The Scottish Lamb

Popcorn anyone?!

I swear I've been knitting.  I'm on the sleeve decreases at the top of the first sleeve for the Must Have Cardigan and then it's done.  I should have lots of knitting time with Jeremy home and all the time we'll be in the car showing him around.

Here's a sneak peek at something else a few of us have been working on.  It's a square knitted in the round from the center out.  The yarn is Sherwood Forest Highland Wool from Elann.  the pattern is Gull Wing from EZ's Knitter's almanac.  That's all I can say, I can't say no more!  You'll see what it's all about in a few months.

I got an email from Jeremy this morning.  He's waiting for a flight to Kuwait.  Hopefully he'll get there tomorrow.  Please keep him in your thoughts and prayers. 

I'm finally getting organized with  Operation: Take a Soldier to the Movies.  I don't think I knew what I was getting into.  lol.  If you could see how many stairs we have to carry these boxes up and then back down again once "orders" are filled.  Whew.  Good workout!

That's 250 boxes (there's some on the table in the background)being packed  to ship down to Iraq.  Inside each box is a DVD, two microwave popcorns, an individual drink mix, movie candy and a letter from someone back home letting the solider know they are appreciated.  Finally got them all out this morning.  Here's the piles of boxes of donations I still need to go through:

Seems like a lot, but it goes fast once popcorn boxes start getting filled.  This is a great project for a school, church or scouts if someone is looking for something to do!!  You can email me here through the blog or my snail mail is listed on the Operations web site: http://soldiertomovies.org/

Time to go make Welcome Home Banners for Jeremy!

My Baby's Comin' Home!!

  Okay... he's not a baby anymore.  He's almost 23, but you moms know what I mean.  He will always be my baby.

I got an email from Jeremy a couple of mornings ago that he's getting his two week R&R from Iraq NEXT WEEKEND!!!!  We're going to do things around here for the first week and let him rest and then we'll take him skiing in Garmisch the second week.  They just finished the new Armed Forces Resort Center a few months ago and it's gorgeous.  Click and check it out.  It'll be a great change from the sand of Iraq for him.

This picture was taken at his Basic Training Graduation in Ft. Sill, OK in October 2001.  Dan was at the Pentagon assisting with the 9/11 investigation at the time, so it was just Daniel, Joe and I driving across country to celebrate with Jeremy.  Daniel and Joe are so little in it. 

We don't know exactly what day he'll get here, but I won't tell Daniel and Joseph until the end of the week or they'll be useless in school.  It was hilarious the other night with Joe.  It was the night I found out and Joe was saying his prayers.  We always do the Guardian Angel, Our Father and one Hail Mary.  After that he does his blessings.  After his Hail Mary he started the Sign of the Cross.  I asked him about his blessings and he said, "But I've been praying for a long time for Jeremy to come home and it hasn't happened yet"  I laughed and told him not to give up.  Then I asked him if he'd rather have Jeremy home or go to Garmisch (Joe LOVES Garmisch).  He said Jeremy.  Won't he be surprised when he gets both! ;-)

On the fiber front.... meet Molly.  Okay... it's just Molly's fleece but it's scrumptious.  Beautiful silver grey Romney.  I bought it from Melissa at Skylines Farm.  I wanted to scour it yesterday but it's rainy here in Germany so I'll have to wait for a sunny day.

Mia from Knit and Play with Fiber sent this UK Knitting Magazine.  It's a great one.  I actually saw the March issue at a bookstore in Stirling and now I wish I'd bought it.

I just finished up a gift project (can't show pics because I don't know if the person it's for reads the blog), so now I'm free for the home stretch on the Must Have Cardigan again.  About a sleeve and a half to go and she's done.

Hope everyone has a great weekend and a very happy Easter!

Back from Scotland

   We got home at 3am on Saturday morning.   I've spent the past couple of days doing laundry and getting the house back in order.  Now I have time to share some photos from our trip. 

