04.25.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:04 am by Lynette
As some of you know, my oldest daughter is having a baby. At this time her due date is May 20th. Today is her last day teaching at the High School. She was due to work through next Friday but she and her husband have decided the long commute and the fact that she is having contractions pretty regularly are a sign to stay at home.
Here she is on the first day of school:
And here she is now:
So let’s have some fun. If you are interested you can enter your name in the Baby Pool.
Email the following information to me at joylyn@charter.net
Your name:
Shoe size:
Email Address:
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Delivery Date
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Delivery Time
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Weight
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If there is a tie of delivery date and time, the tie breaker will be the closest to the correct weight. What do you win? A custom knit pair of socks from ME!
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04.24.08
Posted in Knitting, Redwood Living at 7:25 am by Lynette
I’m all about simplicity. This past weekend while making a chocolate cake it occurred to me that I AM all about simplicity. I like my chocolate cake simple - no filling, no chocolate curls, no sprinkles, just the uncomplicated taste of a Devils Food cake with a glass of ice cold milk. I like to taste the flavors of what I eat. I don’t want to have to guess what the ingredients are. The same goes for knitting. Sure, I can knit lace shawls. 
I’ve knit a few. I’ve also knit my share of cabled sweaters and difficult patterns to follow. The same with socks. While I can appreciate intricately patterned cabled and lacy socks, I prefer my socks to be straight knit and thereby let the yarn dyed pattern show off.
I spend a lot of time designing the dye patterns for my sock yarn. It takes 
about 2 hours to wind, dye and unwind each skein. All that time investment, I want to see the pattern of the yarn.
Clothing is the same. I’ve often said I am shopping challenged. When I attended public High School - in the 60’s - we had a dress code. Black, white or navy blue skirts with any matching top. Red skirts and white blouses on Fridays (the school colors). As a result of this strict dress code we didn’t have to shop. There was no competition for current styles, no malls to tempt us, no blitz of TV shows because we only had 3 channels. I didn’t attend a prom or dances so I never had to worry about what to wear. In my senior year when the dress code was voted out I was lost in the options. But it was too late for me,I found that plain and simple was what I knew and has served me well for the past 34 years.
Now you can see me in the same colors, jeans and tops. Black, white and navy blue with some red. Some would call me simple, easy, uncomplicated, homely or unsophisticated.
I prefer the positive - classic, clean, natural and sincere.
Simple is a good thing.
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04.23.08
Posted in Circular Sock Machine, Knitting at 11:48 am by Lynette
Newly listed in my ETSY store are Men’s Stone Washed Socks. The yarn is bamboo, wool, silk & nylon. The Bamboo gives these socks the added benefit of being antibacterial. Check them out shown here in their ‘natural’ setting.
Color: Stone
Color: National Blue
Color: Charcoal Black
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04.22.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 9:00 am by Lynette
This past weekend was weird. Really weird. I think we went through 3 of the 4 seasons in about 30 minutes. Sun, Rain, Hail and Snow. We planned on getting the greenhouse up and the deer fence started but the weather stopped us. I was pretty but try putting a greenhouse cover up while it is snowing.
Finally we got a clear moment and finished the job. The cover is now on and next will be the deer fence. I don’t want to put all the work into planting just to be feeding the deer.
Additionally, Bill the wonder guy cut out the bank so the homesite is basically cleared. He made additional room for the garage and it looks pretty good. We did find a bit of a ground water problem but that should not be fixed easily enough.
Even though we had to deal with the weather we got alot done and I feel things are moving forward.
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04.18.08
Posted in Gardening, Redwood Living at 8:32 am by Lynette
The old adage that life isn’t always fair can also be applied to my yard. I’ve toiled for years, YEARS I say; 19 to be exact. Digging, planting, pruning, fertilizing, building soil, adding amendments, killing slugs, patiently worrying about late freezes, snow and hail. And what do I get? What I say? This
Beautiful blossoms on my two pear trees. These trees were planted for the two oldest kids. They have never really produced pears. Mostly because we usually get a freaky high wind and pounding rain in April when they are blooming. But NOoooo, not this year. The year we’ve sold the house. The year we’re moving. Yes, the deal is final, the papers are signed and the loan has been funded.
