The topic this time around is a virtual potluck and favorite holiday tradition.

To the Virtual Potluck, I bring you Soft Ginger Cookies. I actually made these for the company pot luck yesterday and I’ll probably make it for the pot luck my Norse studies group is having Saturday. Mmm, ginger cookies and spiced mead

My favorite holiday tradition is something we haven’t done in a loooong time. When I was younger, before my Grandfather died in 87, we used to go Christmas Tree Hunting. The entire family (Dad’s side – so we’re talking aunts & uncles & grandparents & cousins & dogs & thermoses of hot chocolate…) used to go out to some snowy tree filled wilderness and cut our Christmas trees. I miss that, a lot.

(moment of silence)

Anyway.

Yesterday I finally finished the sweater I was knitting for hubby. It’s pretty plain compared to what he wants (he’s a heavily cable encrusted aran kinda guy), but it looks awesome on him.

Details: It’s knit in charcoal grey Cascade 220. I used the Incredible, Custom-fit Raglanpattern, pretty much as written. I did put cables on the cuffs & hem, and knit a crew neck.

Photographic evidence:

In Ren News, Hubby and I have decided to run for Crown for our kingdom. I’m a little nervous, and a lot excited. I think we’ll have enough support to get it, but you know what they say about counting chickens before they hatch…

We’re also working on networking more in the area. We’ve found a few pirate groups and we’re hoping to be able to do some “Cross play” with them, help all our groups grow.

I did manage to get two pairs of socks knit – finally knocking down two items from the list I posted at the beginning of the year. Well, sorta. The socks I knit for myself got claimed by my sister, but I imagine I’ll still be knitting socks, there will be another chance to knit myself socks.

I’m currently working on a sweater for myself, Blue Alvarez Designs’ “Licorice Whip” in almost the required yarn (that’s a first for me!) – Blue Sky Alpaca’s Organic Cotton. I’m using a color grown in “Pebble” – a tan & cream tweed. In a coincidental aside, it’s almost identical in color to the gifted fabric I’m using for a Viking Hanging Skirt for Faire.

Of course, the sweater is on hold. I’m hand sewing trim onto the hanging skirt, and I have Elizabethan garb in line next. I have plenty of time, as soon as I figure out how to give up that whole “sleep” thing. I’ve been threatening to bring the hand sewing bits to work…

Work, of course, is interesting. Market pressures are creating internal changes and communication issues are compounding the chaos. All kinds of fun! Well, maybe not all kinds…

I do need to work to reduce my stress more efficiently. Beer, while fun, causes weight gain and is really more of a delaying tactic than a mitigating tactic, and the yoga program at work has gone to “Hot Yoga” and I’ve no interest in stinking my way through the afternoon…

Spoke with Miss Thing about the Fug last night. She wants it felted and bag-ized, so it will be. Felting begins tomorrow at some point…

Sweetie loves the idea of staying home with the kids so I can go to the knit store this weekend… it may have helped that I said I was going to bring some stash yarn and see if anyone wants it. I didn’t mention that I may bring more home…

See, I think I’m going to knit up a Sion purse for Crown War. And that will require 3-4 skeins of solid colored sock yarn. Oh, I know, sock yarn on size 0′s is positively HUGE for a Sion purse, but I don’t think I can manage 20 sts/inch, I’ll be happy with 9-10 sts/inch Yes, I’m a masochist. Why do you ask?

We’re gearing up for the Authi/Noxy II. I’ve found a great new site, I’ve got a theme that I think will be a LOT of fun, now I just need to start hammering people for RSVPs.

I’m hoping to at least get the undergarments for the German dress done this summer. The fun bit is making sure that I don’t go overboard on it… Oh, it’s just a basic chemise, corset, and bum roll, but of course I’m thinking about black work (On the collar. And cuffs. Maybe shoulders. Chevrons from the center line to shoulders are period. And all I have is white linen, so the corset will be boring – maybe I should put a nice big motif in the center front of the corset? It is back lacing, after all…).

Well, whatever I do with the dress, hopefully it’ll distract me – the kids will be at their dad’s from early June to late August. Sure, one on one time with Sweetie is good, but… argh. Moms, you know how it is – no one else can take Proper Care ™ of your babies! (Never mind that I have no complaints about how their Dad takes care of them, or that they are far from babies at this point…). I’m hearing horror stories from one of my friends who is sending her daughter off for summer at dad’s, so I’m just grateful that C&N have a good relationship with their dad and are excited about the trip. And they are very, very excited.

Well, last night we did it. Her hair is now a deep brown, almost as dark as mine, and it looks really good on her. She absolutely adores it. Caught her in the bathroom singing to herself in the mirror and admiring the new color this morning.

LOL and a part of me feels irresponsible for letting my 10 year old color her hair.

