missouristar

You would think that being mostly home would mean I have plenty of time to catch up on the blog. But you would be wrong. Well, maybe not completely wrong, There is a lot of time, but I seem to be able to find plenty of things to fill it. I will say that I seldom get bored! So, where to start?

Well, for starters, I have passed Level 3 of the Master Hand Knitting Certification! I am done and am certifiable (although many people already thought that). As I mentioned, the capstone project was to knit and write a pattern for an Aran Knit sweater. And here it is.

I have to say that it is the best fitting sweater I have ever made. It wasn’t without a little heartache. This is the second sweater I knit. The first suffered some major problems and I abandoned it and started over. But now I’m done and can go on to other projects. I need to work on a sweater for my son, one I’ve started for me, and of course, I must start a new project because, well, because I can. This is the first square of a blanket called Indian Nights. This project reeled me in because it has elephants in it! Not in this square, but stay tuned. Oh, and birds.

I’ve also been doing some piecing. Our quilt guild had a big estate sale from one of our members who passed away and left all her quilting supplies to the guild. I got an Accuquilt cutter for a song and purchased some dies for it. I’ve been randomly sewing squares with fabric from my stash and haven’t even touched a fraction of the stash. These will be used in a charity quilt.

And – Emma! She has been our real joy and diversion. Last you saw she was a wee pup, but she’s grown and is now a teenager, with all the attendant angst.

Her latest thing is refusing to eat unless we add something extra to her chow. Our vet has advised us to nip this behavior in the bud, so starting last night she is offered only chow, with no extras. You can see her opinion of this in the last photo. She refused dinner last night and breakfast this morning. Our vet assures us she won’t starve herself, so we are waiting it out. Stubborn little girl!

In closing I guess I should put in some musings about the pandemic, although sometimes I just wish I could forget it. We are doing very well. Cases in our area are fairly low, but people here are very careful and are overall pretty compliant with mask wearing, etc. In the early days we were pretty isolated and everything was closed. But now we’ve settled into a routine and can get out to do shopping. I have a couple of ladies I walk with three times a week, weather permitting. We’ve been able to see the Snohomish family over the summer outdoors. Sadly, fall is descending and outdoor meetings will have to pause. We’re allowing my sister into our quarantine bubble because she lives alone and is very, very careful. So, she’ll be joining us for Thanksgiving and Christmas. Unfortunately the granddaughters and family will not. To do so, we’d have to ask them to quarantine beforehand. With online school only, we just cannot ask them not to hang around with a few friends. We all are in agreement on this – they have been very careful about our safety, and we are so appreciative of that. But we text and Zoom and I know we’ll get through this. We can whine and cry, but previous generations have been through much worse. The most disheartening thing about the whole pandemic has been the utter selfishness of some who insist on their “rights” and just prolong the whole thing. And the conspiracy theories – don’t get me started.

Ok, I promise to do better. I don’t even know who out there reads this, but I’d like to keep it up for myself, as a journal I can look back on. Until then.

It’s been over a year since I’ve posted on my blog. Over the year, I’ve considered whether I even want to continue. It’s not like I have a ton of readers and my parents, who followed it faithfully, no longer have a computer. They keep up with their brood (or most of them) via Facebook on their iPad. There were so many things that competed for my time. Funny how things can come to a screeching halt! From a retirement life that seemed way too busy, we have now progressed to a life where we only leave the house for essentials and any visitors we have are relegated to the yard or the front porch – at a good arm’s length away. So now seems to be the perfect time to restart. Perhaps the process of journaling and writing things down will help alleviate my anxiety.

For the record – we are in good shape. We are both retired with a steady paycheck coming in and we don’t rely heavily on our investments. We have enough food to tide us over, although we’re being careful and eating up every last scrap of leftovers to stretch things out. I think we may even have enough toilet paper if this doesn’t go on too long. We both tend to be home bodies, enjoy each other’s company and have hobbies to keep us entertained. In fact, I doubt the isolation will last long enough for me to finish all the quilts I’ve started! And – to top it all off, we have a new puppy! For those of you who’ve followed the blog for a while, you know that we had a dear sweet Corgi, Maggie. Sadly we lost her a few weeks ago.

It was pretty sudden, but we are comforted that right up until the day she died she was happy and playful. She had a good run of 12 1/2 years and will always be remembered fondly. We are the kind of people who are bereft without a dog, so we started the search fairly soon, thinking it might take quite some time. But we were thrilled to find out that the breeder we got Maggie from had a large litter – 11 puppies! Poor mom had to have a C-section. She was keeping several of the puppies for show, but offered us the pick of the litter of the rest. Imagine being seated on the kitchen floor with 11 sweet little Corgis (and mom) crawling all over our laps.

One little puppy quickly caught our eye. Although not shy, she seemed very calm and laid back.

We immediately laid claim to her and named her Emma. The breeder said we had to wait another week and a half to bring her home, but that ended up being moved up because of the virus. The breeder wanted to get puppies to their new homes before any travel restrictions. For us it wasn’t a problem since she was on the island, but we didn’t argue.

Emma has proved to be an excellent little puppy. Within a day she was almost completely house trained, letting herself in and out of the doggy door on her own. We still monitor her, though, since we have eagles who hunt over the house. At first she was a little clingy, but is starting to get a little more adventuresome and looks for trouble to get into and things to chew. We had a big bowl of water for her which she tipped over (twice) and had great fun paddling around in the puddle on the floor. This morning she engaged in what we call “Zoomies”, a trait of Corgis. She starts at one end of the house and runs as fast as she can, diving behind the toilet and under tables. It’s quite fun to watch. She slept through the night the first night in her crate without whining.

She’s certainly not perfect – it is like having a toddler around and you can’t let down your guard for a minute lest she get into trouble. And at times she can be a little needy – wanting all of our attention. But she is responding well to training and we have plenty of time for that!! And how can you resist a sweet puppy gaze?

Or this:

I’ll also have time to work on my Master Hand Knitting Certification. I passed Level 2 and am hard at work on Level 3 – the last level. I have all my swatches done, one of my 2 reports, and my 2 magazine reviews. All that’s left now is a sweater and a hat. One has to be Aran knit, the other Fair Isle. I must design, knit, and write the pattern. I’ve finished the back, front and one sleeve of the Aran sweater and just need to finish knitting the second sleeve, sew everything together and knit the collar. I haven’t even started the hat. I’ve been putting it off because I didn’t have time, so . . . .

The granddaughters are continuing to grow into delightful young ladies. Isobel is in high school and Ivy has started middle school. Several months ago they spent a few days with us and we had fun sewing a quilt.

This will go to one of our quilting group’s charitable projects. I’m so glad we had this time before we went into isolation. This is one of the hardest things, not being able to hug and cuddle with them. I’m comforted that the virus doesn’t seem to hit healthy children very hard, but they can transmit it and since we are now considered elderly (when did THAT happen?), if they come they must stay outside at arm’s length. Fortunately they and their parents are taking it well and we have many other ways of keeping in touch. In fact, I will leave you with a photo that Ivy texted us from their camping trip yesterday. That girl certainly has a good eye!!

I’ve been looking at ways to get more organized and lately I’ve seen a lot of hype about Bullet Journals. I won’t go into a lot of detail, but it’s basically a journal with all of your to-do lists and calendars in one spot. The intriguing thing about it is that it’s not a one-size-fits all deal. You really can adapt it to your needs. You can use any dime store notebook to start, but I knew if I had something pretty I’d be more likely to use it. Here’s my Dingbat:

Here’s my monthly page (with private info blurred out):

And here’s one of my project pages. I had all kinds of notes scattered everywhere on this one and I love that I can see my progress at a glance.

You can make them plain, but I like the ones that have at least a little colorful doodling on them. I’ll keep you posted on how well this works out for me.

One of the things that I find is that the urgent things (or at least what I think is urgent) take up space from the things that are important to me. I resolve to improve my machine quilting and then find that a month has gone by and I haven’t even touched my machine. And my blog! I had such great ambitions at the New Year and when checking back today, discover I haven’t updated in over three months. Bad blogger!

But that means that I haven’t posted that I passed Level 1 of my Master Knitter’s Certification. And as you can see, I am well on my way to Level 2. We were snowed in for a week in February and that really gave me some concentrated time to work on it. Most of my swatches are done and then I just have the three projects and a history report to do. The front and back of my vest are finished and blocking:

Just the finishing to do, but they will be looking at that with a fine toothed comb, so I will need to go slowly and carefully.

And, closing as I usually do with granddaughter news. Ivy made All State Choir, so in February Abby and I took her down to Portland (I know – the irony of the Washington State Choir being held in Oregon). While she practiced, Abby and I did touristy things, including Powell’s Books. Oh my! Then we joined Ivy that night for the concert. They were amazing! So proud of this girl.

As the New Year approaches, it’s once again time to revisit New Year’s Resolutions. I’m a big believer in them. Not that I always manage to keep them, but the new year does give you a chance to set some goals. I’m trying to keep them attainable.

First off – waste and conspicuous consumption. Over the holidays hubby and I have been appalled at the amount of food that we end up throwing away. For some reason we’ve gotten in the habit of cooking for a crowd, even though there’s only two of us. We kid ourselves that we’ll eat up the leftovers or freeze a few meals, but not everything can be frozen and we get tired of the leftovers after a couple of repeats. So I’m digging out my Cooking for Two cookbooks and have ordered several more from the library. I will keep you posted on the successes and failures and will showcase some of my favorites recipes.

And in the area of conspicuous consumption, instead of beginning new projects, I need to seriously look at the projects I already have started. I’m not too bad in the knitting department (although I do have a stack of shawls that just need blocking), but I have a boatload of quilt tops that need to be quilted and a brand new quilting machine that has been seriously underused. Gonna work on that. One of the first up will be the latest quilt that my Round Robin group worked on. We all used the same patterns, but our own fabrics.

I’m going to continue to work on improving my knitting. I received my Level 1 notebook back from the reviewers, and as expected, I did have some resubmits. Five of the 18 swatches needed to be redone, and one remeasured. There were also a handful of questions to be redone. Most of the mistakes were due to carelessness or not reading the instructions correctly and were easily remedied. Thankfully, my report and the mitten project passed! The resubmits have been sent in and now we wait. In the meantime, I’m continuing to work on my cardigan. Since the photo was taken, I’ve finished one sleeve and am working on the second.

A couple of quick photos of our visit to my parent’s in Missouri.

They are both doing well and are continuing to recover amazingly from the flood that almost destroyed their house about a year and a half ago. Although they lost almost everything, they have rebounded and are living in a very comfortable and cozy two bedroom senior apartment in the next town over. We were able to go visit the old house. They ended up giving the property and the shell of the house to the neighbor who alerted them to the flood and saved their lives. He has been working hard and we were so pleased to see that the house is once again a home!

Contrast this to the last time we visited when the interior was down to bare studs and you could still see the mud line about 7 feet up the wall.

I’ll leave you with some Christmas photos. It was a little low key this year. About three weeks before Christmas I ended up in the emergency room with a gall bladder attack. All that stuff they say about how painful it is? Yup – all true. Anyway, I got great care and they admitted me and did surgery even though it was after hours. Even better, I was ready to be discharged at 1:00 am and they didn’t make me wait until the morning, so I got to sleep in my own bed. I’m recovering just fine, but this is the second time I’ve had surgery right before Christmas and I hope not to make a tradition out of it!

Well, here it is – the concentrated work of the last two and a half months. This is my Level 1 of the Masters Knitters Certification off to be reviewed.

I do say reviewed rather than judged. My understanding is that the committee are not looking to ding you for every little thing, but to comment in such a way that you become a better knitter. I fully do not expect to pass on the first go-round. Hardly anyone does, but hope that the do-overs will be few. There is a bit of angst, and truth be told, a little bit of nausea in letting this go. It’s like putting your heart and soul out there on the line!

Here is the project for Level 1 – a mitten.

That cuff was a killer! I think I did it about four times before I was satisfied.

Now I need to figure out what to do with myself. This has been pretty much all consuming. I did find time for a little pleasure knitting and am working on a cardigan for myself.

The beauty of knitting top down is that you can try on as you go. Ignore the flaring at the bottom; that’s just the cable that’s holding the stitches.

I also made Abby a pair of birthday socks, but forgot to take a picture of them. I really need to finish up my Christmas knitting. I’m done with the major part and just have fiddly finishing stuff to do. It’s probably not wise to save that until a day or two before Christmas.

In other news – over the years we’ve been the recipients of Ben’s hand-me-downs, usually in the form of iPhones. Whenever he got the newest model, we would get his old one. Sadly, they have transitioned to Android phones and we have not, but he made up for it by upping his game. Here is the latest:

Yes, that is a Tesla Model S. It has been his baby for the last four years and when he ordered a new one, he wanted us to have this. This is something we never ever could have considered under normal circumstances and we are gobsmacked by his and Abby’s generosity! It is a dream to drive and we are having fun researching and learning all the features. Bill says it’s like driving the Starship Enterprise! We even have cute little his and hers key fobs.

The car even recognizes them and will adjust all the settings (seat, mirrors, etc.) accordingly. Fancy! The one thing we are dealing with is “range anxiety.” Because it’s all electric, you can’t just pull into any gas station. But since 99% of our driving is within a full charge we should be fine. And as more charging stations are installed, our range should increase.

Next week I’m off to visit my parents in Missouri. This is the second time we’ve visited since the flood. They’ve settled in very comfortably into their new place and the people who now have their old place have started reconstruction. I’m anxious to see that. It was so sad last time we saw it. Not sure if I’ll have any internet connection while we’re there, but I’ll blog if I can.

Ok, so I’m going to try out blogging from my iPad. If that’s a go, I’m sure I will be posting a lot more.

About once a year we’ve had the tradition of having family photos taken by friends of Ben and Abby. They always do such a great job of capturing personalities and this year was no exception. We got back about 75 photos, but I won’t inundate you with them all. Here are some of my favorites:

One of the fun things about transferring over to WordPress was going back over my posts just to double check that all the important stuff transferred over. It was so fun to read about meeting Abby for the first time and about the births of the granddaughters.

Good times!

Call Me Crazy, Part II

Hmm – it seems to be a recurring theme, doesn’t it? I think a lot of my non-knitting friends (and maybe even a few of the knitting ones) have considered me a little crazy because I really do like to knit with teeny tiny yarn on itty bitty needles. But I’m pretty sure many will think I’ve finally jumped the shark. On a whim (scary, how that happens), I have enrolled in the Master Hand Knitting Program with the Knitting Guild Association. This is in three levels, with Level I allowing one year for completion, Level 2, eighteen months and Level 3, a full two years. So why, you may ask, do I want to do this?

Other than the obvious “personal satisfaction” answer, there are several reasons. One is that I want to prove to myself that I can continue to do something hard. At this time of life, it’s easy to just settle back and coast, but I don’t want to do that. Another reason is to become a better knitter. Now, I know, I am constantly told by people that I’m the best knitter they know and I have a whole box of blue ribbons to prove it. But I’m realizing that after over 50 years of knitting, I can still improve and I can still learn things. One of the candidates for the program related that she received her first Level back with several items that she had to do over and resubmit. She was so angry she shoved it in a closet for a month. She fumed because she was one of those “best knitters”, had won all sorts of ribbons at fairs and who did these people think they where? But then she realized they were right. She was resting on her laurels and expecting to get by on reputation alone – and she had gotten sloppy.

Level I really goes back to the basics and already I’m learning better ways of doing things. There is a ton of book work on this – it’s not all knitting. You basically have to write a short term paper (with citations) on blocking and every technique you show has to have at least two references.

Here are my beginning swatches:

One of the first things I learned in the program was how to properly measure gauge. Ah, gauge – the knitter’s nemesis. I’ve heard all the reasons behind not doing a gauge or skimping by with a small one, including the statement, “Gauge lies.” Well, I’m learning why it lies and it’s because knitters aren’t taking the time to do a large enough swatch, block and then even wait a few days to let the swatch settle in a little. I’m doing a knit-along for a sweater and it really is a little frustrating to have days worth of work before you can even start the sweater. But I also know that insanity is doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result. I have a stack of sweaters that I don’t wear because I don’t like the fit, so I’m willing to give it a shot. We will basically be designing our own sweater and not following a pattern. Here is my yarn:

And here are my gauge swatches:

I know – wordy post and not a lot of pictures, but my knitting nerd friends will probably enjoy it.  For the rest of you – hubby and I celebrated our 46^th wedding anniversary on Sunday. We went out for a nice dinner at Callen’s by the Port Townsend ferry dock. So much fun to sit and watch the sunset and the ferry come in. And the food is outstanding! I highly recommend it to all locals.

Well, it's only been about 5 months since my last post, so I suppose I'm getting a little better! Yesterday I decided I needed to inventory my shawls. I really, really love making them, but I have so many and can't possibly wear them all, so I wanted to see which ones I could put aside to use as gifts, prayer shawls, etc. Not only did I discover a lot of finished shawls, to my dismay I discovered a whole pile that had never been blocked!

That's not actually the whole pile – I had blocked two of them before the picture was taken. To the uninitiated, blocking is what takes what looks like a crumpled pile of dental floss and turns it into something magical and ethereal. However, it also involves crawling around on the floor with a gazillion T-pins and your knees screaming for mercy! Also, since the only place I have large enough to do this is on the floor by Bill's side of the bed, it needs to be accomplished first thing in the morning so it's dry by bedtime. Don't want him getting up in the middle of the night and impaling himself on T-pins!

Here are my most recent efforts. The first is Rapunzel, a Mystery Knit-a-Long from the Unique Sheep:

The subtle shades of tonal pink don't show up well in this photo, along with the almost 1,000 beads. The beads give it such a beautiful sparkle and weight and the silk yarn is delicious. It was a little slippery to knit with, but well worth the effort!

The second is another Unique Sheep Knit-a-Long, this one from (gasp!) two years ago. This is The Velveteen Rabbit (their mysteries are based on children's books):

This also has beads, although not quite as many. The yarn is also a little heavier weight, but still lacy and lovely!

This is not to say that quilting has taken a back seat. I finished the top of my tulip quilt:

The pattern is Loopy Tulips by Jaimie Davis. I haven't yet decided whether to hand or machine quilt. I would love to hand quilt it, but my hands are not as cooperative as they used to be.

I also finished the center on my Bed of Roses quilt. This pattern is by the super talented appliqué artist Sue Garman, who sadly passed away recently.

I will almost certainly hand quilt this one. The border is all done, except for the corners and I hope to have them done in a week or so.

After my back surgery I was cleared to run by my doctor, but he said to listen to my body and if something hurt, not to do it. I did try running, but I got some twinges of nerve pain down my leg that really scared me. So I decided to stick to walking. I'll certainly get there, just not as fast! To keep myself motivated I joined a virtual race at Yes Fit. You pick a race, pick a prize and then pay a small fee. When you finish the race, you get your prize. The long races were the same price as the short ones, so it seemed cost effective to go with a long one. I joined the appropriately named Tortoise Creep – 155.1 miles (why the .1, I don't know). It took me close to a year, but I finished last week. I still averaged out at about 2 miles per day, which is not too shabby! My prize came this week:

I'll leave you with some photos I took of the granddaughters here at home and on our trip to Mt. St. Helens last week. We stayed at an Air BnB that had a built in menagerie and the girls were in heaven. They are indeed getting grown up. Isobel is now a teenager and Ivy will turn 11 in just a few days. Oh, and one of Maggie for good measure.

A view of Mt. St. Helens from the observatory deck.

When I first started my blog, it was mainly a knitting blog and I met many new friends this way. I remember at first it was a little scary and when I headed off to meet one of them in person (Hi Li!) my friends thought I was a little crazy. I told them it was improbable that an axe murderer was going to arrange to meet a middle aged woman in a yarn store!  Fast forward fourteen years (yes, I've been blogging that long!!) and the blog has morphed into other areas as well – music and quilting and I'm sure lately my knitting friends have wondered if I've abandoned knitting altogether. Never fear. Like many things in my life, I go in cycles and knitting is starting to make a comeback.

One of the reasons I haven't been knitting much is the lack of a project that really intrigued me. I was working on a Jared Flood afghan and while perfectly lovely, it was the same thing over and over and over.

It got to the point where I'd rather poke a knitting needle in my eye than work on it. While wandering around on Ravelry I found the pattern for A Celtic Quilt 2 and I was smitten! Not only are there multiple different designs, but they are smaller squares that are not sewn together, but attached with a 3 needle bind off. So here's the crazy part – I frogged the other afghan. I know, non-knitters are probably aghast at the "waste" of all that time knitting on it. But I think knitters will agree that there's no point slogging along on a project you hate when you could be doing something much more fun. So far I have 3 squares done.

The middle photo is the most accurate for color. Oh, and I may have cast on a couple of Dee O'Keefe shawls too.

The first is Anisah and the second is Katania. I have to admit Katania is a little boring, but between my husband and friend having cataract surgery, I've spent a lot of time sitting in doctors' offices waiting and it does pass the time.

A couple of quilts have made it off the UFO pile, too. The first is a quilt requested by hubby to hang over his computer desk. The pattern is Drunkard's Path (his choice!), but I think the dark patches look like birds. I quilted the light squares to look like airplane props with the wind flowing around them, so I've named it "Air Birds."

The other is a quilt made with my Round Robin group. One of the ladies brought back fabric from Alaska for each of us. Mine was a batik with grizzly bears, so I set them in a Bear's Paw block for the centers and the other members added the rest of the borders. The last border has the constellation with the bear in the sky, so I have named this one "Ursa Major." I especially like the pink salmon swimming upstream. I couldn't figure out how to bind it with the stark difference in colors, so I faced it instead. It's the first time I've done this and will use this technique again.

To combat all the hours spent sitting and sewing/knitting, I've been trying to get out more and have done a couple of hikes with Abby. The first really challenged me – it was a 5 mile "moderate" hike (although for me it was more like "difficult") and the second was truly an easy two mile stroll with the grandkids.

That's it for now. I think I may take some time this week and go back over my blog starting from the beginning. It's so funny to think that when I started it, we hadn't even met Abby yet! So much has happened and it will be fun taking a trip down memory lane. Ta ta for now!

No, not Unidentified Flying Objects – but Unfinished Objects. In the knitting and quilting world, this is a very real thing, as most of us have lots of unfinished projects lying around. Projects that were much loved when they were begun, but have been laid aside when we get bored or the latest new shiny thing comes around. One of the comments I get most about my needlework is, "Oh, you have so much patience!" Actually I don't, and I don't know anyone in my circle of needle crafters who does. We are the least patient people in the world and are constantly on the look out for something to assuage boredom.

Each year our quilt guild sponsors a UFO Challenge. You list at least 8 projects that need to be finished or at least taken to the next stage. For instance, you might list finishing the piecing on a quilt. The reason they do it this way is to make things fair for those of us who do all our own piecing and quilting versus those who piece only and send their tops out to be quilted by someone else. At the end of the year, if you finish your list, you get a prize and entered into a drawing for a grand prize. Last year, I not only finished and got my prize, I got the grand prize! Linda and Donna, the sponsors, will quilt a quilt for me on their long arm.

