Helpers

Miss D readily agreed to be my model today.  She usually hates modeling for me and I have to bribe her. Today she jumped at the chance... because she wanted to practice her fainting pose.

Where does she come up with this? She is such a drama queen. I did get a few "normal" poses.

Here is Oats making a reappearance from my Jury Duty Knitting post.  I said it would be much better on and boy is it ever.

Here is Easy. I used Lorna's Laces in Dandelion.  This is 435 yards of sock weight yarn on size US 2 needles. For you non-knitters this means thin yarn on a small needle which translates to lots and lots of very tiny stitches.

Both of these are from favorite designers of mine.  I will knit anything by Tin Can Knits (designer of Oats) or Martina Behm (designer of Easy). I highly recommend all knitters checking them out if you haven't already. 

While Miss D was a model model, Stormy decided that modeling is not for him.

Good help is hard to find.

As I mentioned in my last post, I finished two yarns.

This one is from Crosswinds Farms in Eldridge, IA (my hometown). It is 100% Shetland.

The beautiful green yarn is 100% wool.  Merino wool, I think.  I don't have a label. I do know it was hand dyed at The Fiber Universe in Peoria.

With all these finished projects, I don't have anything significant on the needles or wheel, but I do have a few good ideas.

Jury Duty Knitting

Last week I was summoned for jury duty for Peoria county.  I know lot of people that say they dislike jury duty.  I don't tend to hear a lot of positive things about it.  Yet, it remains a cornerstone to the U.S. justice system. Without jury duty, there are no juries and a having a juried trial is a fundamental right established by the Constitution in the Bill of Rights.

Personally, I like jury duty. I love that I get to do my civic duty. I am one of those people that vote in every election, too.  I think it is amazing that I, as a normal citizen, get to participate in the justice system. Last time I was called for jury duty in 2012, I ended up on Coroner's Jury. That was a very interesting experience. This time, I was close to being put on a jury for an assault case, but the defense excused me.  I guess they didn't like my answers.

Beside from that near encounter, I sat in a room, watched Netflix on my iPad and knit for three days. It was a pretty simple job. I am blessed that my employer still pays me on days that I am at jury duty, I know from talking others in my jury pool that this is not the case for many. Last week was pretty much perfect for being on jury duty because most of my big work projects for the semester were completed the week before.

So I sat, watched Gilmore Girls (I binged all week) and knit. I can't believe some people show up to jury duty with nothing to do or read. I think I would dislike jury duty if I didn't come prepared. If knitting and Gilmore Girls became uninteresting, I had two books packed as back up. I don't like having nothing to do.

I finished one knitted item, started and completed another and nearly finished another.  I also got some time to spin yarn (after being dismissed for the day).  I can't complain about jury duty with results like this.

I finished the Newborn Baby Blanket in Malibrigo Rios.

I used a new crochet bind off on this blanket and I think I am in love.  It was the perfect bind off.  I usually have a really tight bind off edge but not with the crochet bind off.  It is definitely my new favorite.

I started and finished Oats in Cascade Pacific Color Wave.

I actually finished this one before the other so I used Jeni's Stretchy Bind Off which worked okay.  I can still tell the difference between the cast on and cast off edges and I don't like that, but I can live with it. I need to get Miss D to pose for me wear this cowl (infinity scarf) to really show off its beauty.

I'l have to show you the rest in another post. The completion of these projects, brings me to my goal of 12 projects for the year already.  I guess I really underestimated.  Plus I made a ton of hats.  So maybe I will now have to say hats don't count toward the 12.

So what are your feelings on jury duty?  Do you go prepared? Should hats count toward my goal?

Seven

The celebrations for Miss D's 7th birthday are complete. Seven started out pretty great for her. She spent the whole week of Spring Break in Iowa visiting between her two grandparents' homes. On her actual birthday she got to eat her favorite foods while having lunch and dinner at restaurants.

The next morning, she had a pool party at a hotel with her cousins.

The following day was Easter so the Easter Bunny visited. Easter night she had a sleepover with cousins.

Now this past weekend, she had her first ever birthday party with friends.  She invited 11 girls and they had a great time. We really lucked out with the weather, her party was the best day of the week. The weather was absolutely perfect for playing outside all afternoon.

Seven is the beginning of a pretty lucky year for her.

Miss D turning seven also means that I have been a mom for seven years. That's about 20% of my entire life and the vast majority of my adult life. I told Miss D why her birthday is so important to me, because it is the day I became a mother, and she thought that was pretty good.

With my seven years of experience, I am no expert in child rearing.  If I practiced any other craft day and night like I practice mothering, I would expect to be pretty good at that craft.  Yet, with parenting, everyday is different and new and I have to learn right along side my kids how this whole thing works.  Many days are great, many days are not. Some days are so horrible I don't even what to think about them.  And then there are days like when your daughter turns 7, days I want to remember forever.