We got into Glasgow City Center around 10pm on Monday night.  It was pouring rain and pretty much stayed that way for all of our trip.  It kind of adds to the ambiance of Scotland though so it wasn't so bad.  In fact, if the boys hadn't been sick it wouldn't have bothered me much at all.  We did miss out on a lot of scenery though because the clouds were so low.  That just means we'll have to go back! ;-)

We got our rental car Tuesday morning and headed for Stirling.  Thank God we rented the car.  The tour bus we were expecting to take around Stirling isn't running until after Easter.  Some of the things to see are quite a drive from the center.  We saw Stirling Castle, Bannockburn and the Wallace Monument.  It's a beautiful city.

From there we headed up to Aberfoyle where the Wool Center is.  I got to speak to one of the women that spin there and bought some of her hand spun.  All of the outside activities were closed because of the rain.

We continued on through the beautiful countryside to Crianlarich where our B&B is.  If you are ever in the area, Jan and Sandy at the Riverside Guesthouse were wonderful hosts and their place is simply beautiful.  This is the view we had from the large window in our room (the Dochart Room). 

It was the perfect middle point for all the places we wanted to go to.  In the evening we went to The Ben More for our dinner.  The boys made friends with the new owners' son, Charlie, and played pool with him each night while we enjoyed a pint after we ate.  Again, a great place.  The new owners have only had the place for a few weeks, but the food and friendly atmosphere was terrific.

Here's an outside shot of the guesthouse from their website.  Notice the blue sky?  We didn't see that. lol.

On Wednesday we headed up through the Highlands to Glencoe.

The scenery was gorgeous all the way up.  We had spurts of rain with little bits of sunshine that gave us great views like this on at the visitor's center in Glencoe.

They have a great exhibit on the history of the Glen.  I was happy to find out that my Campbell Clan was not as guilty in the massacre that happened there as was once thought.

Thursday was all about the islands of Mull and Iona.  We left the B&B at 6:30 so we could make it in time for the 8am ferry out of Oban. 

Look closely at this photo of our rental car.  See the green door?  Notice how much room is not left behind our car?  That was what you call a very close call.  Some dummy I forgot to reserve the ferry!!  I'm the most organized traveler on this planet and I forgot something as huge as that!!  As you can see, we just got on that ferry.   Our entire day would have been ruined if we had to wait for the next ferry a couple of hours later. 

After the 45 minute ride from Oban to Craignure on Mull, we drove straight across the island to Fionnphort to catch the ferry to Iona.  Here are Dan and the boys being cheesy for the camera with the Iona ferry in the background.

And another one below of some of the island sheep grazing.

It's a good thing we'd only planned on spending an hour on Iona.  The skies absolutely opened up on us and the only place to hide was in the alcove of the bathrooms by the ferry ramp.  Joe was the only one not in a waterproof coat.  He was drenched.   To make matters worse, as we got off the ferry back in Fionnphort a wave came over the ramp and finished him off. 

Our hostess from the B&B had packed a great picnic lunch for us.  We ate it in the Ferry waiting room in Fionnphort waiting for the rain to subside.   It didn't so we ran to the car and drove to see Minty on Ardalanish hoping she'd have a dryer for Joe's coat and shoes.  I forgot to mention... I finished the scarf in her own sheeps' wool in the car on the way to the airport but I completely forgot to take a picture of it.  Bad, bad blogger!  I bought the wool when I visited her farm with the Knitting/Spinning group in July. If you have really good eyes you can see it on her in this photo of her with her two-day old Highland calf.  How cute is he? (the scarf is the Robert Seaman's Scarf from Myrna Stahman's Book )

When we arrived she gave Joe a dry pair of socks and a wool blanket to wrap up in.  She'd made us a delicious cake with apples and bramble berries and some tea.  She made the boys some hot cocoa and we sat in her sun room taking in her beautiful view of the ocean. 

After tea, we went down to the weaving workshop and to the barn to see the new baby cow.  She showed the boys where her chickens lay their eggs (not in the hen house), let them climb up in the tractor and feed the chickens.  As we were leaving, she gave me one of her Black Hebridean fleeces to take home with me.  We only had about an hour before we had to get back to Craignure for the ferry back, but Minty managed to make us feel very warm and comfortable for the time we spent with her.