I debated about entering this year. It does put some minor pressure on me and there were times when I wanted to work on something else, but felt obligated to work on my UFO list. But, I decided the worst thing that can happen is I don't finish the list and no puppies will die. So, for the record, here is my list:

1.Quilt and bind Retro Ribbons

2.Quilt and bind Air Birds (see photo below)

3.Quilt and bind Ursa Major

3.Finish applique on Tulip Quilt (see photos below)

4.Piece a Community Quilt from 2 1/2" scraps

5.Quilt and bind Dog Quilt

6.Finish piecing Smooth Sailing

7. Finish piecing Rhapsody

Right now I'm concentrating on Air Birds and the Tulip Quilt. Last year Bill had asked me to make him a quilt to hang by his computer desk. He picked out the pattern and colors. As I started hand quilting it, I was trying to decide on a design for the large open areas. Together with Bill we came up with this design that looks like an airplane prop with the wind swirling around it.

Then, I noticed that the darker pieces looked like birds! So I've decided the name of this quilt will be "Air Birds".

Today I'm prepping lots and lots of leaves for the borders of the Tulip Quilt. This is the last of 416 leaves!

I can really see the light at the end of the tunnel on this one. All of the squares and setting triangles are done and just the borders are left.

Late last month we took the granddaughters to Snow Camp. We had to miss it last year because of my back surgery, so it was really special to be able to go this year. I did some cross country skiing with Isobel, but after falling four times decided I was pushing my luck. Next year I will do snow shoeing instead. Although Ivy ( and she now prefers to be called Ivy rather than Mei-Mei) did play in the snow, she seemed perfectly content to laze around by the fire and joined in our knitting class. She perfected what we referred to as yoga knitting.

A little cold today, but finally we have some sun! It's the first sunny day we've had in almost a month – and so much rain we have a lake in our backyard and across our driveway. However, I'm not complaining. We don't have to shovel it, and by  next week I expect to have daffodils blooming!

Today I put the finishing touches on my fabric reorganization! There are still a few odds and ends to take care of, but most of the heavy lifting is done. Before:

After:

I didn't take a "before" picture of the bins, but odds and ends of smaller fabrics were crammed in there and now they're neatly cut into 5" and 10" squares:

And I can actually get to my machines:

I'm already reaping the benefits of being a little more organized. Last week hubby bought a backpack at the thrift shop, but didn't like the logo that was on it. He asked me to embroider a WSU logo. Formerly I would have put him off because it would have taken me at least an hour to find my supplies and uncover the machine. As it was, the whole project took just a little less than an hour and he had a great backpack for $2.99.

Other than that project, I haven't been doing any sewing because I've been too busy organizing, but am hoping to get back in the saddle next week. In the new year I do need to start looking at some projects that will use up my 2" strips. I ended up with a lot more of them than I expected!

I'm sure I'll be able to talk Mei-Mei into coming up and helping me with that. 

This past weekend we took our annual trip to Tall Timber Snow Camp with our church. We missed it last year because of my back surgery, so the girls were very happy that we got to go this year. There was lots and lots of snow, but fortunately the roads were fairly clear.

Isobel and I did some cross country skiing, but I think this may be my last year of that. I fell four times and felt pretty banged up by Monday. Next year I think I'll do snow shoes instead!

Mei-Mei played a little in the snow, but for the most part felt content to stay inside the warm lodge. I taught knitting classes and she brushed up on her skills and perfected what we referred to as "yoga knitting."

On the way home we were greeted by a beautiful rainbow on the ferry.

Right before we left, Bill took delivery of his new classic car – this time a truck! It's a 1972 Datsun pickup. It was pretty funky from being carried on an open transport from Texas, so the first order of the day on Monday was a bath.

I had mentioned before that I was reaching the end of a longterm project – Aunt Gracie's Garden (pattern by Cynthia Regone). At our last guild meeting I was lucky to be able to display it on a quilt rack and get a good picture. The colors are a little bit washed out, but here it is – and I love it!!

Right now we have a down comforter on our bed, but I can't wait until spring to be able to use this instead.

Those of you who know me or have followed my blog for awhile will get a chuckle out of this post. It's a repeat of one that I seem to post at least a couple of times a year, but usually around the first of January. Maybe it's the flurry of last minute sewing before Christmas, or the fact that my sewing room becomes a dumping ground when we're getting ready for company, but by the first of the year, it's an epic disaster.

That probably doesn't look too bad, but if you turned around, you'd see more piles. But I think I've come up with a system for organizing my fabric that might actually stick. The problem is not pieces 1/2 yard or larger. If you look at the neatly stacked shelf, those pieces lend themselves to being folded nicely. The problem is all the other smaller pieces, that are too big to discard, but too small to fold into a uniform shape. So here's the plan: Pieces 1/2 yard or larger are folded neatly on the shelf and organized by color/theme. Pieces smaller than 1/2 yard are cut into 10" squares. Pieces smaller than 10" are cut into 5" squares and pieces smaller than 5" are cut into 2 1/2" strips. Voila:

The 10" and 5" squares will be stored in bins by color. The 2 1/2" strips are proving to be a little problematic because I already have a bin overflowing with them!

I also have a few jelly roll and fat quarter packs (mostly received as gifts) that will probably be kept as is and go into their own bin.

It's not a quick and easy fix and is proving to be quite time consuming, but I'm hoping it will help keep me more organized. I can't tell you how many hours I spent last year searching for things in my sewing room!

Now that Christmas is over, I can show some of the stealth projects I was working on. First – I made the girls owl purses:

And for my sister, a coat for her American Girl, here modeled by my doll Ivy Ling (the first Chinese American doll and she has the names of both my granddaughters – Ivy is Mei-Mei's first name and Ling is Isobel's middle name).

We also tried something different this year – instead of having both of the girls over Christmas, we had Ivy come three days before Christmas and Isobel three days after. This gave us dedicated time with each of them to accomplish the projects they wanted to do. Ivy was insistent that she make a quilt for her teacher, who is having a baby. She proved to have a great attention span while sewing and finished her quilt. She did most of it all by herself. All I did was help a little bit with the quilting and I applied the binding.

Isobel had a recipe that she wanted to make – a four layer gingerbread cake. It took us about 3 hours and a gazillion dishes, but it turned out beautifully.

Sadly, she got sick and spent the next two days on the couch. We managed to somewhat salvage the time by binge watching Star Wars movies.

And one of the best things about Christmas – we had a white Christmas! This is only the second time in the almost 40 years we've lived here. It started snowing Christmas Eve and stayed until a day or so after. Perfect!

Ok, enough break. Time to get back in the sewing room to iron and cut! Maybe by next post I'll have some "after" photos.

This phrase has a couple of different meanings for me. First of all, today marks a year since I had my spinal fusion surgery. In the weeks after, I seriously questioned the wisdom of having it done. Although I had relatively little post-op pain, I had two weeks of continuous nausea and I couldn't even do the simplest of tasks by my self. And I had heard horror stories of other people who had it done and they ended up in worse shape, having multiple surgeries. The thought of having to go through that again terrified me! However, I also knew that I was in such pain beforehand, I really didn't have much choice.  Bill was an excellent nurse and after about a month I was at least able to take care of myself. There have been times over the past year that I've become a little discouraged, but my doctor kept reminding me that recovery from this type of surgery takes at least a year. And he was right! I'm happy to report that I am back to normal – completely pain free. I haven't started running yet. I've been a little nervous about it, but Abby and the girls want me to run a 5k with them in the spring so I think I'll start training after Christmas. I don't think I'll ever do a half marathon again, but a 5K should be within reach.

The second meaning is that I am reaching the end of a longterm project. I've been working on this quilt for at least a year and a half (or more) and am in the last stages of sewing down the binding!

There is such satisfaction in finishing off a long term project like this. So much emphasis today is put on finishing things quickly and there are so few quilters left anymore who do hand quilting. I certainly don't have anything against machine quilting and hope to hone my skills in the coming year. But I will always have a hand quilting project going to remind myself that fast isn't always better.

Since we didn't decorate at all for Christmas last year, we decided to go all out this year. Isobel and Ivy came up and decorated the tree for me.

It was so exhausting, they had to chill out after.

I'm amazed at how big they're getting. By this time next year, I expect Isobel to be taller than me.

I have more projects to show, but they're stealth projects for the Christmas tree, so you'll have to wait. For everyone who celebrates Christmas – have a very happy one. See you next year!

Those of you who follow me on Facebook know that this spring, while we were in Europe, my parents were flooded out of their home. It was a very scary experience for them – they got out of the house with only 15 minutes to spare before seven feet of water and mud destroyed the house. Thankfully they escaped unhurt and over the months have received such love and support from their community.

This month hubby, my sister and I flew back to check on them and to see the damage for ourselves. Just for reference, here is the house three years ago.

And here it is now:

Not a lot of difference from the outside, other than one missing post on the porch. But here is the inside – one taken right after the flood and the others while we were there.

Here you can see the mud line on the curtains – that's how high the water came!

This picture is of my parents with the man who saved their lives by banging on their door and telling them to get out immediately!

Fortunately, they have been able to move into a nice little duplex in the next town, near their friends, their church and shopping. They will never go back to the house, but will put it on the market as is. The town of Thomasville, never thriving to begin with, is decimated with only about 14 or so people left. This was the town where I was born and always the "home" we went back to when my Dad was in the Navy. It was so sad to wander through the town and know that I will never be back to stay. I'm sure we'll stop by on our visits just to see if anyone's moving back, but this was really a "Goodbye" to the town as we knew it. So many happy memories of growing up there, visiting my grandparents and parents and taking my children there. 

Since we got back, I've really had a hard time focusing and settling down to any kind of routine. I've hardly touched anything in my sewing room, but I have managed to plunk myself down in my recliner and knit at night. That seems to be just mindless enough to not take a lot of energy. I do seem to have lots of shawls that are finished except for blocking, so this morning I decided to start making a dent. First up, Taygete by Romi Hill in Seahawk colors.

If you look at the number of T-pins involved in blocking it , you can see how I might put that part of the project off for a bit!

And – birthday socks for a certain relative who is having a birthday soon.  Not to name any names, but it's a big one with a 0 at the end (the birthday, not the relative!)

These are BFF Socks by Cookie A. I do love her patterns, but sizing can be an issue. It is beyond me how anyone could be expected to get 10 stitches to the inch without using toothpicks for needles. Fortunately this pattern comes in multiple sizes so it can be adjusted.

And - Pisac by Jennifer Weissman. This really was comfort knitting at its finest.

Maybe this week I'll get a little more motivated and have more to show. Until then, I need to go get ready for the hoards of Trick or Treaters we get – only 2 in 30 years of living here! But we always buy candy just in case. Never hurts to be prepared, right??

I can't believe how long it's been since I blogged. I wonder if anyone is still out there reading this? I've debated so much on whether to keep up, especially since my parents got rid of their computer. Much of what I wrote was for them because I knew they followed it faithfully. And, in this day and age you wonder how much to put out there in the public domain. However, I'm going to get past that because looking back on my blog it's probably the closest thing to a journal I have. I may in the near future password protect it, so if any of my formerly faithful readers are still out there, let me know and I will make sure you have the password.

So – where to start? Probably the most significant thing to happen in the past year is that I had major surgery. In fact, that probably contributed to my lack of blogging. Sometime last summer, a nagging pain down my leg erupted into something far worse and over the period of a few months I became unable to stand or walk for more than a few minutes at a time without excruciating pain. A round of physical therapy only made things worse and after an MRI, I was diagnosed with a pars defect. Often found in athletes, especially gymnasts,  it consisted of cracks in the vertebrae between S-1 and L-5. This resulted in crushing of the disk, hence the pain. I was never an athlete, so the surgeon surmised that the cracks happened during a growth spurt in my teen years. He said that when that happens, problems don't usually surface until the 50's or 60's. The only remedy is surgery and on December 16 of last year I had spinal fusion surgery and placement of an artificial disk. The surgery went like clockwork and was totally successful, however I had a bad reaction to the anesthesia and ended up in ICU for four days. Recovery was a bit of a slog, but I faithfully completed all my physical therapy and my surgeon was so pleased with my progress, he kicked me loose from care at the 6-month mark, a full 6 months early!

During the worst of the pain pre-surgery, the only thing that relieved the pain was sitting, so I got lots and lots of quilting done. This past year I've really been focusing on machine quilting. As much as I love hand quilting, I've come to the realization that I will never live long enough to hand quilt all the tops I've made. I was fortunate enough to be able to acquire a Baby Lock Tiara quilting machine and it has revolutionized my machine quilting! It has a 16 inch throat and a large table.

So far I've completed three quilts on it:

This was the first – a row quilt done with my Round Robin group. I decided when I got my machine that instead of doing lots of practice squares, I would just do a few and then dive into an actual quilt. And I promised myself that I would not spend a lot of time ripping out imperfections. Although far from perfect, I was quite pleased with the results.

This is my imaginatively named Blue and Brown quilt. I concentrated on doing free motion from a stenciled pattern in the centers of the blue blocks. 

This was another quilt I did with my Round Robin group, but unlike the others where the group pieced blocks for me, I pieced all of the blocks on this one. This is based on Eleanor Burns' book "Victory Quilts" and are patterns popular during WWII. On previous quilts I did the stitch in the ditch on my Bernina, but on this quilt, I took the plunge and did free motion quilting on the Tiara. The curved cross hatching was done in pale yellow thread. I was quite pleased with this one!

Needless to say, a lot more has happened in the past year, including the granddaughters growing into pre-teens (how on earth did that ever happen??) And for my knitting friends, never fear – I'm still knitting. That also got me through my sedentary months. I promise to catch up on both of these in future posts. So – anyone still out there?

For years our friends Lorette (The Knitting Doctor) and her hubby, John, have been raving about the Wintergrass Bluegrass Festival in Bellevue, Washington. This year we decided to go, and the only question now is, "Why did we wait so long??" To say we had an incredible, amazing experience is a bit of an understatement. We started off the weekend with a performance by Trout Steak Revival (where DO they come up with these names?).

I really didn't attempt to get any more photos of the performers – in a dark concert hall it was impossible. They were absolutely wonderful and things just kept getting better. We discovered a new favorite – The Steel Wheels. They were full of energy and both the vocals and instrumentals were outstanding. I downloaded a couple of their albums from iTunes and listened to them all the way home. I got a chance to talk to their fiddle player, who was there with his wife. They were delightful! He told me that they are all family men and have nine kids between them and try to set up their tours so they aren't away from home any more than necessary. Seldom Scene was another new favorite. The interesting thing about this group is that they all have day jobs because they never wanted their music to be "work". I also loved Väsen, a Swedish group. I don't even know how to describe these guys – kind of a cross between bluegrass and classical? With three of them playing a viola, a nyckelharpa and a 12-string guitar, they managed to sound like a full symphony orchestra.

The concerts weren't the only fun thing about the weekend – Bill and I had fun jamming with other amateurs. We took a class in two-chord bluegrass songs.

Out of about 100 participants, I was the only autoharp and thought I would hide out in the back. But in the middle of the class, the instructor pointed me out and said, "We have an autoharp! I love autoharps!" Although we were definitely in the minority (probably outnumbered 500-1 by banjos, guitars and mandolins), I found the reception to be overwhelmingly positive.

Everywhere you went, there were jams going on in meeting rooms and hallways. We found a couple of jams that we could fit in with and we had a blast!!

There is a certain etiquette to jamming and you just try to blend in with the group unless the "leader" gives you the nod to take the lead. I got "the nod" at least three times during this jam!! I really felt like I had arrived, although pretty much everyone else was way, way more advanced. It was just a matter of finding the right jam. Bill and I discovered that some jams were more inclusive and tried to get even newbies like us involved, while others were led by people just looking for an opportunity to show off. You can guess which ones we looked for!

Oh, and did I mention the food?

Ok – true confession! This last photo was really not about Lorette and John but an attempt to "kinnear" Tim and Dan Lewis, local TV news and sports anchors. We actually got a chance to talk to Dan Lewis later on. He is retired now, but we watched him nightly on KOMO for probably 30 years!

Some knitting was accomplished. Lorette even managed to spin during breaks in the sets. I'm amazed at her ability to drop spindle in a crowd – I would have had that thing rolling down the aisle!

I'm afraid I didn't get much accomplished. I found a split stitch about 5 inches down in my sock. I tried laddering down that one stitch, but it looked so crappy, I ended up frogging down. So I actually accomplished negative knitting! Before I left for the weekend, however, I did get the body finished on Abby's Opposite Pole.

What an ingenious pattern! You basically knit a rectangular upper back section and the rest of the sweater is knit in a circle, attaching as you go. This picture was taken right before I joined the upper part to complete the circle. I tried it on Abby to see if it fit before I started the sleeves and it's perfect! The color in the picture is completely off – it's really a beautiful teal.

Progress has been made on the applique quilt as well as quilting on the kite quilt. Will post pictures next time.

I decided to check my blog today, thinking it had been a few months since I posted. I was horrified to see that it had been over nine months! Where does the time go? Over the months I've considered no longer writing the blog, but in looking back, it's as close to a journal as I'll ever have, so have decided to continue. 

It's probably fruitless to try and catch up on the past nine months, so I will just begin with where I am now. Last time I posted, I was working on the Tulip Quilt and have made sufficient progress on that. All of the blocks for the center are done and I'm working on the border. It doesn't look a whole lot different than last time, so I won't bother with pictures. I have, however, started a new quilt – Bed of Roses by Sue Garman. (Click on the photo in the link for a larger image). I had originally planned to do her Friends of Baltimore, but decided that might be a little too ambitious for my skill level at this point. Instead of red and green, I will be doing this in shades of blue. I am using the paper pattern pinned to foam core to pin on my pieces as I prep. I'm anxious to get sewing, but this gives me a chance to vet all the colors before going to all the trouble of sewing them down. First off – lots of little circles and stems:

To the right is a styrofoam tray with bias strips waiting to be made into stems and to the left is a little heart shaped box given to me by Mei-Mei where I keep all my little circles. Unfortunately, when she gave me the box it was empty, but oh well!

On the hand quilting front, I am working on my Aunt Gracie's Garden. This was from the Fons and Porter website and I utilized lots of fat quarters of 30's fabrics. I'm probably about halfway done with the center.

I'm going to be taking a break from this in order to quilt on a little baby quilt. I made this Windblown Kite Quilt by Susie Ennis way back in 1982 and gifted it to a friend's baby (who has since graduated from Harvard with an MBA – I like to think that my quilt had an influence in his development!) I liked it so much that a year or so ago I dug out the pattern and pieced another top. And now the time has come to quilt it.

I'm trying something new with marking this. Recently I was reading about Crayloa Ultra Clean Washable Markers.

Apparently they really do wash out and a lot of quilters are using them for marking their quilts. I did a test on the fabric I was using for the backing – I made a heavy "X" out of each color and washed the fabric. They did indeed come out. It was still with a lot of fear and trembling that I marked the baby quilt top. To my frustration, I discovered that I marked part of it wrong. This is not like the blue wash-out marker; it doesn't just disappear with a spritz of water, but needs soap as well. So – I tossed it in the wash with laundry detergent, and lo and behold! It came right out. Here's a close up of the marking (this time the wind is oriented correctly).

There are also knitting and music that have happened since last I wrote, but I'll save that for another post. Hopefully it won't be another nine months! For now, I leave you with photos of last weekend's snow camp at Tall Timber.

Over the past week or so I have placed a LOT of beads on Evenstar! So far about 1,850 and I’m a little over halfway around the border. I think the grand total will be somewhere in the neighborhood of 2,800. I think I’m getting pretty good at it and have decided on my preferred method. Drumroll, please.

The Fleegle Beader. As I mentioned there is definitely a learning curve involved, but all of a sudden, it just clicked and I find it the easiest, most convenient method. I found that about every 10-20 beads I would come across one that just didn’t want to cooperate. I discovered that some beads have a hole that’s just slightly too small. Once I decided to stop fighting those beads and just put them aside, things went much more smoothly. I’ll keep those and if I run out of beads at the end, I can always place those using the floss method. Only 380 rows to go! I will also be ordering the larger size Beader to try out as well.

In the meantime, I needed something a little simple to rest my mind and hands, so I have started the Wilshire Shawl.

This is KnitPicks Shimmer in Blue Glass. I had started several other shawls with this, but it pooled unattractively. This, however, looks as of it is going to work just fine. This is what I consider “mindless” lace – no big surprises and lots of stockinette stitch when you just want to let your mind wander.

My mind has needed the opportunity to wander a bit lately. I find myself just a tad over committed. I had told myself that I would just say “no” to new commitments, but two came up that we’re so very important that I felt led to agree. On the plus side, they are both pretty short term and should be over by mid-June. So I’m kind of in survival mode right now and my knitting is keeping me sane. Oddly enough, having a complicated project like Evenstar keeps me as sane as the simpler ones.

Adding into all the other activities, I have our Annual Spring Tea coming up this Saturday. I had promised Mei-Mei a new dress, and I finished it with time to spare:

Mei-Mei’s pretty easy – as long as it’s pink and sparkly she’s good. And if the skirt twirls, it’s even better. This dress accomplishes all of those! Here’s a close up view of the beaded ribbon:

Isobel is a little tougher. Getting her into a dress is impossible, so probably the best I can hope for is clean jeans! So I made her a cute hooded tunic to go with whatever she decides:

I was not over impressed with this pattern. It was very poorly written and I will not be making it again. So I’ll need to scour the pattern books to find other things to sew for Isobel. Or, I could just knit for Isobel and sew dresses for Mei-Mei. Mei-Mei doesn’t seem to care much for sweaters I make, but loves the dresses. Isobel is just the opposite!

I got a chance to go on a photo adventure with my good friend Bethy last week. I’ve decided to hone my skills using only my iPhone camera. We got some beautiful pictures of a unique piece of driftwood that has always captured my imagination. Here are two of my favorites:

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I love beaded shawls! Yes, they can be fiddly and even tedious to knit, but the finished fabric is so decadent and delicious. I just love running it through my fingers. And the sparkles – oh, the sparkles! In an effort to address the tedium of placing the beads, I’ve been experimenting with the different methods:

At top is a #14 crochet hook. It is by far the fastest and easiest method. The downsides are that you can only load about 5 beads at a time and the #14 won’t accommodate anything smaller than a #6 bead. For lace weight yarn I usually use a #8.

In the middle is the super floss. This is the securest method, offering the least chance of having beads roll all over the floor. It also holds the most beads. It’s a little slower and more fiddly than the crochet hook, and because it’s floppy, it’s hard to carry next to my knitting needle with my right hand. I end up dropping and picking it up a lot, which slows me down.

