What is everyone up to this summer

I am sure everyone is busy knitting away this summer or gardening or traveling or, like me, keeping grandchildren and/or grandpuppies.

I have been knitting on a series of little cotton dresses in Paton's Grace for my grandaughters. It is a pretty yarn, but heavy. I hope to get the patterns worked up to sell on Etsy... to support my habits. I don't know what I'll do for the boys, but they will want equal knitting.

You can skip this rant if you wish:

This is going to be a very expensive year. Hannah has graduated high school and starting JSRCC in August to get the courses she needs to start with Bon Secours Nursing School in the spring. Bryer is 8 months old now. Hannah is losing her very meager child support right when we need to buy her a car, pay school fees and put health insurance on her and the baby... Would you believe, because we are farmers, she does not qualify for financial aid???? Something is wrong with this system. Poor hubby works 16 hour days 24/7 365 days a year for less than minimum wage and they think he should sell something to put his stepchild through school while we support her and the baby.... Our health insurance alone is half of our regular monthly income and I suppose most of you know what has happened to the little bit of investment income we used to have.

Sam has come back home to live, but we have yet to move everything out of my stash room to give him a place to sleep...Perhaps this weekend...Will I ever have my own space? I am trying not to complain too loudly. I'd rather have the kids here where I know they are okay than elsewhere...

The Rascals are doing great. Pepper and Rascal have enjoyed brief visits with their daughters recently. The former Darla, now Gracie, will be coming to stay for two weeks starting the 23rd with her sis the former Jacquie, now Darla, while her mom is visiting family in Paris. Hopefully her sister Jetta, formerly Jennie, and the former Dottie, now Georgia, will be able to visit for a puppy party. We do have a lot of name confusion when they visit. Perhaps I should revert to "girls" again. It is fun that they don't seem to forget each other.

We also have an extra big mouth to feed. Gizmo is staying with us. She is a foster that belongs to a friend of my son. You can look her up on Craigslist pet forum. She is a lovely dog that is supposed to be a lab dalmation mix, but working with her, I get an inkling she may also have some border collie in her. We have a goat and she shows classic border collie behavior with him and she will fetch for hours non stop. I am working on her with basic obedience and she is coming along nicely. She is a great dog, but I really can't keep a fourth dog. She in turn has adopted a tabby male kitten from the barn. Why he chose her over the three dogs that are more his momma's size and color I can't tell you, but he is her constant companion....so if anyone wants a lovely dog and a kitten let me know... I'll deliver...

In the meantime, I'd like to stimulate some discussion. What is everyone up to and would we like to plan a get together or some get togethers? I am still in need so some spinning instruction. The spinning wheel and I went all the way to visit her former mom, Diana at their studio in WV for Rustic Tarts and Old Farts... with Eugenia in tow, but we never got around to a lesson. It was a lovely day...Eugenia enjoyed visiting on the drive. Found we had a lot in common, like being bookaholics as wells as fiber addicted. One of our members, Pat Kirkland of the YarnBarn brought a van full of yarn and I bought some great Melody selections. One a beautiful teal mix is going into a Reverse Farose Peacock shawl. I have the center portion worked out in the shape of a peacock's body and Leo (Dear MM or MMarioKKnits) is going to help me adapt the feathers in the tail to fan out behind it.

Pat is currently doing a design workshop on EZasPi(@yahoogroups.com). If you haven't dropped in recently, it promises to be very informative, especially for those of us who find we don't fit the norms in most patterns...

Ya'll pipe up now and start some chatter.