I’m sure this year will be a bumper crop of pears. The new residents of our house will think what a bonus. Beautiful pears fresh for the picking from the trees.
Sometimes Mother Nature is just cruel.
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04.15.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 8:23 am by Lynette
We’ve been keeping in touch as our daughters have basically parallelled each other in these pregnancies. The added stressor in their lives is the son-in-law is deployed to Iraq (for the 3rd time I think). What a shame he has missed out on the birth of his second son. But because of technology he was able to keep in touch with mother in law via her blackberry and his Yahoo chat services.
All is well and you can check out the Daley Travels here!
http://www.daley-travels.com/welcome-to-daley-travels-you/
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Sock status. I’m trying to get through all the customer orders this week so I can concentrate on the one BIG order I have for Opal Sock Yarns. I need to finish up by May 15th so I can concentrate on packing and grandbaby.
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The swallows are back. There are 4 of them flying around with the males trying to get the attention of the females. I had big plans this year to drill a hole in the side of the nesting box and mount my internet camera. After all, if those nasty ladies can do it I should be able to arrange to have a feed for the birds. After talking with the computer wiz son in law I decided it would be too much trouble. Oh well, it was a good idea anyway.
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Today is the day, the loan will be funded (I hope). So this afternoon I notify all the subcontractors to get busy. We’ve got 5 weeks until the home will be ready to be delivered. When I say this to the road/trench/foundation guy he just laughs hysterically! I wonder why?
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04.14.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 12:24 pm by Lynette
For those of you who don’t know, my oldest is expecting her first baby (our first grandchild) in about 5 weeks. We had lunch today and here is the latest picture on the front deck.
She is doing great. Working every day as a High School Math Teacher. Commuting about 2 hours one way to get to work. She has done a much better job than I did managing her diet and weight gain. When I was pregnant with HER I put on 60 lbs. I still carry that 60 lbs and call it baby weight. The only problem is she is now almost 25 and going to have her own baby! I am very proud of how well she has juggled work and life. I know all her hard work will pay off with a healthy baby (girl hopefully since everything I’ve given her has been girly!).
Enjoy your day.
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04.11.08
Posted in Knitting at 8:08 am by Lynette
First
Start with a double strand knitted blank, dyed in a semi-random pattern
Second
Let the dye bleed and squeeze the fabric to run the colors together
Third
Unwind your damp blank into two mini balls.
Fourth
Knit up your socks. They will match perfectly and be a one of a kind work of art!
To request custom dyed yarn, visit my ETSY shop and choose the custom dying item. You can pick up to 4 colors. I’ll dye your yarn and either return it to you or knit up into socks for an additional fee of $7.00.
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04.09.08
Posted in Redwood Living at 6:30 am by Lynette
Yes, I wear the following badges proudly. After raising 4 children, all still mostly unscathed, two of which have reached adulthood in a semi sane condition….I think I (we) did good!
Eating out
If you have picked up pasta from a filthy floor, created a game with empty creamers, straws and sugar packets, drawn a pretty picture with the 2 blue crayons that the “too young to have kids” waitress gave you, or got your kids to eat something other than ketchup, you may wear this badge for rising to the occasion.
Sleeping
Do you sleep with your kids part or all of the night? Wake up with a porcelain doll in your back or a roll over and activate a dinosaur roar? Are your bedtime rituals so complex, a sitter needs to attend a special training seminar to get the job? For keeping your kids feeling safe and secure, you get this badge (not as good as four straight hours of sleep, but it will have to do until then)!
Reading
The requirements for this badge are simply that you read to your children, which sounds easy enough, right? But I bet you never thought you would read the same book so many times that you memorized the text, the images and even the pattern of wear and tear. If you know the words to any kid’s book, iron this badge onto your library bag and know that you have done a good job!