At the bottom is the new Fleegle Beader that I just got from the Gossamer Web. I was really excited about this as the perfect solution. I sat down to use it, and after about a hour was ready to chuck it across the room, to join all the beads that were already there after falling off! I tucked it away in its little tube and proceeded on with Evenstar’s border using the floss method. This morning when I sat down to knit, I decided to give it another try, and doggone if it didn’t work! There is definitely a learning curve and you have to get used to putting tension on the yarn and then pushing the bead up and over rather than pulling the yarn through, which is what you do with the other methods. So this just may work. I’ll keep you posted. So far, 5 repeats of the border done – 51 to go!

With all this lovely beading going on, I had to force myself to work on Dark and Stormy, but I did and finished the knitting.

I’m not at all happy with it. As you can see on the right side of the picture, the shoulder area bunches up terribly! I’ve looked at other finished sweaters and I see that in some of them too. I wouldn’t be adverse to ripping out the collar and trying again if I knew how to fix it. This one may have to simmer a bit before I figure out what to do.

In the continuing saga of Ben’s sweater, he kept ripping out the elbow, so I finally relented and sewed on elbow patches.

I guess the upside of this is that he loves this sweater and wears it constantly. That makes it all worth it!

I can’t believe that Isobel will turn 8 this week! Where has the time gone? She did her science fair project on the Australian Walking Stick. Hers is named Popcorn. Doesn’t she look grown up?

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Many years ago, just after I got married, I was into crochet in a big way. One year everyone got intricate doilies for Christmas. Strangely enough I didn’t keep many for myself, so few remain. Recently I was reading my favorite blogs and came across a cute little baby blanket crocheted by Vera. She kindly responded to my inquiries about it, I did some stash diving, rustled up the correct size hook and went to town.

I’m finding the crochet a nice change of pace. I don’t think I’ll be jumping ship from knitting anytime soon, but may do more than one of these little blankets for our hospital project. They do go fast!

I’ve been working away on Dark and Stormy and am into the long slog of the shawl collar. I only have an inch and a half to go, but it’s so heavy that it’s not much fun to work with. I’m getting a little nervous about the fit. The sleeves are too long, but that’s easily fixed since it’s knitted top down. But the shoulder area seems a little “wonky”. In looking at other finished projects some of them seem that way too, so I guess it remains to be seen if that will block out, and if not, can I live with it?

Can’t seem to figure out how to rotate the picture in Blogsy – I’ll work on that!

I’m planning a big lace project for my summer knitting. As soon as I saw Fire Dance I knew I had to do it. I preordered the kit in a gradience with beads. Yeah, call me crazy. First, though, I have to finish Evenstar. The body is finished and I have made three aborted attempts to start the border. I made the mistake of trying to work on it when I was tired. Late at night with size 11 seed beads is not a good combination! Perhaps it’s just as well that I had to frog back because I’ve come to the conclusion that I don’t have enough beads. I can’t remember where I got these, so can’t get more. So I ordered enough size 8’s, which is what the pattern calls for. I also ordered a beader from the Gossamer Web. Every time I turned around I was dropping beads off my crochet hook, so I think this will be less frustrating. I’ll give a full report when It gets here.

In other news, I’m going to be reopening my Etsy shop. I see a market for iPad and Kindle cases and have found a design that is versatile and open to so many ideas for decoration. Here are a few of my prototypes.

They are fully lined with no raw edges and have an outside zippered pocket. They will fit an iPad mini (with Smart Cover), a Kindle Fire and of course, any of the smaller Kindles or other ereaders. They do not fit the larger iPads, but if these go over well and there is an interest, I may offer those as well. And they can certainly be used for other things as well. Stay tuned!

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Well, I did it! It wasn’t pretty, but I did it. There were several things I was worried about. First was the weather – I was afraid it would rain. And it did! In fact, I heard that the marathoners, who started earlier and joined in with us about halfway, ran into hail. Thankfully we only hit rain, but it really didn’t seem to affect me much, which surprised me. The second thing that worried me was my knee. It held up just fine. I ended up doing a combination of light running, walking, power walking and about everything in between. I was worried about finishing last and I didn’t!! I was especially proud of Abby, who ran a 2:17 which put her about midway in the rankings. Not bad for a beginning runner. My time was “ahem” a little longer, but the fact is, I finished! A nice perk was that as I came across the finish line, they called my name over the loudspeaker and a city councilman, who just happened to be my brother-in-law, was there to present me with my medal.

I don’t think we looked too worse for wear, but we were soaked! Will I do it again? Maybe, but it’s kind of like childbirth. I have to forget this one first.

Today I took it really easy, dosed myself with Ibuprofen and have spent most of the day watching BBC mysteries and knitting. I’m engaging in a different kind of marathon and trying to get Dark and Stormy done. I am agreeing with Lorette that I’m not too keen anymore on seamless sweaters. As much as I dislike seaming, I think I’m disliking even more having this huge bulk of sweater in my lap to turn as I do the sleeves. But I am getting near the finish line! Maggie approves.

I’ve just been listening to the news and my heart breaks about the news from Boston. Yesterday some of the marathoners running alongside us were running to qualify for the Boston marathon next year. Such evil in the world!

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I love making little baby things! However, at my age my friends are no longer having babies and I have all the grandchildren I'm going to get. Aside from the occasional great niece or nephew I really don't get a chance to knit for babies. So I was excited when our knitting group "adopted" the birthing center at our local hospital. The goal is for every baby to go home with a sweater, hat and small blanket. Here's my first offering:

This is a great little pattern from Leisure Arts. You can see the particulars on my project page. I made this little set in just two days. There was some car knitting involved, but still it was quick and easy. I did make some modifications to the hat. The notes are on the project page. One blanket is finished, but needs to be blocked before a photo and another is in the works.

In other news, there has been a change of plans regarding the half marathon. Several weeks ago during my 10 mile run, my left knee seized up on me at mile 7.5. I thought I would just walk the last few miles, but by 8.5 miles, I was really hurting. Hubby picked that opportune moment to call me and I had him come pick me up. Since then I've been icing, stretching, foam rolling and strengthening. It has gotten a lot better, but it still hurts to run. The good news is that I can walk – and I can walk fast. I've done one 8 mile walk that came very, very close to the time it took me to run it. So instead of running the half, I will be walking it. After all, 13.1 miles is 13.1 miles, right? The other good thing is that this will be sustainable and I think I've even talked hubby into joining me – not on the half, but on future, shorter walks.

In sewing news, I've had a little doorstop in our bedroom made for me almost 20 years ago by one of my Sunday School students. Over the years it's suffered the slings and arrows of fate, including having the face chewed off by Maggie when she was a puppy. It finally bit the dust last week, so I made a new one:

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I just installed a new app on my iPad that I hope will help me blog more regularly. Spurred on by Marguerite’s success (not sure yet how to link to her blog) I’m giving it a try. I have become so attached to my iPad and only get out my laptop for my digital Scrapbooking projects.

Latest in my completed projects is Pretty Thing, a cowl by The Yarn Harlot.

This was made using the pink mink I got at Madrona with Sally and Lorette. It’s a fun, quick pattern that takes very little yarn and feels oh-so-soft around my neck. Sally has come up with a pattern for wristers to use up the rest of the yarn. Stay tuned.

No time to dilly dally around. I’m actually just sitting here wasting time waiting for it to warm up a little before I go for my 10 mile run. Yikes! I can’t believe I’m saying that. Only two more long runs before the half marathon. I’ll get up to 12 miles before the big day. Most of the plans I’ve seen recommend at least 10 miles, so after today I’ll feel pretty confident that I can finish. My time won’t be spectacular and there will be some walking, but I will run the majority of it and I will finish!

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For those of you who come here for knitting content, stick around.  For those of you who don't, move along; there's nothing to see here. Lots of knitterly fun and games going on this week. At the last minute I decided to drive down to the Madrona Fiber Fest in Tacoma.  It turned out that Sally, the developer of Knit Companion, was going to be there!  How could I pass up the opportunity to meet her?  I quickly contacted Lorette, reserved my room and headed down there.

We all had a wonderful time!  As usual, John and Lorette treated me to high class accomodations and food, including wine and champagne.  On Friday morning we headed to Madrona.  We had a good laugh when Lorette asked me how we would recognize Sally.  I said, "She'll be the one knitting."  Well, that did differentiate her from the ones spinning!  We managed to locate her and headed off to the market, where lots of fun, laughter, and – let's face it, yarn enabling ensued.

First of all, let me say that Sally is just a genius.  She shared with us some of her thoughts on developing Knit Companion and some of the upcoming developments.  I've shared my enthusiasm for this program, but it just keeps getting better and better.  What a treat to spend the day with her and get an "inside" look!

It's really unrealistic to expect one to stick to a yarn diet at Madrona.  I think I did show incredible restraint, however, and came home with only two skeins.  The first is a lovely merino/bamboo blend:

I've been wanting to try some bamboo since seeing it profiled on Knitting Daily.  This is destined to become an Alexandra Shawl.  I'll probably have enough for another project too, because the yardage is incredible – 1120 yards!

And as soon as I saw this I had to have it!

Pink mink!  Who knew?  Sally and Lorette and I are going to host a KAL over on the Knit Companion Ravelry site.  We thought a Pretty Thing cowl and matching mitts would be just the thing.  Did I mention they both bought mink yarn too?  Although not pink mink.

My other purchase was some Chiaogoo needles.  I've been eyeing them online and once I saw them in person, I was definitely onboard.  Here they are on my current pair of socks, Hedera, in Knit Picks Stroll.  

Oh. My. Goodness!  I love, love, love these needles.  The tips are nice and pointy:

The finish is just slightly brushed so the stitches slide along easily, but do not slip. The cables are firm and have no memory and no kinks.  And the joins!  Oh, the joins.  They are the smoothest I have ever encountered.  And the price???  Only $8.00 for a 24 inch.  Bargain! Recently I caved and bought a couple of Signature needles.  Now, they are really, really nice and a pleasure to knit with.  And until I ran across the Chiaogoos I was going to give them a glowing report.  But I honestly can say that they aren't any nicer than the Chiaogoos and much more expensive.  As luck would have it, I happened to mention this at the Knit Companion class I taught yesterday and one of the ladies offered to buy my Signatures.  Deal done, and with the money for that plus my fee for the class, I had enough to buy a set of the Chiaogoo interchangeables.  Can't wait until they get here.  I'll give you a full report.

On the needles now – Evenstar.

It's at the amorphous blob stage right now.  The body to Dark and Stormy is done and sleeves have commenced:

I'm still not sure how the fit is going to work out on this.  This is my first top down adult sweater and I'm hoping the armhole is deep enough.

That's it for now.  Tonight I have to get at least one row done on Evenstar to free up the Signatures so I can mail them to their new owner tomorrow.  But I'm really itching to get back to my socks on the Chiaogoos!

Life has been pretty exciting lately, so grab a cup of coffee and sit a spell while I catch up.  Two weekends ago we took the granddaughters to our church's snow camp.  This is held up in the Cascade Mountains in a beautiful valley set in among the mountains.  We were blessed with lots and lots of snow, which is the whole point of a snow camp.  Fortunately, the roads were pretty decent.  It's always a balancing act to have lots of snow with clear roads.  It was a lot of work for the grandparents (we're not as young as we used to be!), but both girls seemed to really enjoy themselves.  Mei-Mei was a bit of a pill as she was determined NOT to wear her snow suit.  Once she realized she was not going out in the snow without it, she would relent, but she made us work at it!  Most of the time, however, she was utterly charming and everyone fell in love with her.

The big highlight of the weekend was that she lost a tooth.  She was delighted to find out that the Tooth Fairy could find her way through all that snow!

Isobel proved herself an outstanding athlete!  She took to cross country skiing and snowboarding like a champ.  Someone asked her how many times she fell down.  She replied, "About a million times."  How many times did you get up?  "A little over a million times."

During the church services hubby played the banjo with his bluegrass group, but found it a little hard to concentrate with someone hanging on his leg.

All in all, a great trip and one we will repeat next year.  Mei-Mei has promised to wear her snow suit without fuss.

This morning I came to a little epiphany about both my knitting and running life.  They both concern doing things for others' expectations and not my own.  First off – knitting.  I think I was a little rash jumping on board the Dragon KAL.  I am hating knitting this!  Usually I love lace, even the difficult lace. This one is just plain no fun.  I've dragged along, hating to let everyone down on the KAL, but considering this would probably take at least 6 months to a year to complete, that's a long time to spend on something you hate.  So it is being frogged.  Right now I'm concentrating working on Evenstar and am looking for another lace project to utilize the yarn from the Dragon.  

On the running front, I had joined a running club and was so happy to know that I was not in training for the half marathon alone and was looking forward to running with others.  It has not worked out that way.  I am the slowest runner in the club and despite their promises that "no runner will be left behind", on our runs they drop me like a bad habit.  One of the other slower runners and I decided to beat them at their own game and start out early to get a head start.  This morning it occurred to me that this is insane!  Why am I trying to keep up with people who clearly don't care enough about me to include me?  In trying to keep up I am running harder and faster than is good for me and am risking injury.  And I am becoming discouraged.  So as of today, I will resume training on my own.   One of the things that running is teaching me is that I am only in competition with myself.  I will always be one of the slowest runners, but that doesn't matter if I'm doing it because I love it. 

This raises the whole philosophical question about why we do many of the things we do.  I know that there are things in our lives that are less than pleasant but that are really necessary and we must have the discipline to do them.  But how many things are we doing because of pressure or expectations from other people?  I hope this year I will have to courage to either not start them in the first place or to stop when I realize that I am doing them for the wrong reasons!

Next week I hope to have more knitting news for those of you whom come here for that.  On Thursday I'm driving down to Lorette's and we're going to Madrona together.  We'll not be taking any classes, but are excited about meeting up with the developer of Knit Companion!  Should be lots of knitterly eye candy for you next week.

While marital mongamy has always been a slam dunk for me, project monogamy has been less so.  I'm not sure what the record is for the most projects in progress, but it seems as if 8 or 9 was probably the norm at one time.  Lately, I've been a little more faithful to my projects and it certainly pays off in FO's! Our knitting group started a project last January in which we all picked a pattern for a gansey.  I don't think any of us were doing the same one.  I thought for sure I would be the last one done because I picked Cape Cod by Alice Starmore.  At her hellatious gauge, I had to use fingering weight yarn and size 0 needles.  It just goes to show what a little project monogamy can accomplish because I am one of the first to finish her gansey.  Behold Cape Cod in all her glory!

I love everything about this sweater!  The yarn, Knit Picks Gloss is a luscious blend of silk and wool.  I like that it's fairly lightweight so I don't get overheated.  I like the intricacy of the knit and all the classy little touches that Starmore is famous for.  And I love the fit.  A little loose and comfortable, but not baggy.  This will definitely get a lot of wear.  And I have to add that this would have never been finished (or at least not so soon) without Knit Companion.  Recently they released a new version featuring smart counters which helped me with the multiple chart repeats and shaping on the sleeves.  

I also managed to finish a pair of fingerless gloves for my sister:

The pattern is October Leaves, yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple.  Wonderful pattern with lovely detail in the thumb area.  And I have enough left from the skein to make another pair.  Brown's not really my color, but I think I'll make them anyway and put them aside for a gift giving occasion.

That leaves me with only two wip's (and one in hibernation that may be frogged).  Neither Evenstar or Dark and Stormy are real portable projects, so I cast on for a pair of Cookie A socks – Hedera.  I keep saying I'm going to knit my way through her book, Knit Sock Love and they are the first in the book, so it's a start.  No promises as to how far I'll get.

I did have a little moment of insanity and jumped on board a KAL.  The project is Dragon of Happiness.  Go take a look and come back laughing.  Insane, no?  Of course, I did have to break my yarn fast (hey, I lasted all of 3 weeks!) to order the yarn.  And I think I just may have, in a moment of weakness, ordered some Signature needles to go along with it.  This project is not going to go fast and will need frequent breaks, but I might as well be deliriously happy while knitting it!  Of course, I know that I'll want to go throw all my Knit Picks needles in the trash.  Or win the lottery. 

My training for the half marathon is coming along, but not without a few bumps in the road.  Today our club did a spin class.  Let me go on record as saying that I hated it with a passion that is just a little scary.  The endurance part was hard, but I could probably get over that.  But without getting too technical, just let me say that the bike seat was painful!  Even with an extra cushion they provided I was miserable the whole time.  Next time they schedule a spin class I'll just go for a little run.

It's me again.  At least I'm starting off on the right foot.  Don't know how long his will last!  In looking over my previous posts, I realized that I left a few things hanging, so here's some catching up.

I left you with my son's cardigan lying in pieces.  It's since been finished, declared acceptable and worn on a regular basis.  Here's my handsome son:

Now I have to get busy repairing his other sweater.  He tore a hole in the elbow, which you may recall I repaired once, but it has since come open again.  I finally decided that in the time it took me to repair it again, I could knit a whole new sleeve.  Here's the rub – all the comments on Ravelry indicated that the sleeve as written was too full.  So I input some data in Sweater Wizard and calculated a new sleeve.  Did I save it?  Duh, NO!  And I can't remember what figures I used, so I'm going to have to do some counting on the present sleeve and see if I can figure it out.

I also left you all hanging right in the middle of our bathroom remodel.  That, too, has been finished and we couldn't be happier.  I must admit hanging the striped wallpaper was a little challenging when we realized that the walls are not completely plumb and the corners of the room are actually curved a little.  Here's before and after:

It's a little hard to get a good picture of such a small room, but the remodel really did make a big difference – it's so clean and updated now.

I have been knitting like mad on Cape Cod and have finished the first sleeve.  I tried it on for the first time and am really, really happy with the fit.  

I am not, however, happy with the underarm gusset.  

It appears that the gusset is totally unnecessary and just adds a lot of bulk to the underam area.  Those of us ladies of a certain age certainly don't need anything resembling wings!  I'm debating what to do.  It's not just a simple matter of ripping back the sleeve, although I certainly would consider that if it was.  I'd also have to rip out the fronts and backs down to the armholes, and I am not willing to do that!  Since it's not really obvious unless I hold out my arms and since that is a stance I seldom take, I'm pretty sure I'll just leave it be.  Any and all suggestions are welcomed.

 In other knitting news I started some fingerless mitts for my sister.  I stuck some sock yarn in her Christmas stocking with the promise of a new pair of socks, but by mutual agreements we decided instead on mitts.  These are Hedgerow Mitts.

I had made a decision several weeks ago to sell my spinning wheel.  I even went as far as to put an ad on the local website for the spinning guild.  I admit that I was motivated a little bit by my inability to spin the yarn I really wanted and I know, as Kathryn has so wisely pointed out that I probably need to give it some more time.  But I was also moved by consideration of time.  It seems that I have so many interests that compete for my time – knitting, spinning, quilting and digital scrapbooking (to say nothing of the time it takes to train for the half marathon).  Sometimes I look at people who are a little more "concentrated" on one craft and envy them a little.  I feel so torn with my time.  On the positive side, I am almost never bored!  Thankfully I have had no bites on my ad and I think I will have it taken down.  

And, speaking of quilting, I finished the top on a project that several of my friends and I have been working on.  We all did the same pattern, but in our own individual fabrics.  I chose a palette of Asian fabrics and was a little apprehensive that the "country" feel of the pattern would not be a good match, but I am pleased with the results.

One of my goals this year is to work on my machine quilting skills.  I have a stack of tops that will never be finished in my lifetime if I don't learn to machine quilt and finish them!

As the year draws to a close, it's once more time to think of New Year's Resolutions.  I'm a big believer in them.  Not necessarily in slavishly accomplishing them all, but I think setting some goals at the beginning of the year is a good way to start.  I certainly don't end up doing everything, but I think I do a lot more than I would without them!

One of my first goals is to try and keep up more with the blog.  At times I do get a little discouraged that my readership is pretty paltry (in quantity, definitely not in quality!), but this is as close to a journal as I will ever get, so I need to keep it up for that at least.  Periodically I will go back and reread posts from years past and it's fun to read about meeting Abby for the first time, the wedding and the birth of my two granddaughters.  Time flies by so quickly and it's a little astounding to believe that almost 9 years has passed since I started keeping my record!

Next up – I want to try and do better at record keeping for my knitting.  I realized in looking at Ravelry that there are several projects that never made it to my project page.  I also didn't tag the items I finished in 2012, although I may still try to go back and do that.  Just like my "journal", these project pages remind me that I have at least accomplished something.

Knitting goals – this year I'm going to try and knit from my stash as much as possible.  I'm not vowing to forgo any and all yarn purchases, but I do want to try and resist the latest bright shiny new thing.  If nothing else, I could knit socks all year and still be knitting from stash.  I do have two large sweater projects and a shawl already cast on and I'm going to work on finishing those before starting another new project.  This has a practical aspect in that I find myself wanting another bright shiny new thing – a sewing machine.  My last machine was a major investment, but as with all computers (and it is a computer), it is becoming outdated and has some limitations.  I still can do the majority of what I want and this is definitely a want and not a need.  But perhaps some money that I would ordinarily put toward yarn purchases can be redirected.  Here are my current projects:

Cape Cod

This was started as a challenge with my handknitting group.  Last January we all started ganseys.  Insanely I chose a pattern that is fingering on size 0 needles, but oddly enough, I am not behind the group.  Everyone seems to be dragging their feet on this one and only one member has finished hers.  I have finished the back and the front is almost done and ready to join at the shoulders.

Dark and Stormy

I have not blogged about this one yet.  Faithful readers may remember that this poor yarn has suffered through quite a number of false starts and I was reluctant to post yet another one.  I think this one is going to stick as the body is almost completely done and then it's only sleeves and collars.  Worst case scenario is that it doesn't fit and then it will be gifted, NOT frogged!

Evenstar

I made one of these several years and ago and absolutely loved both knitting it and the finished shawl.  I gave it to my niece for her college graduation and immediatedly

vowed that someday I would make one for myself.  Someday is now.

BFF socks

These will be for me to replenish my stash of socks, which is sadly wearing out.  These will be finished in the next day or so and then on to some fingerless gloves that I promised my sister for Christmas.

Can you believe it?  Only four works in progress.  I think that's something of a record for me.  There is one other project hibernating that may or may not be resurrected.

And, of course, there are always the same old resolutions to eat better and exercise.  I think I may just be getting the exercise part down.  I am still running and bit the bullet and signed up for a (gasp!) half marathon in April.  I have no doubt I can do it if I keep on track.  I'm already up to 7 miles – over halfway there.  I am SLOW, but I have no illusions about winning any prizes.  I just want to finish in an upright position and hopefully not be last.

Christmas was wonderful this year.  Having the granddaughters close by certainly adds a layer of contentment over the whole holiday.  This year we started a new "tradition".   Ben, Abby and the girls came up from Snohomish on Christmas Eve and we opened our gifts.  The plan was for us to go there on Christmas Day for dinner and stockings.  The girls begged to stay with us, so we had them overnight.  It was so much fun to wake up with them here on Christmas Day.  

