s not just blog silence, I haven’t been to knitting group in months, either, because gas is way too expensive to make the trip down and my one day off a week where I could go is filled with desperate and fruitless attempts to catch up on chores. I’m MIA all around!

Yesterday, while out shopping, my mother-by-marriage fell and broke both her arms. I’m guessing it’s pretty severe because she was hospitalized and will be undergoing surgery any moment now. The DH and his family are all on pins and needles about the surgery and about the long road to recovery. She’s a strong-willed woman, even if she’s of a bit fragile body.

I’m a bit overwhelmed, as I’m taking on the responsibility of inter-familial communcation, and have been up on the phone since 4 am. (Dang Floridians gotta be 3 hours ahead of us!) My knitting sure has proven its as the soothing and meditative reputation 10 times over this weekend, and has helped me be the calm in the storm, and able to be there for everyone to help hold it all together. The DH is holding in there, the Sister-By-Marriage will be on a plane tomorrow. It’s the Dh’s father that has me concerned. He’s putting on a brave front, but I know he’s severely rattled. They’ve been married over 55 years now, and ARE each other’s life.

Back in 2006 I got a wild hair up my ass to make socks for the DH that, through average wearing would self felt. It succeeded. In fact, it felted so well that, even though the foot of the sock became a perfect fit, the legs of the socks became too short.

Thank wool I was able to find more of the yarn here, because my LYS no longer carried it. And since my discovery of magic loop, I was able to whip these puppies out in record (well, record for me, that is) time.

Of course, I wouldn’t be me, if I didn’t La-ify them. You see, on close inspection, I knitted one of the socks in-side out. And when did I discover this oh-so-shining moment of brilliance? After I had cast off both socks and was weaving in the ends, of course. Not gonna tell the DH though. He’ll never notice, and after another year’s wearing during Roman reenactment, I won’t either. Can you say dumbass? Sheesh.

What’s next? Glad you asked. Remember that Mission Possible thing I signed up for, but haven’t posted about in a long time because I haven’t really done much of anything on it? Well, that’s because all the fast and easy shit is done. Well, almost. All I have left on #7 is the shaving, the setting the grommets, and the attaching of the handles. Then it’s getting shipped to it’s new home. But while I’m procrastinating on that, I’m going to start tackling the bigger stuff, starting with…

12. Use up, throw out, burn (with video footage) or otherwise cause the scrap heap unexist.

(crap, I’m still missing a pic of the leftover superwash sock yarn…oh well…note to self)

The top row is all feltable, therefore the sock yarn, doubled on 4s and the worsted on 8s should make for some rather quick knits in the form of bags and pouches of indeterminate ugliness…pouches and bags that would be used to hid modern-day necessities at, say…a Roman reenactment event…happening in a country other than the one in which we live and the heart of the current contest I’m running here.

CLUE BY FOUR Why, yes folks, that was indeed clue #7 to the contest.

Anyhow, I’m gonna start with these yarn cupcakes…a nice baker’s dozen, and see just how many I can turn out before we leave.

Here’s clue #8

Email your entry to Jenla(dot)contest(at)gmail(dot)com by midnight Pacific time on July 4, 2008. Please include your Blog URL, Ravelry ID and your name in the body of the email. Please do not leave your contest entry in the comments section. Why would you want someone else to benefit from your cranial calisthenic? Only one entry per person, so make it count. Don’t forget to visit Fibercrack’d for bonus clues and for contest clue recap.

Have a great weekend!