And in other news…. Reading Natural Cures They Don’t Want You To Know About by Kevin Trudeau and Fast Food Nation by Eric Schlosser back to back was probably not the wisest choice. These books will completely ruin you for mass produced food of any sort. And traditional medicine. Not that I needed help being anti- traditional medicine, especially not with this recent bout of goodness-knows-what. I think Sweetie has decided I’m buying into conspiracy theories, but with the amount of chaos I’ve run into trying to practice Aromatherapy and study Homeopathy and Naturopathy, I do believe there is substance to their claims. Mr. Trudeau uses a *lot* of hyperbole in his book, but given that it synchs up with what I’ve experienced and he states flat out that his goal is to be non technical and write something that everyone can understand I think it’s excusable (and a lot of his references are available on the associated website). Mr. Schlosser has more factual data in his book, and really, it’s far scarier than the other. At any rate, I highly recommend Natural Cures… and Fast Food Nation (although, the latter requires a strong stomach. Not bedtime reading!)

Happy stuff… I’m still trying to find sheet music to “Old Maid in the Garrett” so I can learn that one silly verse about “Come landsman come townsman…â€? – can’t seem to get the melody to stick when I sing it. I’d like to perform it at Crown War next month. If anyone has any leads, I’m eager to hear about it. I’ve got pickling eggs in the fridge (they aren’t pickled yet) and I’m debating between entering a period mulled wine (Yppocras) or doing some blackwork on a hanky or something. The blackwork is admittedly part of my cunning plan to get Aiden to submit something for arts. We’re going to work on it together. Of course she doesn’t realize that yet…

Well, February was a rough month. Two weeks conducting training, then a week miserably ill. The regular docs have no idea what’s wrong (my favorite was the guy who looked at me, while I was covered with a rash & so swollen that I couldn’t eat or hold anything smaller than a soda can and said “Well, your tests are negative. There’s nothing wrong with you.�), so I’m seeing a gal who does Applied Kinesiology & Allergy/Sensitivity Elimination and Retraining. *Shrug* we’ll see. It’s only been about 24 hours so I can’t really comment about how successful it’s been. I feel good, but I haven’t tried adding any of the stuff I’m not supposed to eat for the eczema back into my diet (because the roads are ugly out there… I’d *like* to drive out for a cheeseburger, but I’m thinkin’, why tempt fate? That jeep just means more vehicle to slide on the ice.)

So. Knitting: Heh. Yeah. Now that my hands have stopped peeling I can physically knit again. Now to figure out where I blew it on Sweetie’s sweater before I got sick.

The German Dress: Well, breathing new life into the underbits, at least. If fighter practice doesn’t happen (see note about ugly roads above) I want to iron the linen for the chemise and, if I have time, cut it. Hey, that’s a lot of linen to iron! I’m probably going to do at least some blackwork on it, so I’ll need to spend some time finding a pattern for that.

Kids: Well, doing what kids do, I guess. C. is having school issues ‘cause she doesn’t turn in her homework. Oh, and she’s sworn off boys, forever, because “I’m just done with them, Mommy.� I’m thinkin’, thank goodness! Apparently I’m not ready for this yet! N. is plugging along. He’s been working on getting his handwriting legible, which I’m sure his teacher appreciates. Hopefully it will pull up the rest of his grades. Report cards come at the end of the month, which means another trip to the bookstore for their rewards. Oh, woe is me, I have to go to Barnes and Noble… hmm, maybe we can compromise and go to Borders….

Work: Don’t get me started. Kinesiology lady thinks part of my issue is internalizing stress. Gee, I wonder where that comes from?

ECS: Well, another competitor for Source of Stress. Crown War is coming up, so I gotta get my ballot in (yeah, I know). I’m also working on projects for it – pickled eggs, a song (“Old Maid in the Garrett�, I’ll sing the version on www.contemplator.net. Er, .com? Nuts), and possibly some Hippocras (mulled wine, from a 15c recipe). I’d like to have the undergarments for the German Dress done in time to bring down and have judged as a masterwork, but I’m not holding my breath. Hopefully I can get the chemise done! LOL

Almost as funny as the wallet on a string, but not quite…

So, the baby knitting. Over the weekend, I decided to do Baby’s First Tattoo, from SnB Nation. In purple. White skull-and-bones motif on the chest. Yeah, it’ll be cool. J better dress the baby in it. At least once, so I can have a pic . And I think I can de-stash with it, so all the better

The event with Amptgard (um, I should learn how to spell that…) went really well. I think everyone had a good time and we made some great connections, which is always fun. It was loooong, because we had a skirmish Amptgard style, then had a defend-the-field round robin, quite time consuming. Skipped the planned bardic circle, but oh well, yanno?