I made both of the girls sweaters for Christmas.  Mei-Mei had actually picked out the pattern for hers, and although I know she was pleased, it was a little overshadowed by a pink sparkly dress given to her by my sister.  She immediately put it on and we all knew who had been hugging her because they were covered in pink glitter!  She'll come around to the sweater eventually, but in the meantime – no pictures.  Isobel, however, made up for it.  She adored her sweater, put it on and didn't take it off for two days!  Even though it was a worsted weight, she wore it all day Christmas – usually with the hood up.  I do need to get better pictures, especially of the hood, but here you can see how cute she looks in it.

I'll leave you with a few more pictures of our Christmas celebrations.  We were so pleased to have Abby's aunt and uncle from China with us.  They were utterly charming and we had a great time looking at the photographs that Daniel has taken on his travels around the world.  They were amazing – think National Geographic quality.

I also close with pictures of some small snowflakes that I've been embroidering.  Several of the embroidery sites have encouraged us to make snowflakes to send to the teachers of Sandy Hook so they can decorate their classrooms for the childrens' return.  It seems like such a meager contribution, but other than tears there doesn't seem much I can offer.  The closeness in age to our own precious granddaughters was so difficult.  Here's hoping and praying that the New Year will bring some sense of comfort to the families of those sweet children.

When you left our intrepid travlers, we had just left Costa Rica on our way to the Panama Canal.  We had another formal night, which gave me a chance to wear one of my beaded shawls:

The Panama Canal was really the highlight of the trip – definitely a "bucket list" kind of thing.  To truly appreciate it, you have to know the history.  It was a massive undertaking and it was amazing that it was ever built in the first place with the technology that was in place at the time.  And it was built at a great cost in lives – thousands due to the harsh conditions and disease.

Our ship was one of the largest that can currently go through the canal.  There is a new canal being built that will accommodate ships twice as large!  As we approached the first set of locks, we could see massive cargo ships ahead of us:

As the ship enters the locks, cables are attached that tether the ship to "mules" (locomotives) on either side.  These don't pull the ship through the locks, but rather serve to keep the ship centered.  It was amazing to see the low tech way the cables are attached – two guys in a little rowboat row out and throw the cables up!

Not sure I'd want their job.  Here you can see looking down from the ship how little clearance there is.  We could have reached out and touched the side of the locks!

That's also a good view of the "mules".  More pictures of the locks:

Once again, Typepad is not playing nice and is rotating my photos.  (Edited – hooray!  figured out how to fix it).  I should mention how terribly humid it was here!  When I first went out to take photos, my camera lenses (including the interior ones) fogged up so badly the camera was useless.  I had to go inside, defog and then put my camera in a ziploc bag with all the air pressed out.  Then I had to go back outside and wait about 10 minutes for the camera to acclimate to the humidity and then I was ok.  From Panama it was on to Cartagena, Columbia.  Some of the passengers on the ship didn't get off there because they were afraid.  I admit to being just a little apprehensive myself, but the city was completely safe – well, maybe except for the traffic.  We just closed our eyes and trusted our driver!

We had a wonderful guide – Dora the Explorer herself!

Cartagena was beautiful – lots of churches with beautiful courtyards and flowers cascading down wrought iron balconies.

Lots of interersting art.  I was hoping not to look like this lady after all the good food on the boat!

And I made a new best friend:

We were on Celebrity Cruises and I can't say enough for the customer service.  Our room was spacious (as far as onboard rooms can be), the bed extremely comfortable, the staff extraordinarily kind and responsive and the food – oh the food!  We did pretty well – Bill only gained one pound and I didn't gain any.  We did do a lot of walking and tried to restrain ourselves!

I have to admit it was a little difficult to come back home and not be spoiled every day!  Would I do it again?  In a heartbeat!  However, the next cruise will have to wait a bit while we work on some home improvement projects.  We wanted to do the kitchen first, but decided to start small with the bathroom as a trial project.  I guess it's got to be worse before it gets better!

In other news – you may remember that months ago I posted a review of KnitCompanion for the iPad.  Well, I love it so much that I have become a KnitCompanion instructor!  I've already taught one class and it was very well received.  My next class is scheduled for Sunday, November 11 at Wild Fibers in Mt. Vernon, WA.  So if you're in the area and interested, give Sarah a call.  There are still openings in the class.  Between that, the bathroom remodel and gearing up for the holidays, I can't promise to post regularly, but I'll certainly try. 

The conundrum of blogging is that if your life is exciting enough to blog about, you have no time to blog.  If you have time to blog, there really isn't much to say.  And so it has gone during these last days of summer.  I was shocked to see that it had been almost two months since I posted, yet pleased that my cousin Margaret emailed me to say that she missed my blog.  So I promised her that I would bring things up to date.

This summer has seemed way busier than usual, but until this past month, not with anything earth shaking – just the usual doting on granddaughters, gardening, sewing, running and so forth.  However, on September 21st, things got a lot more exciting!  Bill and I celebrated our 40th wedding anniversary with a 17 day cruise through the Panama Canal.  We've never cruised before and this was a bit of a gamble taking such a long cruise for our first, but we figured, "What's not to like?"  And we were right!

Here we are toasting as we arrived onboard the Celebrity Infinity:

Don't we look happy?  Our second night out was the first formal night.  I had rack of lamb for the first time.  This really set the stage for food that was definitely four star!

Our first stop was San Francisco.  The first day was dreadfully cold and foggy/rainy and we had a less than memorable trip out to the Golden Gate Bridge.  The second day was better and we had a fun time exploring Chinatown and visiting the hilarious sea lions at Pier 39:

Next up was a stop in Cabo San Lucas.  I was not at all impressed!  It was mostly filled with cheesey tourist trap souvenir shops, bars and aggressive vendors.  We did hit the tail of of a tropical storm and a torrential downpour that made things very exciting!

Puerta Vallarta was a little better with more historical offerings.  Of course, a visit to a tequila factory was mandatory and I think Bill enjoyed it a little too much (it didn't help that I kept dumping mine into his glass)!

Even more rain here!  Our wonderful guide offered to take us to this stunning cathedral even when it meant wading through ankle deep water running through the streets:

Sorry for the sideways photo – Typepad is being ornery.  From there it was on to Costa Rica.  We visited a nature preserve and took a tram up into the rain forest canopy, a walking tour and a boat tour. I loved the little caution signs so that we wouldn't step on the leaf cutter ants.  We also got up close and personal with lots and lots of crocodiles.  We did see a lot of wildlife, but they were a little camera shy, so not too many good photos.

Another formal night and a chance to wear one of my beaded shawls:

And beautiful sunsets almost every night:

And knitting was accomplished – not quite as much as I had expected, but I did get a few rows here and there on Evenstar:

I'll give you a little break here and check back in the next day or so with the rest of the trip.  I wish I could share more photos – we took almost 1,000!!!  But I'm beginning to see a few eyes glazing over!

Hubby and I were discussing recently that this has been one of the busiest summers we can remember.  It seems as if we have been on the go constantly!  We've had company and have spent a lot of time doing all the touristy things.  Some friends from Texas requested that we go up to Canada, since they had never been.  So off we headed to Vancouver, where we made a stop at Granville Market.  I think of it as Pike Place Market on steroids.  There were fruits:

And vegetables:

Breads:

And desserts!

I think a key lime tart may have smuggled its way into my bag.  After battling the horrendous traffic in Vancouver (makes Seattle traffic look like a walk in the park) and a memorable wild goose chase through the hilly streets of White Rock, led by a clown (yes, a real honest-to-goodness clown who was trying to show us the way!), we finally found our B&B and it was glorious!

The weekend before I ran my very first 5k!  I was terribly nervous going into it and even more nervous when we ran out of the gate and most of the rest of the runners passed me like I was standing still!  But I persevered and finished in an upright and running position, spurred on by a fantastic cheering squad:

I came in 50th out of 76 runners/walkers and in my age group I was 6 out of 15.  Abby did even better!  She came in 4th in her age group and missed getting a medal by only a few seconds.  All in all we had a great time and I'm going to continue running and entering races.  I would so love to win my age group some day.  Oh, and my goal of running it in 45 minutes or less?  I ran it in 41:26.  Go Nana!

There has been some time for knitting.  One project I'm not sure enough about to mention, so you'll have to wait, but I have been working on Isobel's winter sweater, Iaian:

Also, I don't think I ever posted a photo of Wingspan:

This was a fun knit, but not one I think I would make over and over.  And I'm also not quite sure how to wear it.  I'll have to experiment.  But it is purty, so I may just hang it over a chair and admire it.

The granddaughters are coming for a sleepover this weekend.  Their last hurrah before school starts.  Isobel will be in second grade and Ivy will be in kindergarten (that sound you hear is a huge sigh of relief from Abby!).  Ivy is actually starting early because she missed the cut off date.  But they had her tested and her scores were sky high, so off to school she goes.

The Olympics are upon us and I have to admit, I'm a fan.  I know all the arguments about how the games have become commercialized and the athletes are really not amateurs any more, but I still love seeing all these people work their hearts out toward a goal.  I was going to say young people, but last night in the parade there was a 61-year old!  Of course, he was a shooter, not a runner, but still . . . .

I think part of the reason I'm so psyched this year is because I've set a goal for myself.  I'm not exactly sure what possessed me (although I think Kris might be partly to blame), but I have started running.  My goal is to participate in a 5k race.  I've already reached the stage where I can do a run/walk of 3 miles.  Not bad, considering running for even a minute when I started was hard.  I'm not sure of my time because the last two times I ran, the app on my iPhone crapped out on me and I didn't make note of the time when I started.  Monday I'll run with a new app and hopefully get a feel for whether or not I will embarass myself.  I've signed up for a 5k on August 18th.  I'm really hoping I can do it in 45 minutes or less using a run/walk combination.  Apparently that is pretty ok now and even marathoners will insert walk breaks to allow their bodies to recover.  My goal is a 5k this year and a 10k next year.  I would dearly love to do a half marathon after that, but I'm not going to tempt fate by announcing that as a goal quite yet.  I'll have to see how my 62-year-old formerly couch potato body holds up!

And of course, I have my Ravellenics goal.  I have started Haruni .  It's probably not a real stretch for me to finish this during the Olympics because I'm a pretty fast lace knitter and it's a smallish fingering weight shawl.  I think for me the challenge is project monogamy!  I started yesterday afternoon and knitted through the opening ceremonies.  Good thing I had something to keep me awake because I thought they were dismal!

I'm on the team for Knit Companion.  And speaking of KC – I hope to be teaching a class on it come fall.  I spoke to the owner of Wild Fibers in Mt. Vernon and she was really excited about the prospect.  While I was talking to her there was even a lady who came up and asked to have her name put on the waiting list!  It remains to be seen if there is enough interest to make a class of it, but I certainly hope so.

Another goal was to finally finish my 2011 KALendar Shawl.  The knitting was finished ages ago, but I had been dreading the blocking because it is so big!  Turns out, it wasn't as bad as I expected, although it did entail a little rearranging of my bedroom:

This was certainly the most ambitious shawl I've ever done and as I blogged about previously, one of the sections (the vertical lines just before the heart border) just about did my wrists in.  However, the pattern was lovely, clear and free of errors, so I would highly recommend it.

I think the next lace knitting goal will be to tackle a wedding ring type shawl.  I have several patterns, but some of my fellow knitters in the Knit Companion group have our eye on the Queen Susan.  Perhaps in the fall.  Any other takers out there for a knit along??

It seems that a lot of my fellow bloggers are falling into the same dilemma that I am.  Life has become so busy that it's often hard to find time to blog.  But on the other hand, if life weren't so busy, there would be nothing to blog about!

Busyness this time came about in the form of two beloved granddaughters coming to stay for a whole week.  We were having Vacation Bible School at our church and I think this is becoming a summer tradition.  The girls absolutely love it and we love having them here.  They both wanted to dress up in the hats and purses that their Aunt Claudia had bought for them:

I got such a kick out of Isobel, who wanted to wear her hat all week, even when she was wearing jeans. She keeps insisting she's not a girly-girl, but I think there's just a smidge of that hiding in her.  She still seems to be loving her doll.  At the end of the week my sister and I treated the girls to lunch at the American Girl Store in Alderwood, and of course, the dollies came along for the ride.

Several times while we were together, Isobel brought me her knitting and wanted to work on it:

She only seems to be able to manage one row at a time, but her workmanship is very nice.  I'm not pushing it, but letting her set the pace.

On my knitting front, I've been working hard on my son's cardigan.  All the pieces are now knit and waiting to be blocked and sewn together!

This is the part that always seems to trip me up, but using a pattern without seaming just makes for a huge project that you're dealing with at the end.  I'm anxious to move on to another project and have the yarn and pattern in the queue to make Iain for Isobel for Christmas.  She has expressed a desire for a hooded sweater.  Still looking for something for Mei-Mei.  She's almost never cold and doesn't need something too heavy.  She has loved her Child's Kimono and when a sweater is called for, that's the one she wants.   

And of course – there's the Ravelym . . . . oops!  Ravellenics coming up.  I will obstain from posting my observations about all the brouhaha that insued over the whole thing, except to say that the USOC are a bunch of twits.  I do understand protecting copyright, but they kind of sorta went overboard and insulted 2 million knitters.  I guess I didn't obstain from commenting after all.   Anyhoo . . . this is the first year that I am participating as part of team KnitCompanion.  To say that I totally love this iPad app is an understatement.  I can't imagine knitting without it – especially charts.  My project will be Haruni in black KnitPicks Stroll Glimmer.  That's black with a lot of sparkle.  I'm also entering the WIP Wrestle with Ylva.  All that's left is the sewing up and arm and neck bands.  Hopefully this will give me the incentive I need to wrestle that puppy to the ground!

The main reason I wanted a sparkly shawl was so that I would have something for (drum roll please) the cruise we are taking this fall!  To celebrate our 40th wedding anniversary, hubby and I have signed up for a 17 day cruise through the Panama Canal.  Port calls include San Francisco, Puerta Vallarta, Cabo San Lucas, Costa Rica and Columbia.  We are beyond excited.  We've never cruised before and as someone commented, it is jumping off the deep end by selecting such a long cruise as our first.  But I can't imagine what's not to like.  Any advice from veteran cruisers out there would be welcome.

Spurred on by Kathy and her beautiful spinning, I pulled out my sadly neglected wheel this afternoon.  I was gratified to find that it is indeed like riding a bicycle and I haven't totally forgotten everything I know.  I have unfortunately let my spinning bag dissolve into disarray and many lables are missing, so I'm not sure what this lovely fiber is, other than a guess that it is tencel and merino:

My plan is to Navajo ply it, which is ambitious considering I've never Navajo plyed before.  Guess you have to start somewhere!

I've been in a bit of a blogging slump lately.  It's seems that I'm awfully busy, but nothing seems "momentous" enough to blog about.  But then I remind myself that I'm blogging to remember my every day life, not to astound my readers (few though they may be) with the fabulously exciting life style that I lead!

I did have a wee bit of excitement lately when Abby and I took the girls to Great Wolf Lodge.  This is a nice family-oriented hotel just south of Olympia with an attached indoor water park.  None of the guys seemed all that interested in going, so we decided to make it a girls' mini-vacation.  When we got there, we were able to upgrade to a Kids' Cabin room, so the girls had their own little cabin with bunk beds in the room:

There were so many cute little details in the room and the girls loved it!

The water park was outstanding!  There was a wave pool, kiddie pool area with small slides, two big slides and two enormous slides.  In this view from our room you can see the two enormous slides:

There were spurting fountains everywhere – no chance at all of staying dry!

 And every fifteen minutes or so this huge bucket dumped 1000 gallons of water!

The first day Abby took Isobel on the more adventuresome slides and I stayed with Mei-Mei in the wave pool and kiddies pool area.  However, on the second day, Mei-Mei got her courage up and went on one of the big slides.  I was really worried, because she can be rather timid, so Mom was up at the top and I was down at the bottom to catch her.  The look on her face as she came down was pure joy!  After that there was no stopping her and I lost track of how many times we went down the slide.  Since Mom and Isobel went off to do other things and Mei-Mei could not go up the stairs by herself, that meant that every time she went, Nana went!  I'd go down the slide first and be there to catch her at the bottom.  Hubby mentioned that there didn't seem to be any photos of Abby or me.  I only took out my non-waterproof iPhone for a few pictures and Abby and I were usually in separate places with the girls.  Even if I had a picture of me in a bathing suit, there is NO way I would post it in my blog!!

Lots of knitting was accomplished on the long drive down, since Abby drove.  I made a lot of progress on Ben's sweater, but no photos.  When I came home I started thinking about my friend, Karen, who has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is having a mastectomy today.  I decided to make her a prayer shawl and chose Summerflies  as the pattern.  I found some beautiful Merino/Silk in her favorite color at my LYS:

And today my Knit Picks order arrived!  I ordered some Stroll Glimmer – black with sparkle to make Haruni.  

This is going to be my Ravelympics project.  I have joined the Knit Companion team and hope to start and complete the shawl during the summer Olympics.  I wanted something with sparkle to wear on the cruise we're taking in the fall!!!  Hubby and I decided we wanted to do something spectacular for our 40th wedding anniversary.  We never really had a honeymoon, so we are going to be sailing from Seattle to San Francisco, Mexico, Costa Rica, Columbia and the Panama Canal.  I am beyond excited!

To round out my order, I got some blocking mats and more sock yarn.  So, I guess there is a lot going on to blog about.  I have a couple of photos that Abby had framed for us hanging in the hall.  The caption is, "Life is made up not of milestones, but of moments."  How true that is!

We're back from another trip, this time to Logan, Utah.  Hubby's brother recently got a new job at Logan State University and had been encouraging us to come down and visit them.  It was a fairly quick road trip – two days down, two days there, and two days back, with a side trip to the Spokane area to visit his other brother.  Logan is a beautiful area!  One day we took a side trip to Bear Lake and on the way passed a little cave that Bill and his brother remember visiting in 1966.

We drove up to Tony's Grove and found a beautiful lake still partly covered by ice:

And there was knitting!  Debbie is a wonderful knitter and we visited her LYS for some fiber therapy. Of course, there was yarn as souvenirs:

There was a close out sale on some merino laceweight and these two skeins jumped right into my bag!  And we decided to start a sister-in-law knit-a-long and bought the same yarn to make Wingspan:

I seem to have misplaced the ball band, so I can't remember what yarn it is – I believe it's a new Regia sock yarn, but don't quote me on that.  I don't know if I'm going to have enough to do the full 8 repeats.  It's getting close and I'm knitting faster in the hope that the faster I knit, the farther my yarn will go.

To make the hours go quicker on the road, hubby and I listened to an audio book.  We chose 11-22-63 by Stephen King.  This is definitely one of his best!  Of course, with King, you do have to accept that there will be  some language, but he has kept the violence to a minimum.  And did I say it's long??  We didn't finish it on the trip, so have been listening to it in the evenings instead of watching TV.  I can see that the book wouldn't be of as much interest to the younger set, but for those of us who lived through Kennedy's assassination, it's fascinating to think about going back in time to try and stop it.

Lately I've been revisiting one of my long time loves – quilting.  Never fear that I'll give up knitting, but a recent visit to a quilt show and the exhibit of my good friend JoAnne and her gorgeous applique quilts has gotten me thinking about getting back to hand applique:

I have taken a leap off the deep end and have joined a Block of the Month to make this quilt:

I have always wanted to make a Baltimore Album quilt, but just didn't know where to even start.  I'm hoping by doing it this way I will get over my hesitation.  Yeah, I know I'm crazy!  I have no doubt that I will be unable to keep up on a monthly basis, but I hope to keep plodding away and eventually get it done.  In the meantime, I'm honing my skills on a much simpler block:

There are still leaves to be added.  This does mean that I will be starting fewer knitting projects, however, I did finish the 2011 KALendar shawl:

It just needs blocking, but I'm sure I'll procrastinate because blocking that puppy is going to be an all day affair!  In fact, I'm not sure I have enough T-pins.  This shawl just about did me in!  At the end I think I had over 1600 stitches on the needle.  I think the results are probably worth it, but any shawls I'll be doing for a while will be smaller.  I am joining the Ravelympics team for the Knit Companion group and will probablyl do Haruni.  The goal will be to cast on during the opening ceremonies and finish by the closing ceremonies.

In closing, I leave with this picture of Maggie.  As those who love Corgis know, they are able to defy the law of physics and shed more hair than they actually have!  It cracks me up that she is a black dog, but the undercoat that she loses in the spring is a light grey.  I know it's possible to spin dog hair, but I think hers is too short stapled.

Thanks for all the kind comments regarding my wrist.  It is doing a lot better.  A combination of the splint, icing and a little knitting vacation seemed to do the trick.  The knitting hiatus came about because of a real vacation – we flew back to Missouri for a family reunion.  There was lots of visiting (and eating!), but very little knitting.

As those of you who have followed my blog might remember, my home town is a tiny little town in Missouri.  The population varies somewhat, but as far as anyone can tell, it's less than 100.  My parents have lived in the same cute little stone house for over 30 years:

We even got to visit the actual house I was born in.  I was a little disappointed that the owner wasn't home, so we didn't get to go inside.

This visit was especially memorable, because all of the siblings were together for the first time in almost 10 years!

Aren't we a cute bunch?  We also got to meet my brother Pat's wife for the first time.

They are an absolutely darling couple.  This picture was taken in front of the house that Rose Wilder Lane built for her mother, Laura Ingalls Wilder.  We also visited the house that Almanzo built for her:

I have to admit that I never did read the Little House books growing up.  But I bought one for the granddaughters and I think we will read them together.

Immediately upon returning, we had birthdays to celebrate.  Isobel and Grandpa celebrated their birthdays with a joint party – they are only one day (and 56 years!) apart.

Abby and I took a chance and bought Isobel an American Girl Doll.  When Ivy got hers, Isobel insisted that she didn't "need" a doll because she is not a "girly-girl".  But whenever they passed the American Girl Doll place in Alderwood Mall, she would look wistfully in the window.  We thought that perhaps she would be won over if the doll suited her.  So we picked out a doll that looked like her and I made a Gi with a yellow belt because Isobel just earned her first yellow belt in Karate.  The effort was a resounding success!  One of the first things Isobel said was, "She looks just like me!"

She promptly named her doll Amelia, after Amelia Earhart. And there was more than enough dolly love to go around!

We're off on other adventures soon, but I'll post after we get back.  I'm a little cautious any more about advertising that we'll be gone, even though we have a house/dog sitter.  I'll be visiting a favorite sister-in-law, who just happens to be a knitter.  Good times!

I've been knitting for more years than I care to remember, and sometimes quite intensively.  And, I've managed to do so without suffering any ill effects to my hands and wrists.  Until now.

