Jo Knits!

Getting older,

It's my birthday!!! So please help yourself to a cupcake, these have no calories, I promise. Why not take two then!

Last Saturday, we spent the afternoon at the Botanical Garden (we needed to be there for a meeting) and the kids had a blast taking numerous pictures. Most of the orchids were in bloom and outside many of the rose varieties were also graciously showing off. Sunday was spent at the Old port where an environment exhibit was taking place. We sat in a 4-H leader's lecture and learned a whole lot about recycling, my kids being the only kids there got to interact with the leader throughout the lecture. It was a great eye opener on simple things we can do to be even more earth friendly.

I have been spinning much more than knitting recently. It's a nice break from my constant sock knitting until... tomorrow, when Summer Of Socks 2008 starts. The orange roving is what Lucas is spinning, Zoe is working on primary colors and my own is the wool/soysilk pastels. It is a lot of fun seeing my kids do something totally different from most kids. Sure they aren't playing soccer like 95% of the kids in our neighborhood but hey, they make yarn! LOL! Zoe already wants to make a presentation about yarn making in grade four. I'm not spinning a lot of yarn on the spindle yet, mostly small skeins are produced but I'd love to knit up some of my own yarn. That's where this website come in handy: 500 patterns to knit with 1-285 yards of yarn! I'm thinking small headbands would be great for Zoe too, not too much yarn, I can use a lace stitch pattern so it'll use even less yarn. LOL! My ultimate goal though, is to one day be able to spin a yarn to knit socks from. That truly would be the top for me. :)

I HUGE congratulations to Lucas for passing his Aikido exam and gaining the yellow and orange stripe belt! He's going to receive it next fall (the teacher didn't expect so many kids would succeed!) The picture was taken of Lucas when he received a certificate + 30$ for basically being a good student all year. Yay Lucas!!!

I've been busy planning our whole summer schedule with swimming lessons (YAY! I finally found some!) and outings (there's movies and theater at the park). Right now a vacation to Ottawa is up in the air but I will do my very best to make it happen no matter what! Camp Junior Stitches should be back in session after taking a break last summer. I might even rent a tent from the sports store (not worth buying a tent to sleep in the yard less than a week per summer). Kool aid dyeing, needle felting and spinning classes are all in the works!

Here's a very non-Jo project, meet the latest Queen Anne's Lace shawl. I saw it on Ravelry and just HAD to cast on, I'm really not sure why but I just had too. The knitting is going slower now that I am at around 400 stitch per round. Since this picture, there's been 30 more rounds knitted which means I'm 35% into the project.

It's funny how, my daughter got back to spinning. Zoe is doing better than ever with her little drop spindle. We agreed on finishing the tiny piece of roving she had before jumping into the pencil roving she got in Ottawa. Lucas decided on some BRIGHT orange roving, he loves that color at the moment! He is done with homeworks for the school year so he's going to get back to spinning himself. Sadly Zoe has homeworks until the last week of school, she is not pleased about that. ;)

Six years ago I started to blog, it was my way to reach out to the world. I felt lonely as a mom of 2 and it help me make friends along the way. :) Back then I wasn't even knitting but soon enough I stumbled upon knitting blogs... Although the reasons I blog have changed along the way, there is so much I'd like to share but ...

Being a single parent family and stay-at-home mom just isn't very popular. It's hard to get sympathy if I'm broke (why don't you get a job! I hear) or when I'd like a small break from the kids (well they're at school all day!). Well because I like to complicate my life, the kids eat lunch at home everyday, which means I go meet them at school and walk them back after lunch. Most SAHMs I know have their own kids eat at school 'cause it's easier and it gives them a break. So why am I judged for doing it the hard way?

On the bright side, these days little things make me happy, in the past week I was asked if I'm over 18 and whether I'm an anglophone or not. I always feel like my english writing isn't good so that was taken like a great compliment! lol! As for the age thing, I almost bursted out laughing at the girl who asked me. Then the silver lining came when I was asked for parental advice, one even said she would always look up to me for advice. Dang it! It made my day. So there's good, there's bad in my life but right now I'm just looking for the rainbow 'cause it's way too easy to see dark clouds everywhere.