Molly Bee's Attic

Oh the wonderful lessons learned in the last week: If you have a bag of frozen vegetables on your sore hip and an furbeast throws himself down next to you just so, the bag will explode and machine gun tiny bits of frozen carrots, corn, peas and lima beans across the living room. But have no fear, the fur beast will scurry around and eat the frozen carrots, corn and peas. You will have to pick up the lima beans yourself. Lesson: NO ONE likes lima beans . If you take 3 hours of your life to painstakingly knit a teeny, tiny, two-inch high, naked sheep, lots of people will see it, pick it up and want you to 'whip up one' for them. They'll even offer you a dollar. Molly Bee's First Law of Knitted Animal Holdage . When stuck in traffic, if you stop railing at the Universe for the delay and look out your window, you will see the first Belted Kingfisher of the season. Lesson: Submit and pay attention to the miracles all around you. If you are talking on your cell phone, no...

This was my last day of volunteering out to A-Z Farm. I swear if they asked me, I would spend every Sunday out there. This was the best one of all three of the days I spent doing knitting demos; though it was hedgehog-less (which is probably a good thing or I just may have come home with one for realz ). Mad City Mike came out with his sock machine and we got to spend the day working side by side! Mad City Mike And His Magical Mystical Sock Machine He's every bit as sweet and talented as he seems on his blog. I had a great time getting to know him and watching him work his magic. Everyone who came into the room was enthralled and he took time to really explain it to anyone who asked. He even let the little kids crank it! And get this...this is what I mean but being sweet...the man made a sock blank, dyed it my favorite colors (purple!!!), frogged it, rolled it onto his sock machine and made me a pair of socks! I KNOW right!? For lil ' ol me! And I got to see the making! To th...

Unusual in the sense that I rarely seem to post much about fiber-related stuff these days and unusual in the sense that I am now knitting naked sheep and then making 'clothes for them. (Oh, stop feigning shock. We all knew this day would come!) Here goes! Recently I: Spun up this bit of loveliness (and taught myself to Navajo ply-look out world!): Washed and packed up all of my hand knit socks. Winter is officially over at my house! Washed and dried all of the winter spinning in the spring breeze: And started spinning this Eastery mess: And the piece de resistance...(Warning! Nudity! Send the chilluns from the room and steel yourself for the following images!) A two inch high pocket sheep! A two inch high NAKED pocket sheep! (Don't say you weren't warned!) A woolly coat for a two inch high naked pocket sheep. What have YOU been knitting?

So many lessons from this wonderful week: If your 4 year old is running, strip stark naked, down the sidewalk towards a busy highway, and you're yelling " Tanner! Stop! Right! Now! I'm! Going! To! Spank! You !", you'd better be faster than Tanner because this tactic is not going to be very effective. [His Mom sounded so mad, I was yelling "Holy Crap! Run! Faster! Tanner! Run!]. You can catch more flies with honey... If you hold a hedgehog, you will reallyreallyreallyreallyreally want one. Molly Bee's First Law of Animal Holdage. Every single person you meet every day has something to teach you. Given enough time and thought, the gift of the lesson will be revealed to you. It's not always a warm fuzzy lesson. Some people are just put in your path to be a horrible warning ! If you are waving a Frisbee over your head and repeating in a goofy voice, "Doyouwantthis?Youdodon'tyou?YouwantthisFrisbeedon'tyou?!??!" to an 80 # dog and you win...

My life has been an embarrassment of riches recently both of the material and the spiritual variety. The material goods started rolling in when I won this little bit of heaven at the Knit In a couple of weekends ago: Friday night at Knit Night. I received this from Beth " Chocolate Sheep ": Oddly enough, it's a chocolate sheep ! Just the pick-me-up I needed after a particularly trying day at work. He's destined to hold stitch markers and counters methinks. Knit Night was another huge blessing. There's nothing like being with the Hoggen Bloggers to pull you out of a funk. Very special ladies each and every one. On Saturday, this Care package arrived from Knitzu . I won a drawing over at her blog . She sewed this lovely needle case and sent it stuffed with treats- maple candy and 'moose poop' (chocolate covered cranberries) for me, and Milk Bones for Mr. Ben. She also sent a wonderful card containing a couple of tufts of fur from the two pups I keep at her ...

This week's lessons: *What do you call an Irishman who stays out all night? Paddy O’Furniture. You can tell the same St. Patrick’s Day joke for 18 years and you’ll always find someone who hasn’t heard it . *A 3 year old boy disappeared from a local day care yesterday prompting a massive 2 1/2 hunt by emergency personnel. We all thought the worse. He was finally found asleep under a bean bag chair at the day care by a police dog. We all lost sight that sometimes there are happy endings . (Note to local law enforcement. Call me next time. Ben would have found him in under three minutes, especially if he had cookie crumbs on his shirt or a grape juice grin.) *As I said in my previous entry, the sock machine lady at A-Z farm was ‘less than successful’ during her demo on Sunday. This lesson was a twofer: High tech isn’t always better and ‘slow and steady really does win the race’. *I have reflected several times this week about my experience knitting at the Bishop O’Conner center on Sat...