Here are some of the cows on the side of the one-lane road that goes through Mull.

We got back to Oban to wave at the camera.  Jeremy didn't see us.  As luck would have it, he started his shift right when we were there waving frantically at the camera.  We had a friend here in Germany text messaging us to let us know when the camera was on it.  It was actually pretty hilarious.  At least some of you all saw us and our friends here in Germany did too.  It would have been a shame if no one saw the goofballs. lol.

This is my favorite picture from the whole trip.  It's the boys with Oban in the background.

When I was in Oban in July I bought some gorgeous wool lap blankets (thanks for the tip, Dodie!) for about $20 each.  There was a sign saying they were on sale, but I thought it was a tourist thing and I'd get more when I came back.   They really were on sale because they are twice that now.  Argh.  Now I wish I'd bought at least two more.

The next morning we got up, ate our last full breakfast and headed back to Glasgow.  Somehow I navigated us directly to the car rental place without getting us lost.  Okay... Dan had to make a couple of illegal turns, but we got there.  I love Enterprise Car Rental.  They picked us up the first morning and gave us a ride back to Central Station when we dropped the car off.  We put our luggage in hold luggage at the train station and headed to the Science Center.  When we got off the train we realized we were only a few blocks from the car rental.  Now we know for next time. lol.

The boys LOVED the Science Center.  They've been to Science Centers all over the place, but we had this one to ourselves after some school groups left.  It was awesome.

We spent a couple of hours there and then headed to John Lewis so I could drool over the yarn.  The exchange rate was so bad that I didn't buy any but I did get the new Jaeger book.  I saw the cover sweater in my new Knitters just before we left and knew I had to make it.

That about sums up our trip to Scotland.  It was very hurried but we saw a lot and the boys loved it.  Next time we're going for longer than four days and we won't try to fit so much in.

I miss it already.

On our way

We're on our way out the door to Scotland.  We'll be waving at Jeremy in Iraq from the Oban webcame:

http://www.oban.org.uk/webcam/index.html

on Thursday at 1700 Scotland time (that's Noon Eastern U.S).  If you want to see us waving for ten minutes (it takes the camera about ten min. to go around) then come check us out!  I'll have much to report and plenty of pics next weekend!

Thanks Secret Pal

My first package arrived from my Secret Pal yesterday.  There were six balls of my favorite yarn (Highland Wool from Elann) with a card from my SP saying she thought it'd be fun to felt with (great idea Secret Pal - it'd be great for a bag and I love the way HW felts!), a cute little crocheted rose that I'll pin to my black wool dress coat and a tin of very special tea in silk tea bags.  Way cool.  Today was a perfect day for a cuppa.  It's grey out and I'm in a bit of a funk .  I pulled out my Polish Pottery tea pot and enjoyed this little gift right away:

I'm about 1/4 done with my first sleeve on the Must Have.  I actually thought I might have it completely finished to wear to Scotland but I doubt that now.  We have a full weekend and we leave Monday afternoon. 

The trip to Scotland has restored my interest in Genealogy.  Which would explain why I've hardly done any knitting, posting or reading blogs in the past couple of weeks.  I'm amazed at how much information is to be had online now!  I spent many days in the Library of Congress and National Archives while I was stationed at the National Security Agency.  It's amazing to me that I can now find almost everything online in a few hours that took me days and days to find "by hand".  All of my ancestors on my paternal side are Scottish with the exception of a wee bit 'o the Irish and some English.

Dan is now wanting me to research his family tree.  Except for his maternal grandfather, who was German with some French background, all of his ancestors came from Mexico.  What, exactly, does that make our kids? lol.  And that's not even getting into my mother's side where there's a lot of American Indian and I'm not sure what else but I think there's some German in there since my Grandfather's last name was Shaver. 

Time for another cup of tea....

Brown Sheep Squadron

  This is a 1st Armored Division soldier fixing the concertina wire to keep wandering sheep out of an Army compound.  Their wool and faces look just like our guys' desert BDU (Battle Dress Uniforms).  Too funny.