Diaper
Everyone has an episode of diapering significance! Have you experienced poop paintings on the wall, 
poop dripping from the Bjorn in the grocery store, poop in the tub, poop up the back and into your baby’s hair? Have you ever performed gymnastics trying to keep other siblings from getting into poop? Has your baby ever peed into your mouth? Explosive poops, indecent exposure,or cloth diapering; this badge tells your story.
Breastfeeding
This badge is to commemorate the nursing relationship, whether for a week or for years. Have you tandem nursed, nursed while pregnant or nursed twins? Breastfeeding is hard work and not as natural as it seems. If you produce milk for another human, you get this badge (and so much more). If you NIP you get a special nod of admiration.
Shopping
This is for the first time you take your newborn to the grocery store and strangers come up and touch his face during flu season and you maintain control. Also, for when you stroll through Target nursing a fussy baby while pushing a cart full of those great end-cap deals while trying to mentally organize each upcoming birthday party you will attend or throw for the upcoming year. Have you ever taken a couple of toddlers to pick up plywood, balloons or a load of mulch? How about doing your monthly grocery shopping at super Wal-Mart with 3 in tow? If you have spent money with babies hanging off you, climbing in and out of the cart or running away from you because they had to have “real high heels NOW,” then you may don this badge with pride.
Go here to see them all
http://www.mamameritbadges.com/shop/
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04.07.08
Posted in Gardening, Knitting, Redwood Living at 8:12 am by Lynette
When I awoke this morning at 5:43 I rolled over after sleeping in the same spot all night and thought. Is it Monday or Sunday? If it was Sunday I easily could have slept in which doesn’t happen much. If Monday, it was time to get up. We spent the weekend at the Riyescott Hill House (this is what we call it) which overlooks our property.
By 
staying there we were able to get alot of work done. The owners of Riyescott Ranch have decided to rent out their 3 bedroom 2 Bath house as a vacation rental. We were the first to try it out. If you are looking for a quite, secluded vacation home to stay a few days or week in, this is the place. Located above the Pacific ocean you have a 360 degree view of the ocean and mountain range in southern Oregon. It was quite, beautiful and restful. You can email Linda here for more information.
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Saturday we helped Linda sow one of her pastures with new rye grass seed. The kids learned the valuable lesson of throwing seed into the wind. Katie came home with grass seed everywhere; inside her shoes, hair, pockets and pants. That night we shared a wonderful dinner to celebrate the soon to happen close of escrow. Wine, tri tip and roasted potatoes/parsnips with green salad and strawberry shortcake. The company was good and the food great!
Sunday we finished loading the 3 raised bed with top soil we rescued from the soon to be cut away bank for our house. KT and I planted red pontiac potatoes and soft neck garlic. The third bed will get soy beans next weekend.
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It’s time to start thinking about what you will be knitting or corcheting for the Knitting Olympics this year. As you know, the summer olympics are in August. During the last summer olympics the Yarn Harlot floated the idea we knitters get involved in the Olympics by starting a project during the opening ceremonies and finishing it by the closing ceremonies. It was fun project to participate in and the idea really took off. You can go here to see more.
Since we will be moved by then I’m thinking about what I could challange myself to knit. A sweater seems like it will be too much. Especially a complicated pattern that I would really need to pay attention to. Maybe a top down sweater that is knit in the round, for me of course. I’ll need to start looking at patterns and decide which yarn to buy. Anyway, I encourage to join in the challange.
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Recession? Yes, I do believe we can officially call it a recession. Since my living expenses are not tied to my sock knitting business I had a revelation this morning in the shower. ( I always seem to get my best ideas in the shower.) I’m not going to let this downturn in my sales get ME down. I am considering this a good time to increase my inventory. In the past as soon as I would list a pair of socks they would sell. Now I can knit away, without pressure, and list the socks as they are finished. This way I’ll have loads of pairs ready for the fall/winter buying season.
How’s that for make lemonade out of lemons?
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