Several days ago I woke up to extreme pain in my right wrist.  I couldn't even hold a coffee cup.  I think what did me in was the next to the last clue in the 2011 KALendar shawl:

Usually when knitting lace, there's enough variety that I'm not making exactly the same wrist and finger movements all of the time.  On this particular clue, there are endless rows on I don't know how many stitches (a LOT – enough to fill a 60" cable to overflowing) of the same pattern – k2 tog through the front and back of a stitch.  Over and over – and over.  I probably should have paced myself a little better, but I so wanted to get beyond it to the more interesting border.  I bought a wrist splint and have been icing like crazy and it's much improved.  I haven't entirely quit knitting, but am limiting myself to lightweight projects for no more than about 20 minutes at a time and no more than maybe an hour a day.  For me, that's almost the equivalent of complete withdrawal!  I am prepared to stop entirely if there's the spectre of permanent damage, but since I am getting better, I'll keep doing what I'm doing.  I am seeing the doctor today for my annual physical and I'll discuss the matter with him.

Fortunately I have some sewing projects to command my attention.  Isobel's 7th birthday is coming up and she has been showing a lot of interest in knitting.  So I am making her a learn-to-knit kit.  I found this darling fabric to make a bag and have bought her some bamboo needles.  I'll look for some pretty blue yarn from my stash to complete the kit:

Her mother and I also took a big chance and went together to get her this:

We're not exactly sure what the reception will be.  She told her mother that she wanted an American Girl Doll, but then said she didn't like dolls because she's not a girly-girl.  She does a lot of rubber necking when they walk by the store, so I think she's intrigued.  We're hoping to convince her that tomboys can have dolls too.  We liked this one because it looks like her.  My sister is going to get her a book about women scientists and we'll suggest she name her doll after one of them.  I'll also make her a Karate outfit.  Isobel recently won her first belt in Karate!

We've enjoyed some really stellar weather around here lately – at least between the rain showers.  Last Saturday hubby and I decided to take the Karman Ghia convertible out for a spin and found this charming little example of yarn bombing:

Actually, I don't know if it's technically yarn bombing if you use commercially knit garments, but it's cute nonetheless!  

Next week I hope to post from my parents' house in Missouri, although internet and even cell phone coverage will be sketchy at best.  It should be a fun time.  All of my parents' children and their spouses will be there.  Please pray for a safe journey for all, and no tornadoes! 

Whenever I start a new piece of lace, I always feel as if I've slipped down a rabbit hole.  I get so engrossed in it that everything else takes a back seat.  The 2011 KALendar Shawl has been no exception!  This is such a wonderful pattern!  There is so much going on and it is constantly changing and keeping my interest.  The pattern is very well written, and since the KAL is officially over, has the added bonus of having been test knit by a large number of knitters.  Like most large shawls, it's difficult to get a good picture without risking having it slip off the needles, but here goes:

However, I really do need to start thinking about putting it aside because I have several other projects that need my attention.  As if I don't have enough on my plate, I signed up for a swap with the American Girl Doll Knitters group on Ravelry.  This won't be too involved, though.  I think I can probably finish a little sweater in less than a week.  I've chosen as my pattern a darling little cabled sweater by Astrid Aesoey.  I just want to finish this one section on the KALendar shawl, which should be done tonight.

The other project that needs to take front and center stage is my son's sweater.  As you may recall, I gave him the yarn for Christmas and it would really, really be nice if I could finish it in time for his birthday the end of June.  No promises though, Ben!  I just couldn't find a pattern that he liked, so I'm devising my own pattern.  It will be a simple set-in sleeve cardigan in basketweave stitch.  My LYS offered to plug it into her Sweater Wizard.  However, I found it on sale for half price and bit the bullet and bought it.  I've been trying to hold out for a Mac version (have I mentioned how much I hate Windows?), but that doesn't seem to be on the horizon quite yet.  

I also need to resume work on my gansey.  There's no huge rush, but it is our yearly group project for my knitting group and since I'm the only one crazy enough to do a fingering weight version, I am already hopelessly behind.

And . . . . our knitting group has also undertaken a project for our picnic in July with a neighboring group.  They have decided to do teddy bears and I am on the hook for two.  It seems like everyone in our group is just too fond of knitting tiny little toys, except me!  I keep putting it off, but the time will come soon when I need to get going on that.  I'm trying to use the "small step" approach to spur me on.  The first step was putting the pattern into Knitters Companion.  I love this program so much and my iPad is a constant fixture in my knitting basket now.  Next step was to get out the needles.  This week I will choose the yarn and then will have no choice but to get going on it!

I did take time out from knitting projects to scrapbook about my knitting.  Our project this month in the scrapbooking class I'm taking is our hobbies.  Wow – I could probably fill a whole scrapbook with just that.  Here's my page on knitting:

Spring has finally sprung in our part of the country, but we're not out of the woods yet.  Lots more rain to come, but these lovely daffodils are God's way of saying that he hasn't forgotten us.  

In the great lace race of 2012, the winner is the KALendar 2011 shawl.  

I just could not resist the aweseomness of all the different patterns.  It will definitely keep me intrigued and challenged!  Although I have the yarn for Evenstar, it will need to wait just a while longer.  In addition to the fact that this is a new knit for me, one of the things that sent this to the top of the pile is that I actually found yarn in my stash.  I have enough Knit Picks Bare in laceweight to accomplish this, with enough left over for insurance.  The option is given to use beads, eyelets or nupps and I have chosen to do nupps.  I'm not a great fan of doing them, but since this is knit circular (although it is square, if that makes sense), you don't have to wrestle with purling them all together – you knit together through the back loop.  I find this SO much easier.  Here is the start:

As much of a bear as this was to start, I think I'm going to start over because I don't like the way the center came out.  Part of the trouble was a catch in the join of one of my Knit Picks needles.  I have really loved these needles and they've been my first choice for laceweight, but I do find the quality control lacking.  I found these Knitters' Pride needles at my LYS and am going to give them a try.

They are priced quite reasonably and the owner of the LYS said the cables were very flexible and the joins smooth.  However, they do come with a warning!

I told hubby he was absolutely forbidden to use them, as he is not adequately trained!

On Thursday I took a bus down to the Sewing Expo in Puyallup (for you non-Washingtonians, that's pronounced "pew-allup") with a group of fellow quilters.  We had a lot of fun, spend a boatload of money and at least one of us (ahem) came home with a new serger:

My old one is on its last legs and I spend more time fiddling with broken parts than actually sewing.  The time and price seemed right and this found its way onto the bus with me.  Good news – it's a demo model and since they couldn't find the box for me, they threw in this pretty pink carrying case.  

 Bad news – they forgot to throw in the owner's manual.  We didn't realize it until it was being loaded on the bus and I didn't have time to go back to the booth to get it.  I'm hoping to go in for my free training next week and can pick it up then.  Until then, I'm just gazing at it fondly because I don't want to mess around with it too much and break something!

One of the projects I'll be using it for is to sew more doll clothes for my and Mei-Mei's dolls.  I found a pattern for costumes from the Wizard of Oz.  I've always wanted to sew a costume featuring my namesake and since I'm too old to wear it, my doll will do.  I know that Mei-Mei may not know about Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz, but I think she'll be pretty impressed with glittery ruby slippers!

But shhhh . . . . not a word to her (I'm looking at you Abby!)  This will be a surprise, probably for her birthday.

All these fun things are helping distract me from some vision problems I've been having.  I've been diagnosed with Posterior Vitreous Detachment.  The opthamologist said it's not uncommon as we age, although I am on the young side for this to happen.  Apparently the sac of vitreous fluid in the eye tugs and pulls on the retinal lining, especially in the macular region, as it shrinks when we age.  Many people get no symptoms at all, but I am in the lucky minority that is experiencing some rather pronounced effects.  Imagine someone coating your glasses lens with debris and dirt – only you can't clean it off.  It's especially noticeable when looking at anything light colored.  The bad news is that there really is nothing they can do until there is actual detachment.   I am trying to accept it with as good graces as I can.  After all, I have friends who are dealing with a lot worse – chronic pain, cancer.  But as one friend noted, it's ok to grieve the loss of something before moving on.  The suddeness of this coming on has made me a little anxious about the changes that can happen to our bodies in a heartbeat (literally!).  However, I'm hoping that after throwing a major pity party, I will just move on and adapt.

I'm working on a quilt today and hope to have an FO in that area to show next time.  Toodles!

I haven't knitted any lace since I finished my Advent Scarf back in November and I'm definitely feeling the effects.  I am in full blown withdrawal and will have to remedy that soon.  I've already ordered some Eos from the Unique Sheep in a lovely soft pink.  My original plan was to knit another Evenstar.  

As you may remember, I made the shocking decision to give away the first one I made.  I certainly don't regret it because my niece absolutely loves it and does wear it.  Another option might be the 2011 KALendar shawl.    Because it is a mystery KAL, there are not pictures on the project page, but fellow Raveler Judy has kindly consented to let me share hers:

Is that not absolutely glorious?  However, I'm not sure I have enough yarn for that.  Even if I don't do it this time, it definitely goes in my queue.  The other option is be patient, because scuttlebutt has it that the same designer, Carmen Oliveras, may be starting another KAL in March.  Looking at her designs, I would most certainly be on board for that.  I will keep you posted.

The reason I've not been doing lace was because I was so focused on finished hubby's Mountain Brook.  As promised, here is the modeled shot.  Doesn't he look handsome?  And the fit is perfect!

Next up I need to get working on son's sweater.  We haven't been able to find any patterns that he likes, so I'm afraid I'll need to draft one.  Thankfully, my LYS, from whom I bought the yarn has Sweater Wizard on her computer at the shop and is going to plug in the numbers for me.  I just need to get a good gauge for her first.  I did need to do some mending on the sweater I made for him last year.  He's certainly got a lot of wear out of it, but that has taken its toll:

This wasn't a simple fix as it involved two rows of knitting.  First up, I had to (horrors!) make the hold bigger:

Then I stabilized it with a contrasting thread and wove in the ends:

Next up was to weave two lengths of yarn into the opening:

Then, using a crochet hook, I laddered up the stitiches:

In the interest of full disclosure, I almost didn't post this last picture because the end result wasn't as neat as I would have wished.  I should have taken more time and used better light, but at least the end result is not too ugly and is completely functional!

I'm hoping it will even out more as it's washed.  For more complete directions, check out this article in Knitty.

For now it's on to more sock knitting.  I've finished the first pair of the barter socks and am down to the foot on the first of the second pair.  I really want to get these done and get on to something fun – like lace!

I know, not a very creative title, but all my winter-weary brain can come up with at this point.  Don't get me wrong – we certainly can't complain that we've had a tough winter this year.  Other than the few days of Snowmageddon, it's been relatively mild.  But we have entered the time when the grey skies start to take their toll and visions of warm, sunny spring are starting to seem so far away.

I promised hubby I would have his sweater completed by spring, and lo and behold I was able to keep my promise!

Mountain Brook was finished today.  All the ends are even woven in and all that's left is a nice bath and blocking, although I think it looks pretty good even without blocking.  Maybe it's my imagination, but there does seem to be a very faint color difference in the skeins.  I know they are all the same dye lot – the LYS double checked for me.  So I'm just going to chalk it up to a strange trick of light.  Yup, that's my story and I'm sticking to it.  Model shots will follow once it's blocked.  Stats:  Mountain Brook by Janet Szabo, yarn – Nature Spun Sport by Brown Sheep, size 3 needles.  Knit all in one piece – no seaming!!  Yeay!

Recently I was given a copy of the app Yarn U to review on my blog.  This is an app available for the iPhone or iPad that reviews yarns.  You can sort by manufacturer, name, weight or (strangely enough), the distance you are from the manufacturer.  When you choose your yarn, a page comes up showing the yarn and giving the basic statistics, along with a map giving the location of the manufacturer.

For most yarns (but not all), you can scroll through the color choices:

There are also links to online companies where the yarn can be purchased, along with a spot for comments (you can add your own).  There is also a list of pros and cons, which can, of course, be quite subjective.

I think this is the start of a decent app, but it does need some more work.  The list of yarns, although extensive, does have gaps.  For instance, the only Brown Sheep yarn profiled is its Cotton Fleece.  Only four of Knit Picks yarns are listed.  I did like the reviews and the ability to add comments from knitters who had actually used the yarns would seem to be very useful.  The photos of the yarns that did have a list of colors were a decent enough size to get a real feel for the yarn itself.  Although there were links to online retailers, there need to be more.  Only a select few retailers were offered.  The one part of the app that I found most puzzling were the maps.  I found them distracting.  I really don't need to see on a map where the yarn was manufactured and I think they take up screen real estate that would be better filled with more photos of the yarn in use.  I do think the app is slightly overpriced right now at $2.99.  Perhaps in the future when more yarns are added the price would be justified, but for now it's just a little too light on information.  It certainly will be interesting to see how the app evolves and I hope the developers will continue to add and improve!

Once a month I have kind of a mini sewing retreat with a fun group of quilters.  I think I've mentioned it on the blog before.  We drive over to a neighboring island to a darling little house that's set up just for this use.  We spend the day sewing and eating with an occasional trip to two fabric/quilt shops close by. For several months I've been watching my friend Ramona work on a beautiful quilt.  It's in my favorite soft pastels.  She's mentioned several times that these are not her favorite colors, but she knows they are mine.    I'm not sure how she came to work on it – it may have been a kit that was gifted to her.  At our January get together she was putting the finishing touches on it.  She is a marvelous machine quilter – a technique I have not mastered.  She finished and held it up to oohs and aahs.  She commented that she didn't know what she was going to do with it because she really didn't like it that much.  I sat there contemplating if I could really afford to offer her what the quilt was worth (I couldn't), when she turned to me and said, "Maybe I could trade it for two pairs of hand knit socks."  I immediately replied, "Sold!"  She handed me the quilt and we drove over to the LYS and picked out yarn for her socks.  We are both thrilled to bits with our trade!

I've been working away on hubby's sweater, but suffered a little set back.  I had finished the decreasing on the one sleeve and had him try it on.  The sleeve was way too tight, so I had to rip back and pick up stitches for the larger size.  It was then I remembered that I had lengthened the armhole (duh!).  I'm back on track, but sleeve island is proving to be a pretty boring place.  No pictures because I'm pretty much at the same spot I was in the last post.

So, in self defense I fall back occasionally on Cape Cod.  I'm still not sure what the fit is going to be on this.  I keep running the numbers, but gauge-wise I often see what I want to see!  And we all know gauge lies.  This will probably be a little bit of an over size fit, but Starmore sweaters often are.  However, I am loving the yarn and the pattern.  I can't say enough for the Knit Companion app on the iPad.  I honestly don't think I would be loving this pattern so much without the convenience of KC keeping my place in the pattern.  And no juggling of paper charts!  After my miscounting adventure in casting on, I almost switched to another Starmore pattern (Eriskay), but decided that it was now or never for Cape Cod and I'm very happy with the decision.

Speaking of iPads, I had a little misadventure.  I had decided to go bare with mine (the iPad silly, not me!)  But one night I had it sitting on my lap and as I reached into my knitting bag for something, it slid off my lap, did a huge flip in the air and landed face down on the hardwoos floor!  I picked it up and horrors of horrors – there were three cracks in the screen.  Fortunately I had bought the extended warranty that the Navy Exchange offers on electronics and accidental damage is covered.  It is now in the hospital getting repaired and I'm back to sharing one with hubby.  And I've bought a case with bumpers on the corners to prevent this happening again.

This past week we had a wonderful visit from Bill's cousin Val.  She has been wanting to get into digital scrapbooking, but just needed a little one-on-one tutorial.  Unfortunately, hubby and I both came down with bronchitis and it turned into a real challenge because I kind of lost my voice! However, we muddled through and she proved to be a very apt student.  We sent her home happy with new scrapbooking skills and a nice little bronchial virus.  This is how we spent most of the four days she was here:

So – I think just relaxing and taking it easy is on my agenda for a few days yet.  The doctor said this is a tricky one to get over.  The good news is that I don't feel so bad that I can't knit, quilt or scrapbook, so I'm certainly not bored.  Whatever do people do who don't have such consuming hobbies?  I feel so very blessed to not only have those interests, but the tools and supplies to indulge them!

This is the view out our window this morning:

Now, I know many of you from other parts of the country (I'm looking at you Marguerite!) think this is laughable that this would snow us in, but this is the great Pacific Northwest.  While we can deal with lots of rain and grey skies, snow and ice brings us to a screeching halt!  We have many hills and don't have the snow removing equipment to deal with it.  We actually probably could get out of our driveway with our 4 wheel drive, but discretion is the better part of valor and we have chosen to stay put.  I had gone to the granddaughters for the weekend and instead of coming home Saturday night, decided to wait until Sunday.  Oops!  This is what greeted me the next morning:

I would not have gotten out of Ben & Abby's housing development without the 4 wheel drive, but the freeway was clear.  In fact, there was almost no snow between our house and theirs, but our house had as much snow as they did!  Another weather oddity of our area – snow can be really hit and miss.

Maggie really, really loves the snow and one of her favorite games is catch the snowball:

That was taken yesterday – we've had about 5-6 more inches since then.  This morning while I was standing on the deck taking pictures, this little guy was terribly put out that I was standing by his feeder:

So, we've been snug as bugs in our warm house, watching movies, scrapbooking, knitting, and just generally being lazy.  I did get quite a bit accomplished on hubby's sweater.  The body and neckline are done and I've started on the sleeves:

Not a great picture.  The neckline doesn't ruffle like that.  So far it seems to fit him very well.  We weren't sure if we would even get mail delivery today, but the USPS came through and delivered this:

12 skeins of Knit Picks Gloss in Sea Spray.  This will be for my Cape Cod gansey.  Thank you Ben and Abby for the gift certificate!  I lost no time in casting on:

Unfortunately in my haste I miscounted and cast on 50 stitches less than I should have – discovered after the first two rounds.  Off to start over!

In the meantime, I've gotten a lot of scrapbooking done while cooped up – here's one of my newest pages:

I belong to a small knitting group and on occasion we undertake a group project.  This year we decided we'd like to explore knitting ganseys.  Most of us will be knitting a gansey, although we won't all be using the same pattern.  I've decided to do Cape Cod by Alice Starmore.  The crazy part?  The suggested gauge is (drum roll, please) 8.5 stitches to the inch with sport weight yarn.  Excuse me?  I can't imagine anyone getting that gauge.  As it is, I will be using fingering weight yarn, at a gauge of 8 stitches to the inch on (another drum roll) size 0 needles.  Yes, I am a little bit looney tunes.  Two things are working in my favor (well, maybe three).  First of all, the pattern only comes in one size, which is too small for me.  The  .5  less stitches per inch should put it in exactly the right size range.  Secondly, our deadline is almost a year away.  Our goal is to all wear our sweaters to our Christmas party the beginning of December.  And, I ordered a color I truly love.  I debated whether to get something timeless and neutral, but decided if I was going to be working on this for a year, I really needed to love the color.  I ordered it today – stay tuned.

Of course, this is in addition to the two adult sized sweaters I promised for hubby and son.  On the plus side, I almost have the body done on hubby's sweater.  I've finished the front and am up past the armholes on the back.

Son still hasn't decided on a pattern for his.  I may end up having to draft something.  He really wants a zip up cardigan and I haven't had any luck finding one in sport weight on Ravelry.  Anyone out there have any ideas?  I told him if he could at least find a picture of a style he liked, I would create the pattern.  Maybe this will be an excuse to buy Sweater Wizard.  I've been trying to hold off until they come out with a Mac version.

In addition to knitting away madly, I've been working on scrapbooking as well.  I've started a year long class and have decided to make a book for my parents.  I toyed with the idea of surprising them with it when it was done, but decided that I really need their input along the way.  Here are my first two pages:

(Kit-Ever After by Kristal Hartley, Recollection by Joanne Brisebois, Boys and Toys by Linda Sattgast, Scrap It Now Clusters and Scrap It Now Template by Digital Scrapper.com Font – American Typewriter)

And of course, the granddaughters always give me good scrapbooking opportunities:

Kit – Thankfully by Krystal Hartley, ScrapItNow Templates, fonts Beautiful ES and Cambria.

Kit – Under the Pier by Kellie Mize, Pennant tutorial by Susie Roberts, ScrapItNow Templates, font Calisto MT.

Isobel was SO excited to get that tooth out!  And, since the picture was taken, she has lost the other upper tooth.  She's really starting to lose that little girl look and is becoming a big girl way, way too fast!

That little phrase has taken on  real meaning for us as we settle into new traditions for our family.  We do indeed travel over the river (several times), through the woods (several times), in addition to over an ocean, a slough and at least two islands to get to and from our Christmas celebrations.

As we did last year, Ben & Abby and girls traveled up to our house for Christmas Eve.  We had a great time opening our presents followed by a fine ham dinner.  As is our tradition, we read the Christmas story before opening our presents.  Last year Isobel read from a story book.  This year she read directly from the Bible.  She did a great job, but she did have some trouble with all the big words, so next year we might seek out a more age appropriate translation.  The tradition was brought into the modern age by having her read it on an iPad!

One of my presents to Ivy was a 3-D counting book that I made.  I don't think she cared much for the 3-D glasses, but she did insist that anyone reading it to her wear them:

On Christmas Day we made the trek to their house.  We opened our stockings, which the girls found almost as much fun as presents.  They're usually filled with funny little gifts and, of course, chocolate!  The adults found theirs filled with an assortment of little bottles of spirits!

Unfortunately, we left the festivities a little early because hubby was coming down with a cold.  He's felt pretty crummy for the past few days and I'm hoping not to come down with it. 

Post Christmas has found me playing with the new toy hubby got me – my own iPad!

This was really a surprise because he wasn't supposed to get me anything beyond a token gift.  I had a fancy new radio put into my car and that was to be my Christmas/Birthday present.  Of course, it probably was a little bit of self preservation because I had been hogging our mutual iPad since I downloaded KnitCompanion.  Nevertheless, it was an outstanding gift and I have been enjoying it immensely.  In fact, I'm finding that now that I have unfettered access to it, I'm using it a lot more than my computer.  Of course, I still need my computer for scrapbooking and photo editing, and for any lengthy typing.  

I can also now post pictures of some stealth projects.  First off – Abby's socks.  I did gift these to her for Christmas, but I also owe her some birthday socks for her birthday in November.  These are More Fun than Cables, courtesy of Marguerite, yarn is Cascade Heritage Hand Paint.

Sorry for the crummy picture, but we have entered the gloomy days of the year when the sun is nowhere to be seen.  So my pictures will either be dark, or washed out by the flash.

Next up is hubby's Christmas sweater.  I knew that I'd never be able to get a sweater done for him in time, so he got what is becoming almost a tradition – a bag of yarn!  However, he had the added bonus of having a half done sweater on the needles included.  I had been working on it right under his nose, telling him it was a sweater for Ben.  The pattern is Mountain Brook by Janet Szabo, yarn is Nature Spun sport:

Ben also got a bag of Nature Spun sport yarn for a sweater of his choice – yet to be determined.  