On the knitting front... I'm a little more than half done with the 2nd front piece of the Must Have Cardigan.  I also did the ChicKnits Shaker Rib Hat:

It's a quick and thick hat!

The week before last I'd forgotten that I took pictures in Joe's K-garten class after I did the spinning demo because they were on the letter "S".  I gave them each a piece of wool and a card with a sheep outline and spinning wheel on it.  They made up their own little souveniers.  Here are some of the kids:

Party Pooper

I promised Roxi  I would do this over a week ago and kept forgetting when I posted (Sorry Roxi!!).  So here we go:

1. How much space is left on your TiVo or Comcast box?

We're in Germany.  Don't have TiVo or Comcast.  Something to look forward to when we return to the States next year? We have AFN (Armed Forces Network).  Seven channels!!  But we get every major primetime show on those seven channels and no reruns.  Not bad.

2. Have you ever bought a DVD of a TV series and, if so, which one?

Yep.  The Shield,  CSI and NYPD Blues My husband's a Criminal Investigations Agent, can you tell?

3. What was the last TV show you watched before reading this message?
Desperate Housewives (they treat us well on Armed Forces Network)

4. List five TV shows you won't miss...

Survivor and several Food TV shows (Rachael Ray, Paula Deen and Alton Brown)

5. Name three people -- pass the stick.

It took me so long to do this I think I'll just go along with my party poopin' attitude and let it end here.

Good surprises

  I've said it before and I'll say it again, I have been blessed with the best friends.

This gorgeous pair of socks arrived in the mail the other night from my friend, Jessica.  I met Jessica on the knitlist about eight years ago.  We were email pals for a few years and then when we moved back to the States we got to meet up in person a couple of times.  Thank You, Jessica, for knitting for me and for being such a good friend!

Not only is my friend a great knitter, she can quilt like you wouldn't believe.  She made a quilt for Joe when he was born that remains his comfort to this day.  In fact, his kindergarten class was on the letter "Q" last week and that's what he brought.  That quilt has been all over the world.  I can't tell you how many times it's been washed and it's still like new.  Some day his babies will be wrapped up in it.

I spent some of this morning spinning up the carded batts that I did last week on the new drumcarder.  Wow.  I really wish I could get a closer shot.  This stuff spins like butta.  I need to get busy because I have two more fleeces reserved for this year and guess what time it almost is...  Though you couldn't tell it when you stand outside in the frigid weather.  We are supposed to get another dump of snow this weekend.  Holy smokes... will Spring ever get here?

Crunch

Here's what I accomplished yesterday:

This is what happens when plastic meets plastic.  I bumped... and I do mean bumped... a little Ford Escort.  His little bumper has one small crack in the middle of it.  Thankfully, the jolly German man was very understanding and nice about the whole thing.  He spoke English to boot.  He said he'd just done it to someone else a few months ago.  It's funny because someone just did it to me a few months ago too. We called the Polizei and they said to just exchange names and such.  Cool.  No ticket.  The whole thing took less than 20 minutes.  Could have been much worse.  Still... it's agitating that split second is going to cost us a $500 deductible to change the bumper out.    The repair shop that replaced the back bumper when I was hit last Spring will now have the honors on the front one.  The man that runs it thought it was all very funny.   ha. ha. ha.

I did manage to finish the left front of the Must Have.  The V-neck worked out just fine.  It hits right in the middle of my boobage.

I've started the right front and just about at to start the pattern.  Then the sleeves and we're good to go. 

We plan on only bringing four backpacks to Scotland so we don't have to check any baggage (we'll only be there that first night and then four full days).   I'm going to try to take my knitting on the Denise needles.  If they give me trouble I'll just take it back out the car before we take off.  I really don't see me getting much knitting done during the trip. My nose will be pressed to the window watching the scenery, but I'll at least get the three hours to the airport to knit.

I need to catch up on blogs and email.  I've spent about 98% of my computer time planning out the trip.  I think it's all pretty well planned out now.  Pretty much everything I said in the last post but by car now and we've finalized all plans.