Friday we were late getting out to the site, so a carload of early birds got semi-lost due to lack of signs. (That’s what they get for being early?). Finally got there with the trailer of porta-johns (ew), and spent a very long tiime setting up. Dinner was late and, well, blackened. Which is bad, since it was Norwegian Split Pea Soup (Ertesouppe for those who know it).

Saturday morning we started the Tournaments in Shinai, Rapier, and Steel combats. We took a long break from combat, everyone sitting together in the shade, during the hottest part of the day. Saturday night we had two Knightings (Huzzah the new Arts Knights!), held the Authentic/Obnoxious competition (Dame Arbella won Obnoxious, Sir Paul won Authentic, and Maximilan de Armentia won Authentic/Obnoxious) and had an impromptu bardic circle which resulted in my first non-recital performance since High School.

Sunday we did the combat melees. The scenarios were set up to follow a bit of a plotline: Our Love Interest had been given away in an arranged marriage. The True Love was trying to rescue the Love Interest. (Oddly, we had the “love” and “money” teams). In the first scenario, the Money team had the love interest, and was trying to get it from point A to point B, and the Love team was trying to rescue it. Love lost. Then, the Money Team had the Love Interest in a keep with a drawbridge, and again, Love tried to rescue the LI. This time, Love won. The third battle was Money trying to rescue LI from Love’s mountain stronghold. Again, Love won. Yay, love reigns supreme (even if I was on the Money team!). After combat, we judged the arts. This time we had an organized bardic circle with 6 performances.

Monday morning was tear down and get to civilization and a shower. And Slurpees, for some of us.

All in all, it was an excellent weekend. There were a few more snags than I’d expected, but then, these things happen.

Yeah, whatever.

C.’s favorite color is purple. She asked me to knit her Knitty’s Skating Queen in purple wool. It’s done, it’s beautiful, she loves it, yadda yadda. Yeah, pix coming soon. Ish.

Mom calls me one day, she’s en route to a new LYS. She’s going to the LYS because they carry Bamboo yarn and Soy Silk. She wants to buy me the Soy Silk to knit C. another Skating Queen. Of course, not in purple, she’s already got a purple one, so what colors? I give her a few ideas, and ask for a skein or two of the Bamboo to knit myself a scarf.

Mom comes back with two skeins of green bamboo for me, and two skeins of soy silk for C. In purple varigated.

HELLO! I JUST FINISHED THIS SKIRT IN PURPLE! I’M DONE LOOKING AT PURPLE PLEATS!

Did I mention Mom is hoping the skirt will be done when C. comes back from her summer in Miami? Fat. Chance.

Hmm, the yarn does feel lucsious though.

Gaah. Not like I don’t already have enough yarn & projects. And I just ordered wool from Knit Picks to knit two projects from the summer Interweave Knits (the fair isle skirt, which isn’t really fair isle, and the cabled shrug, which I don’t think is really a shrug, either).

On to other things….

The Authi/Noxy war is this weekend. We’ve got about 25 RSVPs. I’m terrified that I didn’t buy enough food. Well, I didn’t, there’s still stuff I need to buy, but that’s not the point! 25 people I consider good friends are coming out to party with me, and I’m supposed to be taking care of them and I’m afraid I’ll fail somehow. Not to mention, this is a major requirement for me to try and attain the next level of knighthood, AND the first event of our dominion… Flopping could have major ramifications!

I’m sure there’s a valid neurosis in here… ugh.

Is the upset tummy from lunch or nerves? Ugh. Must drink more tea….

I keep thinking things will calm down, but then, probably the only way that will happen is if I MAKE them calm down. Logic is a wonderful thing…

Planning phase for the Authi/Noxy war is drawing to a close. Next Friday is Zero Day. Of course there has been panic – Friday I got a phone call from the husband of the woman who’s doing the feast, he says she’s out of town for a family emergency, they will attend the event but she can’t do the feast. I scramble to come up with a Plan B., and she e-mails me today to tell me her hubby doesn’t know what he’s talking about, of course she’s doing the feast, heck, she was planning on doing the whole kitchen. Woo hoo! Major relief for me!

Of course, real life is getting more exciting. Tomorrow the kids leave to go to their dad’s. I’m really excited about the adventure they’ll be having, and the time I get to spend with Impact, but why does it have to be so far away? LOL Yeah, I know, “Hey, mom! Time to cut the apron strings!”

I did finally seam up Skating Queen for C. It looks adorable on her! The hem is a little wonky, but I think it’ll straighten out with a good blocking. I’m sure C. will want to take it to her dad’s, and I’m terrified it won’t get washed right, but ah well. She’s growing like a weed, for all I know it’ll be too small for her when she gets back ANYWAY, so what does it matter if it felts?

Ah, the joy of knitting for children. They grow. The knitted item doesn’t fit any more. Makes it almost ephemeral.