I've also been working on a Perlemor sweater for a soon-to-be-born great nephew.  I saw the pattern on the Yarn Harlot's website and was smitten.  Of course, it was in an out of print book that was running at least $200 in the secondary market.  A little bit of detective work, though, and I found the pattern in another Dale book that was on sale for $3.00.  Score!  Of course, all did not run smoothly.  No matter how hard I tried, my pattern just wasn't coming out looking right!  Ravelry to the rescue – I emailed someone who had made the pattern and we compared charts.  There was an error in my book.  Once correct, it has been smooth sailing.  I have the body done up to the armholes and one sleeve done.  The baby's due in February, so I think I'm in good shapel

That will definitely keep me in projects for the rest of the year!!  Add to that the fact that our knitting group is embarking on a sweater project and I got a gift certificate for Knit Picks.  I'd better quit playing with my iPad and get to knitting.  So glad I have KnitCompanion to keep all my projects organized!

Happy New Year to everyone.  I hope the year holds joy and blessings for you all.

I finally got around to blocking most of the pile of lace that's been sitting on a chair in my bedroom for months.  Our annual knitter's Christmas party is coming up and I realized that since I'd given away most of my knitting this year, I had nothing to show.  I did let once piece get away without a photo, so I'll have to borrow it back later to show you.  First up – In Dreams by Susan Pandorf:

This was a Mystery KAL and was great fun.  Susan is a terribly gifted designer and I love the way the patterns just flow into each other.  This was a pretty intensive knit with almost 3,000 beads.  It's rather heavy, but I love the way the beads feel and it won't be the last beaded project I do.

And – I finished the Advent Scarf by Kristen Benecker:

This scarf was rescued from hibernation by my acquisition of the Knitting Companion app for my iPad.  I honestly do not think I would have finished it any time soon otherwise.  It's too bad that it's so long that you really can't get a good look at all the patterns.  I was a little worried about it being too long, but I really wanted to do all of the patterns.  Although long, I don't think it's too long and it's such a beautiful sampler of lace patterns.  Although you can't see it in the photo, there are little pearl beads on the separator sections.  Lace knitting is always an exercise in faith because you really can't see the patterns very well while you're knitting it and the true beauty doesn't come out until it's blocked.  Multiply this times 24!  It was so much fun seeing the beautiful lace patterns appear.

Last up is the Heart to Heart scarf by Sivia Harding:  

This is really a blast from the past – I finished it over two years ago!!  The picture does not do it justice – look on my project page for a better depiction of the color.  It was a really enjoyable knit, but I think I put off blocking it because I'm not sure whether or not I'll wear it.  I admire people who can wear scarves with panache.  I just don't seem to be one of them.

Some mystery knitting is going on that I can't really show until after Christmas, so until then I'll have to come up with other things to blog about.  I can always resort to showing more photos from our photo session with joeplusjill.com.  I really can't say enough about how these photos capture our family's personalities.  If you live anywhere in the Seattle area I highly recommend them!

Last post I mentioned how much I love my iPhone.  This time I'm in love with another techie toy – an app for my iPad.  Recently I found KnitCompanion.   I am absolutely loving it!  For now it only works on the iPad, but they are working on it for the iPhone as well, although my older eyes would probably not be happy trying to read charts on the tiny screen!

This app allows you to take a pdf knitting pattern and literally cut it into parts that match your work flow.  For instance, for a written pattern, such as Cassidy, I have a page each for Intro, Back, Front, Sleeves, Hood, Bands.  

For each page you can clip out the pertinent instructions – no more searching through multiple pages for the ones you need.  I can highlight exactly where I am in the appropriate page and can also highlight my size.  I can make notes as I go along for any changes that I might make.  The little blue bars allow you to collapse those panes out of the way.  Notice there are mutliple row counters on the right – those also can be collapsed out of the way.

However, here's where the fun part comes in – charts!  For charted patterns you can crop out your chart.  On the chart page you have a row highlighter that you can move as you go along!  

Here's a more complicated chart – notice the blue line down the middle – that can be moved along to keep your place on intricate charts.

If you turn off the iPad and come back to the chart later, it's right where you left it!  You can cut and paste charts together even!! (Have I used enough exclamations points yet?!)  I had kind of placed the Advent Scarf in hibernation because I was a little frustrated at manipulating all the charts and instructions.  In fact, I had only been printing them out as I needed them because there were over 50 pages worth.  This app allowed me to condense everything into just the pages I needed and now they are all there and I am flying along!  I'm on Day 17 and am hoping to get this done before our Knitters' Christmas Party on December 4th.

Maggie says, "Are you sure you want to do all 24 patterns?  This thing is soooooo long already."

One of the complaints about the program is the cost – $16.00.  But I think we iPad/iPhone users have really gotten spoiled by the cheap 99 cent apps.  This is really only the cost of a decent skein of sock yarn and will save me so much time and frustration.  To say nothing of printer ink!  No more struggling with paper charts, no more highlighter tape, no more losing my charts or having the highlighter tape come off in my knitting basket.  No more taking a break from a pattern only to pick it up again and wonder where in the world I was.  

This is not to say that the program is absolutely perfect.  It's fairly new and has its share of bugs and limitations.  But I have found the developers to be extremely responsive.  I was struggling a little in the beginning and emailed them and they were very pleasant about helping me with a problem I could have easily solved by watching the tutorials.  It's probably also not for anyone who does not love technology, but most people who have iPads are pretty well smitten already.  Another down side is that I share the iPad with hubby and sometimes I have to wrench it out of his hands when he's saving the world from Nazi zombies.

Not much progress to show on Cassidy as I have been concentrating pretty much on the Advent Scarf.  Hubby and I have also been working hard helping our dear friends as they move into their new house.  It was built in 1948 and had been sorely neglected while it went into foreclosure.  But lots of elbow grease by our small group from church is transforming it into the cutest little bungalow with an killer view of the harbor.  

Off for a fun day with our niece who is visiting for the weekend.  Then getting ready for Thanksgiving (is it really here already???) at Ben & Abby's on Thursday.  It should be fun – her Dad is still here and this will be his first American Thanksgiving.  Her Mom and Dad just bought a house about 10 minutes from them and will be immigrating here in another year or so.  All the grandparents in the same state!  Now we can really drive Abby crazy!

That's what I said to Gwendolyn last week.  I know that it defies reason that yet another pattern for this poor wool has fallen by the wayside.  "But it's not my fault!" she whines.  I did a gauge swatch (really!).  It was spot on (really!).  But after about 4 inches up the back it became glaringly apparent that it was at least two inches too narrow.  So I ripped back to the ribbing and went up two needle sizes.  After about 4 inches, it was the same size (really!).  At this point if we had an open fireplace, I might have tossed the whole thing in.  But thankfully we do not so I ripped again (really!).  This time I decided that a good wash would help, so I reskeined and dunked everything in some Soak.

Next up (Yes, I know I'm a masochist), Cassidy.  This seems to be going much better.  It might be a trifle on the large side, but I wanted something more like a light coat, so that's ok.  And even if it's not, I am forging ahead.  If it doesn't fit me, I will find someone else.  And if I can't find someone else, I will donate it to the thrift shop (really!).

I'm a little enamored of that photo.  It was taken with my new iPhone that I love, love, love!  My son gave me his old 32g 3g (I just love having kids that always get the latest and greatest, because I get their cast-offs.  Thanks son!!).  I just activated it this week and am having so much fun playing with it.  I love that I can snap a photo and it transfers wirelessly and automatically to my computer.  Of course, it's not the best for heritage photos, but for quick snaps of needlework, it's great!  Here's a photo taken in the kitchen with overhead light on a gloomy, dark evening:

I just finished the top on this quilt this week.  It was definitely a tour-de-force and one I will never, ever do again!  I've spent a lot of time in my sewing room this week and also got two more quilt tops done (really!).  However, since one is for a quilt swap and the other is an exact duplicate, I can't show them.  I think I gave my swap partner my blog address and she may be peeking.  Hi Lynne!

Today has been rainy, windy and gloomy with a little hail thrown in, so I've been hiding out in my sewing room starting on Christmas projects.  I'm making cute little stockings.  Here's the Partridge in a Pear Tree:

I'm thinkin, though, that I don't care for the holly at the top.  Here's the reindeer without the holly.  What do you think?

For our anniversary, our dil hired a photographer to come and take some family photos.  They were very informal and we got some of them this week.  They are fantastic!  They really do capture the kids and the relationships.  There are over 100 on the disk (I haven't seen them all yet), so there should be enough to keep me in scrapbook heaven for a long time.  Photos courtesy of joeplusjill.com.

Yes, that sound you hear is the sound of frogging.  I have never been afraid to cut my losses, so yesterday the Kerry Cardigan went to that great lily pad in the sky.  This, despite the fact that I had both sleeves done and was halfway up to the armholes!  However, I was hating every minute of working on it.  According to the pattern, the back and two fronts are knit together up to the armholes and then split.  With worsted weight wool, this was making a heavy weight on my needles that was hurting my hands and making me frustrated.  I could have just frogged that and knit them in pieces, but I just could not face doing that honeycomb pattern again and it was curling badly anyway.  In her recent posts, the Yarn Harlot showcased Gwendolyn.   I really liked the pattern, especially the sleeve detail, so it is currently on my needles:

I do feel a bit sorry for this yarn.  I think this is about the 3rd attempt to make it into a sweater!  Usually after frogging I will just start knitting with the frogged yarn, but this has been through the wringer, so I decided to skein, wash and rewind (I did have two unused skeins that I started with).

These are the three skeins I have done and awaiting the washtub.  I am not regretting my decision and am enjoying this knit SO much more.

Speaking of cutting losses, I have decided to close down my Etsy shop.  After a brief flurry of activity at the beginning, I have had very little traffic in the shop, despite advertising on Ravelry.  I had hoped that maybe local bazaars might be the venue for my projects, but that doesn't seem to be either.  Yesterday I spent 8 hours sitting at a table and sold zero, nada, zip!  People weren't even stopping to look!!  I have one more bazaar in November that I've already paid for and I'll do that one, but after that I'll go back to sewing for fun.

It's really hard to break out of the mindset (especially after 24 years of working) that your work is only valued if you are paid for it.  Although I didn't really have any trouble adjusting to retirement itself, I think I still had it in my mind that I needed to do something for which I would be paid.  Hubby has found a nice little cottage industry making airplanes out of recycled aluminum cans and he sells them all over the world!  But he has convinced me that I don't have to do that.  We certainly don't need the money and I should just do what I want to do, not what I think other people might buy.  As is so often true, he is right.

So I am not going to sew anything else for the bazaar coming up, but will concentrate on having fun and maybe making up some Christmas gifts.  

So – that's about it from here.  The family is coming this afternoon and Abby and I are taking the girls to the library.  In one of the eccentricities of Washington infrastructure, we share the same library system, even though they are several counties away.  That means they can check out books here and return them there.  Recently our local library has started stocking books in the Kindle format.  I'm very excited about that because I LOVE my Kindle and am loving that I can enjoy books for free.  Not all titles are available and there are a distressing number of bodice-ripper romances available, but once you sort through the trash, there are a lot of good ones too.  I'm just starting on a new series of mysteries by Anne Perry set in the World War I era.

I leave you with this scene from our peaceful little neighborhood.  This little creature hung around almost all day and wasn't even frightened by our coming and going up the driveway:

I started this post yesterday and at that time I really had nothing to report.  However, I have been a busy little bee and finished not one, but TWO projects!  First up is Isobel's sweater.  Technically you could probably say it's not a complete FO yet because I have not decided on the closures.  But at the most they will be a few minutes work, so I am officially declaring it an FO:

She won't get it until I finish her sister's sweater.  I have the back and both fronts done and am working on the collar.  That makes it all scrunched up on the needles, so it wouldn't do any good to show you a picture. This should be quick work to finish up the collar and two sleeves.

And today I FINALLY finished hubby's Cambridge jacket.  My distate for finishing really got
in the way of this one, plus for a while I was worried it was not going to fit.  But not to worry – it fits fine and I think he looks very handsome in his new sweater:

Besides this finishing flurry of two days, a lot of my time has been spent on stuff that is really quite productive, but that doesn't provide for exciting blog fodder.  I've been taking a class on organization from Linda Sattgast at Scrapper's Guide.  As anyone who does digital scrapbooking knows, it's easy for all your photos and scrapbooking supplies to become a digital mess.  It's not like traditional scrapbooking where you can visually look for things.  Supplies can get buried in the depths of your computer, never to be seen again. So I've been spending a lot of time on organizing.  It can get tedious, but once you have your system in place, upkeep becomes much, much easier.

A lot like any type of organizing, I guess.  This year hubby and I have been working on simplifying and decluttering.  So far we've done several closets, including the walk-in closet in our bedroom.  Last week I did some of our kitchen cabinets.  I wish I had taken "during" pictures!  I had stuff scattered all over the kitchen and dining room.  I decided to really reinvent the wheel and ended up moving the dishes out of the cabinet where they've been stored for 25 years and into the pantry.  The cabinet now holds all of my bread baking supplies.  I think this is really a lot more logical, although it's going to take some time to get used to it.  Hubby's keeping count of how many times he goes to the wrong cupboard for a dish!  Here's an exciting view of my bread baking cabinet:

During all of this I've taken countless boxes of stuff to the thrift shop.  Very liberating!  It's so nice to be able to find what you really want without having to dig through piles of stuff you don't really need.

To cap off all this whirlwind of activity, hubby and I celebrated our 39th wedding anniversary on Friday. We celebrated by treating ourselves to the most expensive lunch we've ever had – at Anothony's in Anacortes.  It was worth every penny and ended with the most decadent triple chocolate cake with ice cream and raspberry sauce.  Yum!  Thanks sweetie for a wonderful lunch and more importantly, the 39 years marvelous years that preceded it.

It's always nice to get encouragement for your artistic endeavors.  Recently I entered a scrapbook challenge with this page:

Imagine my surprise and delight to discover today that I had won first place!  The prize is not huge, but the encouragement is.  Of course, when you have such lovely photos to work with it helps.  Both of these were taken back in 2009 when we visited Orlando.  Mei-Mei was so besotted with hubby, that the rest of us started referring to ourselves as the "second string."  Of course, she's broadened her circle since then, but her love affair with grandpa still continues. (Kits – Dream a Little Dream by Veronica Spriggs, In His World by Scrapper's Guide, font – Handwriting Dakota, Gradient tutorial by Jenn White, B&W tutorial by Jan Walker).

I have a couple of other pages to share as well:

It was such a pleasure to be at Mei-Mei's first ballet lesson.  I didn't think it was possible to have that much pink in one room.  All of the little girls were adorable (especially mine!) and I was pleased that Mei-Mei listened to the teacher so well.  (Kits – Alpha Strings by Brandy Murray, En Pointe by DigiChicks).

And lest we forget Isobel:

I was trying to get some sweet fake-first-day-of-school pictures (more on that later), but "sweet" is not in Isobel's vocabulary.  She makes it clear she is not a girly-girly and definitely displayed an attitude in her photo shoot.  And I don't use the word attitude in a negative way – just a very confident, this is who I am personna! (Kit – Me Personally by Taylor Made, layout and tutorial by Susie Roberts, fonts – Calibri and Baroque Script).

I had asked the girls' mom to take some first day of school photos, but things got hectic and she forgot.  So, when I went down for grandparents' day, I took some off-to-school photos and we're going to have fake-first-day-of-school scrapbook page.  A fun remembrance of its own!

 
The cuteness quotient has been pretty high around here lately.  First off, I've been sewing doll clothes and it doesn't get much cuter than that.  I made p.j.'s for Mei-Mei's doll and she had to try them on immediately:

I also made this summer outfit (modeled on my doll):

And this cute little dress:

Unfortunately, I ignored the advice on the last pattern to measure my doll first and found out that she's a little chubster.  The dress is pretty tight and doesn't quite meet in the back.  Live and learn.

I also found this simple pattern while browsing a yarn store in Friday Harbor last week.  I forgot the name of the store, but it's right on Spring Street and is quite nice.  The pattern is amazingly simple – just five garter stitch rectangles.  The pattern instructs you to knit them separately and sew them together.  However, I modified it since I have an aversion to sewing up!  I left the shoulder stitches live and did a three needle bind off, then picked up the sleeve stitches at the shoulder and knit down. That left only the underarm seam to sew.  The pattern goes by the imaginative name of "Encore Worsted 1528", but you can also check under Baby Kimono in Ravelry.

Cute, no?  This will be donated to the charity my sister volunteers for – Eastside Baby Corner down in the Seattle area.  I have a whole bag of Encore to do more.  First I'm making the child sized version for Isobel:

This is known by the even more clever name of "Encore Worsted 1440".   Of course, one for Mei-Mei will follow.

It's amazing that I've even had time to knit.  My calendar has been bursting at the seams lately.  Now that the crush is over, I hope I've come to my senses and stopped overscheduling myself.  But not all of the scheduling was necessarily bad.  I leave you with this last bit of cuteness overload – Mei-Mei in her first ballet lesson:

I didn't know it was possible to have so much pink in one room!

 
Last Wednesday we took Mei-Mei to the American Girl Doll Place for her birthday.  Originally we had planned for Grandpa and Nana to take her, but since Abby wanted to go too, we let Grandpa off the hook.  In all honesty, we figured he'd spend the entire time looking at his watch and thinking, "Are we done yet?"  Since Wednesday was Isobel's first day of school, the timing seemed right for Mei-Mei to have a day of her own.  Abby and I had done a scouting of the AG store previously and picked out the doll we were going to steer Mei-Mei to.   She is still too young for the regular Amercian Girl dolls, so we picked out a pretty brown haired Bitty Twin for her.  We showed it to her on the computer so she would be prepared.  However, showing us her true little opinionated self, she did not want a brown haired doll – she wanted one with yellow hair.

We knew that she would be excited when we got to the store, but she exceeded all our expectations.  When we walked in she started exclaiming, "My doll store!  My doll store!"  Of course everyone in the store stopped and smiled.  I thought we might spend some time looking at all the different dolls, but Mei-Mei would have none of that!  She wanted to find, "My doll – the one with the yellow pigtails."  So we took her over to the Bitty Baby section and she saw her doll.

We found a saleslady who went to the back and brought out her doll and (surprise!) one for Nana too!!  Mei-Mei walked up to the checkout counter with her big box of dolls and stars in her eyes.  After we paid, the saleslady asked if we wanted her to take Mei-Mei's doll out of the box.  Of course, we said yes.  This reaction sparked a collective, "Awwwww!" throughout the store.

I had to wipe a few tears away as Mei-Mei hugged and kissed her new baby.  We then went to the cafe where her new doll was given her own little chair and place setting.  

All the way home Mei-Mei talked to her doll and made her dance and kissed her.  When we got home we had our picture taken together with our dolls.

I'm not sure how successful sewing for Mei-Mei's new dolly will be.  I made a couple of little outfits for her (seen modeled on my doll).

When she came over yesterday she wanted to see the outfits on her doll, but almost immediately asked for her original outfit to be put back on.  Good thing I have my doll to sew for – and to knit.  I've started a Spring Dress:

If Mei-Mei shows any interest, I'll give it to her for her doll.  We did manage to get Grandpa involved at least a little, although we had to sneak this photo.

Lest you think Isobel was ignored, Grandpa made her a treasure map and she got to dig for buried treasure in our yard – complete with pirate hat!

The total haul was $9.00 in change, which the girls will split and put in their piggy banks.

On a more somber tone, I can't let the day pass without remembering 9/11.  There has been a lot of backlash because of all the constant media coverage during the past week.  But I don't think we should let the media's trivialization of the event cause us to forget what was truly a terrible event for the entire country – not just New York, Pennsyvlania or Washington, D.C.  It affected all of us. However, I think my pastor's words are really relevant here, so I will leave you with his quote:

"As we gather here today, let us do so in celebration and fellowship in our Lord Jesus Christ.  He is the one who has died that we might live and be free from sin and its death.  If fear of death causes us only to mourn and cower in our sadness, fear will have won.  But thanks be to God in Christ Jesus we need not be afraid.  Let us then live as free people in the Lord and take every opportunity to rejoice together."  

Last weekend my friends and I went to the Pacific West Quilt Show in Tacoma.  What an inspiring trip!  There were so many stunning quilts.  Unfortunately, although I took a lot of pictures, I can't show them to you because of very express copyright laws.  So you'll have to take my word for it.  One of the things my friends and I discussed was that for many of the quilts, especially the prize winners, the makers most likely were very single minded.  In all probability they did not divide their time amongst many interests like we do!  I believe I have the ability to actually get into a juried show like this – after all, I've done it twice at the AQS show in Paducah.  But lately it just seems as if I'm all over the map on my hobbies!

I did get inspired by this quilt in the merchant mall:

I've always loved hand applique and one of my quilts that was juried into AQS was an applique quilt.  However, I've been frustrated at doing some of the more complicated designs.  This particular designer was doing demos of her technique and I was so impressed that I snapped up her DVD, some tools and a pattern.  Although I'm not quite ready to tackle her complicated pattern yet, I came home and started over on a simpler design that I had been working on:

I am so much more pleased with the quality of my workmanship using her techniques.  Yesterday I spent a large portion of the day making the little narrow bias stems, but believe I now have enough for the whole quilt.  Next up is to cut out a squillion little leaves.

Not that knitting is taking a back seat.  I've been working on my cabled cardigan, but it is slow going.  The body is done all in one piece up to the armholes and the honeycomb pattern is kicking my butt!  On the pattern rows, every single stitch is cabled and by the end of the row, my hands are aching.  I have one more repeat to go and then I can get to the more fun cables!

btw – before any of you comment that my cables are crossed the wrong way – they are not.  I double checked to be sure after taking this picture.  It's just an optical illusion caused by the shadows in the photo.  It did give me pause for a moment when I saw it!

I do have one FO – I finished my sister's Hedera socks.  They have already been gifted and worn.

And just to prove I am all over the map, I have started not one, but three! new pairs of socks.  In my defense (?) they all serve different purposes.  The first pair are simple rib socks for car knitting, the second are Funny Valentine socks for the new Solid Socks group I joined on Ravlery (seems to be a nice drama-free group), and the third, Twisted Flower, are in my quest to knit up every sock in Cookie A.'s Knit Sock Love book.  All three socks are out of Cascade Heritage, which is becoming my standard "go-to" sock yarn.

And just to add to the "all over the map" thing, I am becoming obsessed with making doll clothes.  So far this is my only accomplishment:

We are taking Mei-Mei to the American Girl Doll store for her birthday to get her a Bitty Twin.  I have a feeling Nana may come home with one too – after all, I do need a fit model, right?  I don't want to make too many little clothes until I know they fit.  I never sewed doll clothes as a child, so I feel as if I'm having another chance at childhood.  Possibly the fact that I'm applying for Social Security has something to do with that!

I'll leave you with my last "all over the map" accomplishment.  This page was one of the top picks of the month at Scrapper's Guide.  I was SO honored!