That is to say implant…singular. (I oughta get some weird search hits on that title though, huh?) I went to the dentist to have the bone graft I got installed in December checked. It’s solid so this Thursday I embark on the journey to getting all of my teeth back. I still won’t get the actual implanted tooth for 6 more weeks but at least we’re headed in that general direction after all of the hurry up and wait of the last three months! Had a fabulous weekend as I knew I would. The Knitting Guild Knit In at The Bishop O’Connor center was wonderful. I parked my tookus in a quiet little nook overlooking a serene little courtyard and knitted the day away. And shopped. My favorite purchase? A pin that says “ If knitting was exercise, you could bounce a quarter off my a**! “ . And I won a fabulous door prize; a skein of (60% merino, 20% alpaca, 20% silk) bulky single ply that feels like snuggling a cloud. And get this…the color…Iced Violet!!!! It’s like the Knit Gods were watching! Speaking...

It just occurred to me that I will be spending the weekend thusly ; Saturday, in a monastery, and Sunday, in a lamb birthing barn. That has to say something about me, but I'm not sure just what. And I'm sure there's a joke in there somewhere...Monk walks into a birthing barn? Sheep walks into a monastery ( monkery ?)... In my ongoing effort to reach out and grab life by the ba...ahem...knitting bag...I sometimes end up in surreal situations such as this. Saturday is the MKG Knit In at what used to be the Bishop O'Connor Center in Madison. Dale Harriet and I will shop, lunch and knit to our hearts content. Best of all, Franklin will be there! It will be nice to see him again. He's such a cutie...and funny... I loves me a man that can make me laugh...and draws a mean sheep cartoon to boot! ( Note to self: Pack Depends.) Sunday, I will be at A-Z Farm doing knitting demonstrations during their Open House Lambing days. I KNOW right?!! Shhh ! They don't know I...

I've been fortunate to learn a lot of valuable life lessons. In my opinion, there's book smart and then there's common sense - andthe two are not mutually exclusive. There's formal education and there's wisdom.; one you can get from a book, the other you have to experience, endure and survive to get. While fancy book learnin' has it's place, if pushed to choose, I'll pick wisdom every time. Some of the lessons are painful, some are shocking, some are amusing, but they are each a gift. I've decided to devote Wednesdays to little snippets I've picked up during my education in U of Life. This week I learned: If, when involved in a discussion about the merits of Mane and Tail shampoo, you mistakenly call it Hoof and Mouth shampoo....#1. You can't try and cover it up like you never said it and #2. People will point, laugh and make horsey noises at you for the rest of the day. And a little bit the next day Even if it's a job requirement, gett...

The weather was great this weekend. I heard Canadian geese and Sand Hill cranes. It was warm enough to run around with no jacket. I got new sneakers: ...which despite their appearance in the picture are the grapiest grape color you've ever seen. Think grape Bubble Yum, purple crayons or Barney. [AND they were clearanced at $5! ]All these contributing factors point to one thing. Spring is on its way!!!! Must make a note to buy marbles, jacks and a jump rope...it won't be long now! Here's another purple thing; well, two actually. These are the sock toes I started in class last Tuesday. Despite being commanded to have them finished along with 7" (14 inches total!)of sock foot done by Tuesday (Yes, day after tomorrow, I know...) they look much the same as this photo from class five days ago. I knit and I knit and I knit and nothing happens. I swear to God! The socks don't get longer and the yarn doesn't diminish (although it tangles fabulously thank you very much...

What a busy week! Seems like I’ ve been on the go with one thing or another all week. Highlights include supper and a visit with friends, hanging with new folks in my building, lunch with friend Pat (lobster -YUM), a trip to the salon to get all blonded up for summer and a class at The Sow’s Ear on Tuesday night. I took the Two-At-A-Time-Toe-Up-Socks-On-One-Ridiculously-Long-But-Not-Really-Long-Enough-As-It-Turns-Out-Needle class. There were tangles, confusion, tangles, near strangulation, tangles, tears, tangles and WTFs . A lot of WTFs . And tangles. We cast on and learned how to increase for the toe. Our assignment for next Tuesday is to have the toe and rest of the foot to the heel done. I’ ve been working on it all week and have about an inch done. Sigh. It’s awkward and confusing but I’ll keep at it and see if it gets better. I guess after you’ ve knit 45 giggabillion socks on double points, that’s just what your hands 'know' to do so the change in method is difficu...

My Monday started out with a bang-literally. I dropped my blow dryer in the sink and there was a big flash of light, the loud blow drier noise disappeared and now I have a new paperweight. Some guy cut me off on the way to work and the pear that I had been lovingly rotating and ripening to perfection since Thursday, took a running start of the passenger seat and plunged into a pulp on the car floor as a result. I suspect Monday has it out for me. Unfortunately for Monday, I am feeling so much better than I did last week, I am ready to take it on! I'm strapping the seat belt around the M ineola tangerine I'm planning to bring back after lunch. Take THAT Monday. Had an interesting conversation recently with my friend Jason who naively thinks I should go sky diving with him this summer. I'll give you a minute to picture that, stop laughing, dry your eyes and gather yourself back together again. Go ahead. I'll wait..... Y'ok ? Good. Never say never and all that, but I ...