Tending the Earth

I gotta get out of bed
Get a hammer and a nail
Learn how to use my hands
Not just my head
I'll think myself into jail
Now I know a refuge never grows
From a chin in a hand and a thoughtful pose
Gotta tend the earth If you want a rose
...indigo girls

I'm tending the earth in my own way during these here Winter Games:


Two hats (one small, one quite large) and one pair of mittens (roughly pre-schooler size). The cream hat is Knitpicks Wool of the Andes in cloud, which was ordered for a Christmas gift but not used. The red is some old leftover Galway that was sacrificed for my first attempt at kool aid dye. It came out a really scattershot red with lots of variation, and knit up it actually looks kind of nice. Both hats are 100% wool and will hopefully keep two children very warm. The mittens are Encore worsted, using what I had left from adult-size mittens I made for my potential-future-sister-in-law, back in '04. I had just enough...there are only a couple feet left over. But the idea here was to use up some of the oddball leftovers in my closet.

I'm doing pretty well, I think, for being 3 days in. I would have done more, but Saturday ended up being crazy and yesterday ended up being a day of rest, laundry, cleaning, etc. I just didn't do the knitting I wanted to.

However, ya'll must have sent some good tax mojo my way, because our refund is going to be HEE-YOOGE. This does not put us in a much better financial position overall, unfortunately, because most of it will go straight into our IRA, which hasn't seen a contribution from us in several years. Now that we have a child, we are much more nervous about saving for the future...so there goes the lion's share of the refund. We'll use some of the remaining to re-pad our savings account, which took a severe hit in the last year due to home, auto, and child expenses.

Hub and I agreed we can each have a little tiny bit of cash to do with what we please, as a reward for being pikers all year long. I bet I end up using mine for Daughter. Husband wants me to buy something "nice" for myself but I already have a serious s.a.b.l.e. problem with both fabric and yarn, so the idea of buying more craft supplies doesn't really turn me on. I guess I'll just save my money for a rainy day or a sweater I really, really want to knit sometime in the future. Or I'll buy clothes for my kid.

Hope all your knitting (Olympic or otherwise) is going well. And if you're buried under mucho snow right now, all I can say is, hahahahaha, it's your turn! Just kidding...I know how this paralyzes a place like NYC and I hope it clears quickly for you.

But speaking of people who are snowed in (lame segue), how cool is it that Emily Hughes (sister of Sarah, 2002 gold medalist) gets to go skate for the USA? It's sad for Michelle Kwan, but it's not like she doesn't have a heap o' medals and awards already. She wouldn't have achieved gold anyway, as her body was in no shape to be pushed that hard. I admire her courage in making the decision to give up her place on the US skating team.

Also, I'm not very interested in snowboarding in general (I have never felt the urge to rocket down a hill on anything but a sled, and not even that since I was about 10 years old), BUT how awesome is it that Shaun White pulled it out last night to get the gold medal?!?

And one final Olympics-related comment. Before we went to bed last night, NBC was announcing the following day's coverage, and Bob Costas with the dead eyes let us know we could catch Olympic curling live at 3 a.m. eastern. "Awesome, honey," I said to Husband. "You'll have to set your alarm for that most exciting event. I know you don't want to miss it - and it's live coverage!" (No offense meant to any of you who curl, it's just not that riveting to watch.)

HA. Guess who was up at 3:30 a.m. with a crying baby?

Anyway, time to cast on for mitten #3.