Hope everyone has a wonderful holiday weekend.  My niece is coming up from Seattle and then we're going down to Snohomish for a holiday brunch with the family.  Our weather is looking to be absolutely glorious for our last few weeks of summer.

I think I may be hyperventilating!

Yes, she is doing exactly what it looks like she's doing.  I really love that girl!

We finally seem to be getting a little summer here in the Pacific Northwest.  While the rest of the nation has been sweltering, we've been a lot cooler than normal.  Believe me, I am not complaining! With no air conditioning we prefer things on the cool side.  But when summer does come to Whidbey Island, it is spectacular – temps in the mid 70's, plenty of blue skies and an occasional cool offshore breeze.  Heaven!

It's gotten warm enough that our tomatoes have really taken off:

We have lots of little green tomatoes and I'm hoping by September we'll actually have some red ones.  The plant in the middle is an heirloom variety given me by a friend.  It produces little orange cherry tomatoes that are so sweet, they taste like candy.  

The weather has been cool enough that even knitting on a worsted weight sweater has been possible.  I finished the first sleeve on the Kerry Cardigan.  

This is proving to be a fun knit.  It has enough cabling to be interesting, but not so much that you can't watch TV while you knit.  I thought I had finished all the pieces to hubby's Cambridge Cardigan, but when I got ready to block, I realized that the second sleeve was two inches shorter than the first!  I had forgotten that I had lengthened it, and in my usual disorganized pattern, had not taken notes.  So I had to rip back and reknit part of it.  The knitting is done now and I will start sewing it together soon.  Promise.

Knitting seems to be taking a back seat to scrapbooking lately.  Hubby was gone for a few days visiting his sister in San Diego.  He comes home today (hooray!).  While he was gone, I did some marathon scrapbooking.  In fact, I think Maggie felt neglected.  I often sit in the corner of the couch while working on my laptop and I looked up to find this collection of toys gathered at my feet:

I think she was trying to tell me that she wanted to play.  So we went outside and threw her ball around for a while.

I've been working both on new pages and redoing some old paper scrapbook pages.  Here's an example of an old paper page reworked digitally:

Before:

And after:

Before (I never even finished this paper page):

And after:

The newest tutorial from Scrapper's Guide was on scrapping your travel photos, so I was finally able to get on pages a record of our trip to Scotland when we first met Abby:

This is just the first page of a four page spread.  And finally, a recent tip from Scrapper's Guide on gradients and blending helped me create this page:

I can't say enough about the tutorials from Scrapper's Guide.  They have really helped me bring my scrapbooking to the next level.  I can honestly say that if I was constrained to using paper, I probably would not have continued the scrapbooking.

Well, off to get showered and dressed.  So excited that hubby is coming home today.  The older we get, the harder it seems to be when we're apart!

Well – three weeks without posting!  Some of you may have been wondering if I was still out here.  I'm happy to report that I am indeed.  But a combination of very little posting fodder, then having the granddaughters for a week along with Vacation Bible School, out of the town for the weekend, then coming down with the flu!  Enough excuses for you?

As I mentioned, it seems as if I have very little interesting blogging fodder, especially in the knitting department.  I do seem to have a lace blocking block.  Here's the pile of lace that needs attending to:

I actually finished In Dreams way back in mid-May and Tango two weeks ago, but just haven't gotten around to blocking either one of them.  Usually the minute lace comes off my needles I can't wait to get it blocked.  However, in cleaning out my sewing drawers,  I came across two more scarves that need blocking as well.  I think I just need to bite the bullet and have a lace blocking marathon.

The only knitting that has been accomplished lately are Hedera socks from Cookie A's "Knit, Sock, Love". 

These will again be for my sister.  They are almost finished and when done will leave me with only two projects in the knitting stage – the Advent Scarf and Nagano.  Did I mention that I finished the knitting on hubby's Cambridge Cardigan?  That will go in the finishing pile along with Ylva.  I think I'm ready to start something new and believe I have found the project.  The Kerry Cardigan from Patternfish. 

I have some Peruvian Highland wool that's been marinating in my stash for long enough and I think this will be the perfect project. I'm still recuperating from the flu and think I will pamper myself one more day and just sit, watch TV and do the swatching for this.

As I mentioned, we had the granddaughters last week for Vacation Bible School.  Our church did "Kingdom of the Son" and the girls thoroughly enjoyed it.  I was in charge of the 1st through 3rd graders and had (are you ready for this?) 12 boys and 1 girl!  Needless to say, by the time I got home every day I was utterly exhausted.  Isobel fit right in and had a blast.  Mei-Mei wasn't so sure about the whole idea and by the third day decided that she'd rather be with Nana than with her own group.  I wasn't sure how a 3-year-old would fit in with all those rowdy boys, but they actually seemed to enjoy her.  Several of them asked to sit with her and they all made sure she got a turn when it came time for games.  I asked Isobel if she'd also like to transfer to my group, since her group was even larger, but she politely informed me that she wanted to be with her friends!  Definitely a good thing.

We took the girls strawberry picking – we have a farm here that has the best strawberries imaginable!  As you can see, Mei-Mei was more interested in picking dandelions than strawberries.  She only picked four strawberries and ate them all!

Grandpa is always up for a good time and organized a make-your-own pizza night with some very interesting ingredients.  The girls made theirs with pizza sauce, pepperoni, strawberries, apples and cheese:

And, for Marguerite, pictures of our avian visitors.  We have Flickers that visit on a regular basis and saw this adult feeding a baby:

We've also had a return of the quail who have been absent for a couple of years.  Sorry for the fuzzy photos, but these guys are quick!

I have to send my apologies to all of you out in the Midwest and East Coast who are suffering with the heat.  Last week the Seattle Times reported that Seattle's summer could be measured in minutes – 78 to be exact.  The number of minutes the temp has been over 80 this year.  We have had a few nice days since then, but here on Whidbey Island we have yet to break the 80 degree mark and are hard pressed most days to even break 70!  I know that sounds heavenly to many of you who are baking, so I will NOT complain about our lack of summer.  Stay cool out there!

Well, we survived an entire week with the granddaughters!!  Perhaps survival is putting it a little too strongly, because mostly it was a delight.  They are very easy kids.  But the constant activity can be a little draining on two aging grandparents.  I discovered quickly that the key was to keep them busy.  And a perfect activity was winding yarn.  Ivy took to it like a pro:

Isobel was amazed at how much sock yarn we wound:

We made a field trip to Padilla bay where the girls learned a lot about the creatures that hang around an estuary:

And Ivy learned that she could actually sit in a whale vertebrae:

The best part of the day?

Ivy was pretty happy to see Mom and Dad, but Isobel actually got a little weepy when she had to leave.  I had to assure her that they will be back in two weeks to  spend the week again for Vacation Bible School.  That should give me and Grandpa enough time to recover!

I did manage to sneak in a little sewing here and there, but discovered I do not do my best work when I am distracted!  Before the girls came I managed to redo the handles on the tote bag.  As most of you suggested, they were too long and were positioned wrong.  Here's the new and improved bag:

And another one that is up on etsy:

And today I was able to spend the whole blessed day in my sewing room and just posted these on etsy:

Although they look deceptively alike, the upper one is lined with stiff interfacing and a plastic insert in the bottom so it can stand on its own.  It also comes with a matching accessory bag.  The bottom one is softed sided and can actually be folded up if necessary.  I think this line of bags will go over well with the Corgi lovers.

We've actually had a few days here and there that made it up over 70 degrees.  Hearing what's going on in the rest of the country, I am so grateful for our moderate weather.  I don't know if we'll even get any tomatoes this year.  The plants are green and healthy, but woefully short of blossoms. 

Off to enjoy the peace and quiet!  And just to assert my independence, I've left sharp objects and hot coffee just lying around!!

I think all of us in the Pacific Northwest have a case of the blahs.  Once again it is dreary, cloudy and rainy.  We've had a couple of spectacular days – all the way up to 70!  But for the most part we are still struggling to even make 60 on some days.  I try very hard not to complain – I'd much rather have this than extreme heat, but it does wear one down.

I seem to have hit a blah with all of my projects as well.  I spent yesterday and today working on a little tote bag that I thought was going to be just the cutest thing ever!  But when I got done, something about it just didn't thrill me, and I'm not sure what it is. 

What is it?  Is it something as simple as the handles are too far apart?  Too tall/wide, not tall/wide enough?  I'm wanting to make some for my etsy shop and if it doesn't thrill me, it probably won't thrill others either.  Any opinions or advice would be welcome.  What would you like to see in a small knitting/project bag?

I did manage to finish the boring socks!

I'm not sure what I'm doing next, but it will be something with a lot more interest!

Perhaps the blahs are due to changes around the old homestead.  We've had some weeping cherry trees out front since shortly after we bought the house over 25 years ago.  We watched them grow from little saplings to mature trees.  Unfortunately they have reach the end of their lifespan and are starting to die.  In addition, there is some concern about the roots and our drainfield.  So – they had to go. 

Before:

After:

I'm looking forward to getting the area landscaped.  We have a friend who is a Master Gardener and she's going to come over and help us out.  I'm hoping to get something with some color.  The lavender that is in the foreground is coming out as well.  Perhaps some irises – I caught this beauty while walking Maggie down by the beach:

We did have a little bit of excitement this week – my old boss, Dr. Olson,  and his wife surprised us with a visit.  Of course, it was on the day that I decided to clean out the guest room closet and there was junk scattered all over the house and I was wearing my sloppiest clothes and no makeup! 

They certainly didn't seem to mind and we were so happy to see them.  I don't miss my job, but I do miss him.  He is finishing up his orthodontic degree at Loma Linda and then will be looking at where he will practice.  He hasn't ruled out our little town, so we're hoping!  But no, I will not be going back to work for him.

A busy week ahead as we prepare for having the granddaughters starting on Friday.  They will be staying with us for a whole week.  Gotta rest up!!

I was the fortunate recipient of a Random Act of Kindness last week!  Hubby had gone to check the mail and came trudging up the driveway with a big box.  "Did you order something?  It's really heavy!"  I told him I hadn't.  The return address label was from Corgi Hill Farms – known for her fabulous fiber.  I hadn't ordered anything from AnnaMarie, and even then her boxes tend to be light as a feather.  Imagine my delight when I opened the box and found this:

72 fat quarters (and a couple of pieces that are probably a half yard or so)!!  AnnaMarie is clearing out her belongings in preparation for a move and thought that I might like to have these for the little cases that I'm making.  They are beyond perfect.  They are all high quality fabric and the prints are just lovely.  I have to admit, this unexpected gift made me cry!

Last Friday and Saturday I took part in our local Relay for Life.  I belong to a group at our church called "Faithfully Fit".  We're a support group for healthy eating and living.  We decided to field a team this year because two of our members have had battles with cancer.  Ann is in remission from breast cancer.  Bebe has been undergoing chemo for ovarian cancer and just a few days before the walk was declared to be in remission!  A huge cause for celebration!  The first lap around the track is done by cancer survivors and is pretty emotional.

That's Bebe in the white cap waving at all her admirers.   A hardy few of us volunteered to stay all night.  I was hoping to get a few hours sleep in our tent, but those hopes were unrealistic!  It was SO cold and there was constant noise.  If you think karaoke is bad in the best of times, try it at 2:00 a.m. when you're cold and exhausted!  Those of us who stayed were pretty unanimous in our decision that we will not stay next year.  We're just too old for this.  Next year we're going to enlist the youth of the church for the night shift.  But our efforts were definitely rewarded.  We raised over $5,000 with our group alone and the total for the entire event was around $200,000!!

In celebraton of my friend's good news, I started a new shawl for her.  After much deliberation and more than a few false starts, I am knitting the Holden Shawlette.   This is a pretty, free pattern from Ravelry that only takes one skein of sock yarn.  However, it does start out with – you guessed it – lots of stockinette stitch.  I just can't seem to get away from that!

I've started a new line for my etsy shop as well.  iPad cases! 

I'm very pleased with these and hope they will be successful.  So far so good – I sold one before I could even put it up in the shop!

We've had a few beautiful days here on Whidbey Island, but it seems as if today we are back to very cool and windy.  However, seeing the heat wave back east I am definitely not complaining.  We do seem to be blessed here.  No risk of tornadoes or hurricanes.  Our location somewhat protects us from tusnamis and we get only the occasional snowstorm. 

I'm off this weekend for more fun and games.  Abby, my sister and I are going to do a winery tour tomorrow and then a girls' lunch out.  Should be fun!

I've always enjoyed Marguerite's Wednesday Wings.  She's so knowledgeable about birds and takes wonderful photos of the birds that visit her feeder and nest in her birdhouses.  I've always been a little jealous at the variety of birds that show up at her house.  However, I'm pleased as punch to report that I have my own Wednesday Wings today!  Yesterday hubby and I were lounging around the house watching a movie after dinner.  All of a sudden the crows started making a horrible racket.  I went outside to see what was going on and found this majestic guy (or gal – it's hard to tell the males and females apart) hanging around a tree in our backyard:

He hung out for about an hour and and half and then went on his merry way.  The crows continued to dive bomb him and occasionally he would snap at them if they got too close.  The crows were really flirting with danger because an eagle will grab another bird right out of the air if they so choose.  This may be one of the nesting pair from across the street, or one of their offspring looking for a place to nest (they had three babies this year).  I have mixed feelings about wanting him to make a home in our yard.  It's a wonderful opportunity to observe bald eagles first hand, but then you become a nature preserve and there are a lot of restrictions on what you can and can't do with your property.

These pictures were taken with our new Nikon CoolPix P500.  We had bought a Nikon D60 a couple of years ago, but it has become obvious it's just too much camera for us.  I had visions of buying new lenses for it and really getting into photography, but that's just not going to happen.  Plus it didn't do video and only had a 3x optical zoom with the lens we had.  The CoolPix has an outstanding 36x optical zoom, is smaller and more lightweight and does everything that we'll ever probably want to do with a camera.  I'm already getting some great other Wednesday Wings shots:

That's about the extent of the excitement chez Missour Star this week.  I currently have three active projects which involve:

(1)  a grey stockinette sleeve

(2) grey stockinette socks

(3) a navy blue stockinette sweater. 

Add in grey, overscast skies and it's really a snooze fest.  I guess I do have the Advent Scarf, but it's just not doing it for me right now.   I have a terrible urge to cast on something new, but nothing's calling to me.  I flirted with the idea of starting the Wedding Ring Shawl, but I don't have the yarn for it.   We just spent a boatload of money on the new camera and new window treatments for the living room, so I can't justify a major yarn outlay right now.  What to do?  This weekend we have company, but maybe next week I'll sit down with Ravelry and do some exploring.  Any suggestions would be welcome!

Has it really been two weeks since I blogged?  Recently someone told me that retirement is like digging a hole in the ocean.  As fast as you dig it, stuff flows in and fills it up!  Of course, I do have to remind myself that I'm doing the things I want to do.  I just want to do so much!!

Where to start?  Well, last weekend we had our 4th Annual Spring Tea.  This is an event that two friends and I have been hosting for – well, four years.  It's nothing fancy, but just a fun time to get together with friends and be a little girly.  I made scones, lemon poppyseed muffins, Devonshire cream and lemon curd.  Yummy.  My friend made finger sandwichs and the tea (she's British so we bow to her expertise).  The third friend contributes the invitations and made some beautiful fabric corsages. 

Of course, two little girls needed new dresses and Nana was glad to oblige:

Isobel has decided she doesn't like being "girly", so I was a little worried, but she was pleased that her dress was blue and didn't complain at all.  Maggie got into the spirit of the occasion with her own corsage:

There were hats:

And, of course – tea:

The weekend before the tea we had the girls for the weekend to give Abby a little break.  During their stay Isobel became infatuated with my spinning wheel and wanted to make yarn.  She pedaled and I drafted:

I asked her if she would like to learn to knit and she said, "I'd love to learn to knit."  Definitely an improvement over last time when she informed me that only old grannies knit.  So, I guess I'd better start thinking about it.  Anyone out there ever teach a child to knit?  Any suggestions?

I'm still a trifle obsessed with making little zippered bags.  I've sold some as wedding sets and I think they'd be great for shower gifts.  I especially like this set that I just did:

The smallest case is a tissue holder.  Here's the inside:

Pretty, huh?

I have been knitting in the evenings and finished In Dreams.  No picture yet because it's not blocked and looks like a pile of beaded dental floss.  Once I finished that, most of my knitting was rather plain and boring, so in a fit of I'm-not-sure-what, I started a new sweater.  I've been wanting to do a Dale of Norway for me and chose Nagano.  I'm up to the plain part of the body:

Now that I 've started a winter weight wool sweater, warm weather is sure to come – maybe?  We actually hit 70 today and it was glorious!!  Now we just need to string two of those together in a row and we can officially call it spring.

I'm hoping we've finally turned the corner on springtime – do two good days count?  Sunday was absolutely glorious, followed by two days of cold and rain, followed by another glorious day today.  Mid 60's and sunshine!  However, considering the weather in the rest of the country, we have no right to complain about our record-setting cold spring so far.

On Sunday we headed down to Snohomish to celebrate Isobel's and hubby's birthdays.  Isobel was a little annoyed that we were not celebrating on her actual birthday, which was yesterday.  So she called the party her "pretend birthday party".  The party was held in the local park and it was picture perfect weather!

Hubby is also annoyed that he is now of Social Security age, but is comforted in the fact that I will join him later this year. Isboel gave him a coffee cup that she decorated herself – "Happy Brthday, Love, Isobel".  Priceless!

Our present to Isobel was a science kit.  As soon as she got home she put on her lab coat and started experimenting:

Her greatest desire in life is to be a scientist.  Ivy's is to be a princess (gotta work on that girl!).

Isobel's Auntie Ling bought her a bicycle, which required some adjustments from Grandpa:

On the way home we drove through the tulip fields.  We didn't stop, but I managed to get some pretty pictures from the car:

Once again I am reminded of what a beautiful place we live in.  In fact, as I write this I'm watching out the window as two bald eagles circle over our yard.

My etsy shop has been quite busy!  In fact, I had to get busy and restock since I had sold so many items.  I am having so much fun making these little bags.  I just restocked yesterday:

One of my customers requested a custom bag for her daughter's wedding.  That got me to thinking how pretty monogrammed bags would be and I came up with these:

 
They can be customized with any color or initial.  I'll be putting up a section for special ordering these, but if anyone's interested before then, just email me.  This set is going to be a shower gift for a friend from church.  I also discovered that the smaller bag can be made from a fat quarter.  So I dived into my fabric stash and found some fat quarters that had been languishing because I couldn't figure out what to do with them.  These bags will be coming soon!

Lest you think I've abandoned knitting, I can assure you that I've actually got quite a bit done in the last two weeks.  However, none of it is particularly photo-worthy.  I finished one of the fronts on hubby's Cambridge Cardigan and am busily working away on the last clue of the In Dreams Shawl.  There is no way I'm going to try to spread it out on the needle to try and get a picture.  It's pretty crammed on there!  This particular clue has 1600 beads!! 

This weekend we'll be having the girls with us.  Abby's sister and two kids fly back to Japan on Friday, so we'll be giving her a bit of a break.  If the weather's nice we'll probably spend a great deal of it outside.  One can only dream!

Oh, and I almost forgot.  My random number generator (aka hubby) picked out a number and the lucky winner of my blog contest was JoLynn.  JoLynn is almost local – she lives over on the mainland and we occasionally run into each other.  She was in our class with Cookie A.  Congratulations JoLynn!  She has already picked out her prize and it is winging its way to her.

Me!  Can you believe it?  I enter two blog contests in a month and I win both of them.  Maybe I'd better buy a lottery ticket too.  Vera had a contest to celebrate her blogiversary and I was one of the winners.  My package arrived yesterday:

A copy of the book Home Ec 101 and a lovely pineapple potholder.  I'm really looking forward to sitting down with the book and honing my home ec skills.  And sorry, Vera, but I think the potholder is way too pretty to use and will probably end up decorating my kitchen.  Thank you very much!!

And speaking of blogiversaries – I have one coming up this week too!  Can you believe it's been seven years since I started this blog?  So much has happened in that time.  During those first few posts I reported on my son's visit with his lovely girfriend – her first visit ever to the United States.  At the end of the visit they announced their engagement.  One wedding and two granddaughters later I can't even imagine life without her!

So, I guess to celebrate, I should have a contest too.  Send me a comment to this post by April 30th and I'll enter you in the contest.  On May 1st (or thereabouts) all comments will be numbered and my random number selector (aka hubby) will pick a number.  The winner will be able to go to my etsy shop and pick out any one item (sets count as one item, so think big!). 

My last few posts have been a little lean on knitting photos, even though lots of knitting has been done.  I finished the back on hubby's Cambridge jacket:

I'm about halway up the first front.  I also finished my sister's Christmas socks (no, I'm not late – for Christmas I promised her a pair of socks every other month during the year and I'm right on time!):

The yarn is a Berroco, but I can't seem to find the ball band.  Plain Jane socks knitted on size 0's.

In a semi-spate of finishing, I did finish the knitting on Ylva:

Front and back done and joined at shoulders.  All that's left is to sew the side seams and a few rows of garter stitch around neck and armholes.  Anyone want to take a guess at how long I'll procrastinate on this one?

We finally seem to have turned a corner toward springtime here in the Pacific Northwest.  Today is supposed to be in the upper 50's and tomorrow we may even break 60 – with sunshine no less.  Then rain for Easter, but that's pretty normal around here.  I hope all of you have a blessed Easter!

Christ is risen – he is risen indeed!

Our trip to Spokane was a big success and resulted in a very happy ending for Angel.  We were prepared to bring her back if we felt that this home was not appropriate.  But it was immediately obvious that Angel had hit the doggie jackpot!  Chae was an incredibly sweet young woman and absolutely delighted to finally have a Corgi:

There was a big, fenced in backyard and lots of love evident all around.  As sad as it was to say goodbye, we knew Angel was where she was meant to be.  We've been in contact with Chae all weekend and Angel is adapting well and is already a member of the family.  I think some people thought we were a little crazy to drive all that way for one little dog, but we just knew this was the right thing to do for little Angel.  We came home to a very relaxed and happy Maggie, as well!

Today was a wonderful, hectic, crazy day as we welcomed Abby's sister, two children and her mom for a family get together.  Thank goodness for sunshine and dry weather as the four kids and Maggie had a wonderful time chasing each other around the yard.  Both of Abby's sister's children really took to Maggie.  Ryo, the little boy liked kicking Maggie's ball so she could chase it and Nana, the little girl just liked to sit and pat her.  By the end of the day we had four exhausted kids and one tired puppy!

This has been the first time in about 11 years that Abby and her sister and mom have been together.  It was great to see so many happy faces:

It was hilarious trying to get four wiggly kids still enough for a decent photo, but I think we managed.   And it was great sharing the grandma duties with Abby's mother:

The long road trip provided lots of time for knitting.  I finished a pair of socks and the back of hubby's Cambridge jacket.  I promise photos next time.  For now – I'm just going to sit back and relax!

It looks as if we'll be making another road trip, albeit a short one this time.  As hard as we have tried, Angel is not merging into our family as smoothly as we had hoped.  When Maggie is not in the picture she is the sweetest dog you can imagine.  She is affectionate, playful and relatively calm.  But the minute Maggie walks in she becomes agitated, fearful and protective.  She does not want Maggie anywhere near us.  Maggie is really willing to live and let live.  She tries her best to ignore Angel, but Angel will have none of that.  She is constantly confronting Maggie, blocking her way to her bed under the table and even this morning trying to keep her from going outside.  Here you can see Angel giving Maggie the evil eye while Maggie tries to ignore her:

We've had a couple of scary knock-down-drag-out fights.  Our biggest worry, other than the complete lack of peace in our house right now, is that when the girls visit they would be at risk of getting in the middle of a dog fight, and we can't have that.

Happily, Ravelry came to the resuce.  I'm in a Corgi group and someone there knew of a Raveler in Spokane who has been looking for a Corgi!  I contacted her and it is a perfect situation!  They are a young couple with no other dogs.  He used to be a dog trainer before going into the Air Force.  They have a big fenced in back yard and are just waiting for a Corgi to love.  Friday we will head on over.  It's 6 hours over and 6 hours back (with gas at almost $4.00 a gallon!), but it is well worth it to us to have Angel in a good home.  She has so much to offer the right family; she's just too insecure to fit in with another dog at this time. 

In between my refereeing duties I've been busy stocking my Etsy store.  My first sales were of single cases, so I put up some more singles:

I'm also experimenting with some Kindle Cases:

They haven't been flying off the shelves quite yet, but I have gotten a few special orders.  I have a feeling Christmas will be busy, as these will make great gifts.  But do send all your knitting friends to the shop.  I love how you can see through these cases so you know exactly what you have in them.

My evenings have been spent working on In Dreams. Unfortunately some of that time has been spent tinking!  Oddly enough, I don't seem to have any problem with the middle part, which is very complicated.  I keep making mistakes on the outer border, which is the same 8 rows over and over.  But when you've forgotten a bind off or a double yarn over and don't notice it until the next row, or even a few rows later, it is impossible to fix.  Everything, including the middle rows, have to come out.  You'd think I would learn to pay more attention on those borders, but you might just be wrong.

I have frogged the Monkey socks I was working on.  For one thing, I've decided that KAL's with deadlines are just not for me.  I don't like knitting under pressure.  I do have as my goal knitting all of the socks in Knit, Sock Love, but will do it at my own pace.  And I've also decided that I really do not love the Monkeys in such a variegated yarn.  Most of the Monkeys seem to be done that way, but I think in the future I'm going to save my patterned yarns for Plain Jane socks and stick to solids and semi-solids for Cookie's socks.

And lookie what came in the mail today:

I've decided to give spindle spinning another try.  I ordered this on the recommendation of Allison (see her picture in my last post).   She is a wonderful spindle spinner.  I had mentioned to her my frustration with spindle spinning – the cheaper spindles are very difficult to handle, but I didn't want to splurge on a more expensive one just to find I thoroughly hate it.  She suggested the student spindle from  The Bellwether.  It is very inexpensive, but a good quality.  I've been practicing a little and I think I'm getting a little better.  Although my yarn is still crap, at least I'm not dropping it as much!  I like to think that's because I'm improving and not just because my reflexes at catching it are getting better.

Spring is trying to fight its way into the Pacific Northwest.  This can be a frustrating time of year – we're ready for spring, but it's not quite ready for us.  However, when looking at weather in other parts of the country, I have absolutely no complaints!  The Northeast still has a foot of snow on the ground, the south and midwest have temps in the 80's and tornadoes.  The lake in my backyard is not looking too bad at this point.

Ok, it's official – my Etsy shop is open.  Look for me as IslandHeirlooms!

My mad social whirl continued this weekend with the annual Spin In here in town.  For a small, sleepy town, we draw a huge crowd for the two-day event.  And do you think I thought to take pictures?  Nope!  In my defense I was in charge of registration and things got pretty intense.  Over 200 participants registered – most of them all at once, I think!  The merchant mall was unbelievable.  Drat – I still can't believe I didn't take a single picture.  Some small fiber stash enhancement took place.  No picture there either, but I promise next post.  To do it now would entail getting out of my recliner and I'm still resting!

Our guest speaker was none other than Judith McKenzie!  She spoke on intentional spinning and wheel mechanics, both subjects of her books.  And the best part?  The next day I got to take an entire day workshop with her:

That's Allison pictured with us.  You might know her on Ravelry as SunnyDay.  She is a spindle spinner extrodinaire and she coaxed me into ordering a spindle.  I'm sure Lorette will be pleased at that!  The workshop was well, well worth it.  By the end of the day I was spinning 2 ply laceweight with ease.  I could also spin super bulky, although I doubt I'll ever want to do that.  We spun cashmere, several kinds of silk, corriedale and a rambouillet/kid mohair mix.  By the end of the day I was totally and utterly exhausted and my brain hurt, but I learned enough to keep me going for a long time.

And on Saturday I came home to this lovely surprise in the mail:

Lorette had a contest on her blog and I won all this lovely Phildar Aviso – 60% cotton, 40% acrylic.  It looks a little hot pink in the picture, but is really a bright, rich red.  What?  You say I should wait and take a picture in daylight?  Fat chance.  We're building an ark even as we speak.  Anyway, I'm not sure yet what I will do with it.  For some reason the thought of a lovely hooded scarf appeals to me.  Something to wear while walking the dog.

And speaking of dogs, it does not seem likely that we will be keeping Angel.  Maggie seems to tolerate her well enough, but Angel is extremely jealous of Maggie.  She does not want her anywhere near us, and is constantly confronting her and provoking a reaction.  Maggie will try to go somewhere else, but eventually comes out fighting.  We've had a couple of scary knock down drag out fights.  Things do seem to be getting better, and if we never had kids over I might be prone to tough it out.  But I don't know that I could ever trust the two of them around the girls.  If the excitement level got high (as it does with the girls around), I'm afraid they might get between the two dogs.  We're looking at options now, including a Raveler in Spokane who may be interested.  I'm saddened that it didn't work out, but at this point neither dog is happy.  Angel is so sweet and loving, she deserves a home where she can relax and soak up the affection.

In between refereeing fights, I've become obsessed with making these cute little cloth and vinyl bags. 

The largest is 9×5, the middle 6×4 and smallest 3 1/2 x 3/12.  They have a clear vinyl front and would be great for so many uses – make up bags, knitting and sewing notions, spinning accessories, you name it.  The small one comes on a key chain and can hold a small items for your purse – hand sanitizer, medications, change.  You can even put in a few dog cookies in the front and a couple of plastic bags in the pocket on the back for your daily walk with your doggies.  In fact, I like making them so much that I am going to open my own Etsy shop to sell them.  I'm hoping to get the shop up as soon as I get some good daylight to take decent pictures.  You can look for my shop under "Island Heirlooms".  I'll be selling them in sets (which would make great gifts) or as singles.

I think I've finally come to the end of all my exciting trips.  In all honesty, I am more than ready to stay home and putter for a while!

. . . . and guess who's holding it!

Yep – that's Cookie A. herself holding my Monkey sock in progress.  I took two classes from her today and had a great time.  She's so charming in person and just blows you away with her knitting skill.  We got to see most of the Cookie A. socks and they are more gorgeous in person than in the photographs.

The first half of the class was on advanced cables.  We cabled ribbing, garter stitch over seed stitch, plain over lace and the grand finale – cables over cables.  I had seen other ways of cabling without a needle, but her method was much more "secure" and I think I will be using it.  The second half was on bias knitting.  I don't think I will be doing much designing with bias, but it was interesting to see the technique and geometry behind it.  It was also a nice chance to get together with some knitting friends that I only see on occasions such as this.

Now off to finish this pair of Monkeys!

Meet Angel, the newest member of our family. 

Technically we have a week to decide whether or not to keep her, but I think the decision has been made!  She has already managed to worm her way into our hearts.

As I mentioned before, she has such a sweet temperament.  Pretty laid back and calm.  Maggie can be pretty dominant and pushy, but Angel is not really intimidated.  They have an uneasy truce going right now, but I don't think it will be long before they'll be playing together.  Yesterday we set up a crate in the dining room for her and Maggie managed to open the door, crawl in and go to sleep!  She's more annoyed than anything else.  But there's been a surprisingly low level of aggression.  In fact, this afternoon Maggie patiently watched while Angel chewed on a bone.  As soon as Angel got up and walked away, Maggie took the opportunity to sneak over and carry the bone away!  But at least she did wait until Angel was done.

I weighed Angel and she is 27 lbs.  Maggie is larger than she is and is only 22 lbs.  I think Angel should only weigh about 20 lbs., so she is carrying about 1/3 more weight than she should.  We've started the diet and exercise program.  Maggie can go 2 miles or more without getting winded, but poor Angel was beat after only 1/2 mile!  But we'll get there and it will be great seeing her get healthy.

It's been two weeks since I posted – where has the time gone?  Once again I'm reminded that life can get very, very busy in retirement. 

The main event during my absence from the blog has been my trip to San Francisco.  To recap, my sister had a conference to go to and asked if I'd like to go along.  Although this was pushing the boundaries of my comfort level I jumped at the chance.  I'm not generally a fan of big cities and I knew that most of the time I would be wandering around on my own.  In the end, there was nothing at all to worry about and we had a great time!

We arrived in town early on Thursday morning.  This was the view from our hotel room – Telegraph Hill and Coit Tower.  

Since my sister's activities didn't start until later that evening, we decided to go to Alcatraz. 

What a great piece of American history.  Life was certainly harsh there, but most of the convicts had earned their spot.  My favorite regulation – "You are entitled to food, clothing,  shelter and medical attention.  Anything else you get is a privelege."  I needed that when my kids were growing up.  Another favorite that I bought as a magnet for Abby & Ben's refrigerator – "If you make groundless complaints for the purpose of greating dissatisfaction and/or stirring up trouble, you will be subject to disciplinary action."  Another oldie, but goodie!

On Friday, while my sister was in conference, I took the Hop On, Hop Off tour bus around the city.  Since the bus didn't go really near Lombard street, I hopped off and walked several blocks to the bottom of the street. 

In a fit of what I can only describe as lunacy, I decided to walk UP Lombard street!  I really think I should have gotten a medal.  I ran into a lot of people walking DOWN, but I was the only hardy soul trudging up.  The view at the top of the hill was breathtaking.

From there I walked over to Ghiardelli Square and then had to hike another mile (also uphill – how can everything in one city be uphill – where does the downhill come in?) to catch the bus.

Next stop – Golden Gate Bridge. 

This is every bit as impressive as it looks on the postcards.  Later in the day after I was there a high school student on a field trip actually jumped off the bridge and survived with only minor injuries! Later I went back to the bridge with my sister and walked out on the span, but my acrophobia kicked in and I had to come back to solid ground.

I next spent a few lovely hours in the California Academy of Sciences.  It was there I really wished I had the girls with me, especially Isobel.  She would have loved it.  Especially the albino 'gator – yes he's real, and alive!

By then I was exhausted and just rode the bus around looking at the sights.  Of course, we got to see Haight Ashubry and the famous Painted Ladies:

On Saturday I walked down to the main shopping district.  There was probably nothing there that I could afford, but I did find the mecca of all fabric stores – Britex fabrics.  Unfortunately, they did not allow photography in the store.  When I walked in I thought I was going to hyperventilate!  Four floors of wall to ceiling fabrics.  On the second floor was one whole wall about the size of the length of my hallway with nothing but buttons!  I bought a yard of quilting cotton and two small pieces of Chinese brocade.  Some day I'll make something for the girls with them.

I also found Art Fibers – a wonderful little "hole in the wall" yarn store.  Instead of skeins, everything is on cones in bins with little samples on the display above the bins.  Inside the bins are "sample" cones and you can take them over to the table and knit up a sample. 

I bought some alpaca/silk – enough for a scarf.

When I returned to the hotel, my sister's conference had ended early, so we had time to ride the Hop On Hop Off bus again so she could see a few of the sights.  That evening we had a wonderful meal with her co-workers in Little Italy.  And can you say pastries??

We frequented this shop several times.  On Sunday before our flight left, we walked through Chinatown.  Our hotel was actually right on the edge, so it was a short walk.  I really wished I had Abby with me because some of the signs were a little short on English.

Our flight home was uneventful and I spent the next week recovering before another round of fun this weekend.  As my birthday present back in December, my sister gave me tickets to Cirque du Soleil Quidam.  What an experience!  The night before we went to the symphony and out to dinner with a friend, so it was a mad social whirl of a weekend!

On the way home, I stopped by and saw Ben, Abby and the girls.  They have their own mad whirl going on.  Abby's sister, who lives in Tokyo, has come to visit with her two small children.  She had been planning a visit and now seemed to be a good time to be away from Japan.  Unfortunately, her husband had to stay behind and work.  Despite many, many hours of travel and a huge time change, the kids are just so sweet and adorable!  The little girl has latched on to Ben as her new best friend.

As you can imagine, little to no knitting or sewing has been done.  I may catch up this week and have something to show by next week.

In breaking news – we may be getting a new little dog.  One of our younger son's friends was told by animal control that she has to get rid of her numerous animals (yes, a hoarder).    Very compassionate and sweet, but just a little misguided.  One of the animals is a purebred, AKC registered Corgi.  Angel came and visited today and things went very well.  My son's friend broke down and cried at the thought of Angel having such a nice "forever" home where she could come visit her whenever she wanted.  Poor Angel is terribly overfed and out of shape.  She needs diet and exercise and vet care, but has a sweet, sweet temperament and has not been mistreated.  I'll keep you posted.

At last!  The second ladybug sweater is finished:

I couldn't believe the amount of finishing on such a small sweater.  They were delivered to the girls on Saturday and I think they were a big hit. 

Mei-Mei's sweater fits with room to grow, but alas I think Isobel's sweater will only be good for one season.  While I'm certainly not sorry I tackled such an ambitious project, I think their sweaters for Christmas 2011 will be much simpler.  I'm eyeing the Tucknernut Cardigan from Interweave Knits Winter 2010.  I think after all that colorwork, I'm ready for some cable work.

In other FO news, I finished the Lullaby afghan:

Just in time!  Little Julianne arrived last week.

I finally started work on hubby's Cambridge Jacket.  He had so admired my son's that I wanted to make one for him.  However, I ordered the yarn from our LYS and it took over two months to come in.  I was just about to give up and order it online when it came in.  I'm using Cascade 220 for this as well, but in a pretty (or is that handsome?) heathered grey.  Pictures later.

I also received my copy of Cookie A.'s new book, Knit Sock Love.  Completely appropriate name, because what's not to love about this book!  Lots of luscious eye candy and most of the socks look reasonable to knit.  I joined the KSL Knitalong on Ravelry.  The goal is to knit every sock in the book and there are prizes to boot.  I joined in a little late and missed the deadline for the first one – Hedera.  So I will not be eligible for the grand prize.  We are allowed to substitute another Cookie A. sock up to four times in the KAL.  I only found one (the knee socks) that I will probably substitute.  First up are the ubiquitous Monkey socks:

I lost the ball band for the yarn, but I think it is Opal.  Cookie A. is coming to our area and I've signed up for a couple of classes with her.  One is on bias knitting and I forget what the other one is, but the price was reasonable, so I thought it would be fun to hang with her for the day and get a look into her design process.

And lace continues as well.  We're on the third clue for In Dreams and thank goodness the beading is a little less on this one.  I do so love the beads, but it slows me down considerably.

Spring is really starting to peek out here in the Pacific Northwest.  Early daffodils are blooming and the weather is warming up some.  Early Daylight Savings Time will also help – at least make us feel more like spring, anyway.  Lots of excitement coming up in the latter part of the week.  I'm going with my sister to San Francisco.  She has a conference and invited me to go along.  I've never been and am excited about seeing all of the sights, especially Alcatraz.  I'll be taking my computer along and will probably have some down time while she's in conference, so I'll try to post some travel pictures.  Any one out there familiar with the city know of any yarn shops within walking distance of the financial district?

I guess it's only fair that we finally get our share of the snow that's been sweeping the country.  While certainly mild by East Coast standards, this was pretty extreme for us and we have been staying home.  Overall, we got about 10 inches total.  Usually when we get snow, it melts quickly, but it is down near freezing, so this will probably stay with us for  few days.

Maggie absolutely loves the snow.  I tried to get a picture of the pure joy on her face as she races through the yard, but this is the best I could get:

This has been the perfect excuse (as if I needed one) to stay in and sew.  I'm really feeling the love for finishing projects and completed my Mexican Star quilt yesterday.

I actually did some free motion quilting in the plain squares and it didn't come out too badly at all.  I'm still not excited about showcasing it on plain fabric, but will probably continue to practice on any quilt that has areas of printed fabric.

Before the great snowfall, we did manage to get down to Snohomish to deliver the girls' quilts.  Mei-Mei was thrilled with hers and kept telling me "Thank you for my quilt Nana!"  Isobel – well, not so much.  We laid out the quilts on their beds and she very politely informed me that she only liked one blanket on her bed.  Obviously the quilt was not the chosen one and she very gently folded it up and put it away!  Later I asked her if she was going to snuggle under her quilt and she said, "When I want to."  Obviously she has a mind of her own and will do things on her own schedule!  I did manage to get some pictures of the quilts on the beds, along with at least one delighted granddaughter.

As usual, I brought my knitting with me and at one point in the day was knitting with Isobel snuggled next to me.  I asked her if she would like to learn to knit.  She said, "No, I want to be a scientist."  I told her she could do both, that there were a lot of knitting scientists.  Her reply – "Knitting is for old grannies.  You're old, right?  But you can still walk."  A few minutes later a little neighbor boy who was visiting came up and watched me and asked what I was doing.  I explained and he said, "Why do you do that?"  I told him it was because I liked doing it.  His reply – "That's what old persons do."  Obviously it was my day to be humbled on all fronts!

On the way down, we encountered migrating snow geese.  These are such a magnificent sight every year, along with the trumpeter swans that stop by for a visit.

I can't remember if I mentioned that our knitting group is doing the Advent Scarf as a year long project.  The goal will be to do two patterns a month.  A couple of us who are experienced lace knitters are trying to stay a couple of patterns ahead so we can help out with any questions or problems.  So far I am up to pattern #6.

I've also been chugging along on In Dreams.  Man, there are a lot of beads on this thing.  It's already starting to get a little heavy. 

It's slow going and I have to be careful of dropping stitches.  I'm using Knit Picks Shimmer, an alpaca, silk blend.  If you drop a stitch it immediately makes a break for it and slithers down several rows.  With all the yarn overs and decreases, that can be a bear to try and pick back up.  I've already had to tink back a few rows.  I still stubbornly refuse to put in lifelines.  I think they take up as much time (or more) than tinking and would have to be put in fairly often to do any good – at least for me.

We're probably facing at least one more day at home and I'm really looking forward to spending it in my sewing room.  I'll be working on an American Hero quilt for wounded Iraq soldiers and possibly an in-the-hoop project on my embroidery module.  Good times!

The quilts are done!  The quilts are done!  I just put the finishing touches on Isobel's and Ivy's quilts:

I have so enjoyed working on these quilts, but it's always nice to see the wrap up (literally) of a project of this magnitude.  Some people would say there's an awful lot of work in quilts that are (with any luck!) going to be loved, washed, dragged around the house and generally used to tatters.  But I enjoyed doing it and I know the girls are going to love them.

In fact, Ivy felt the love before they were even done.  Every time she saw the quilts in progress, she would ask, "Is that quilt for me?"  They stayed at our house this weekend while their house was being painted and she stood right by the sewing machine while I sewed and kept asking, "Is it done yet?  Is it done yet?"

  At one point, I had to declare it done enough for use:

She really didn't care that the quilting wasn't done and the binding wasn't sewn on.  The observant among you may notice that I did not free motion quilt the borders.  In the end I wimped out and did three rows of decorative machine stitching.  About 1/3 of the way through, I realized I could have gotten away with only one row, but by then I was committed.  I think I need a lot more practice free motioning before I'm ready to put it on a quilt that I really care about.

I finished binding them yesterday and made the labels for them today:

As I was sewing on the labels, I realized that I had put in the WRONG YEAR!  Doh!!  However, I am NOT doing them over.  We are just going to chalk it up to a senior moment for Nana and move on!

After doing the Evenstar KAL, I said that I would not do another.  However, I have caved and joined the "In Dreams" KAL.  I'm hoping there won't be quite as much drama with this one and I do so love her designs.  And I certainly don't have to "join" in the discussions (which I probably won't).  I'm still waiting for my yarn – Knit Picks Shimmer in white, but I got my beads yesterday – 5,000 of them!  Off to start stringing them on dental floss.

Far be it from me to complain about our weather, especially considering what the rest of the country is experiencing.  I think we must be the only region that is not having extreme weather.  However, we have had days and days (and days) of gloomy rain – not unusual winter weather for us.  It was absolutely glorious when we experienced the sun for a few days this week.  I was going to get out and get some pictures, but got side tracked by other things, so you'll have to take my word for it. 

The major project I've been sidetracked by is finishing up the girls' quilts.  Machine quilting has never been my strength and I was kind of dreading that part of the project,  However, once I put my mind to it and got started, I found I didn't mind it (much).  I think part of the reason is that the results were actually quite decent:

All that's left are the borders and I think I'm going to bite the bullet and free motion quilt a heart design:

I experimented with using a design drawn on tissue paper and pinned on the quilt sandwich and it came out acceptable.  With any luck the quilts will be finished by next weekend.  Mei-Mei got a sneak peek and gave the quilt (especially the lamb) the stamp of approval:

It's a good thing I'm going to have a couple of FO's, because I have a serious case of "startitis".  I've found at least four or five projects I could cast on today, but I'm trying to be disciplined.  On the finishing block were the Sunshine socks I was making for myself – they've already been washed and worn twice.  I love them!

Not too much is being accomplished this weekend because we have the girls.  Ben and Abby are having their house painted and decided the project would go much more smoothly without two little inquisitive girls around.  On Saturday, Grandpa and Isobel went to a kid's workshop at Home Depot and Isobel make a cute little heart shelf:

And, of course, one can never get tired of hearing, "Nana, will you read me a story?"

Even Aunt Claudia got in on the act with a double dose of love:

We are immersed in that time of year in the Pacific Northwest when it seems as if we will never see the sun again.  While I remind myself that at least we don't have to shovel rain, it does get a little wearing.  We need to keep lights on in the house during the day and yesterday when I was driving at noon, I felt I needed my headlights.  On the bright side, as I was walking Maggie during a rare break in the rain the other day I saw some bulbs poking their little heads out of the ground.

Also on the bright side, I am so enjoying my new, improved sewing room.  Being able to see all of my projects, I am determined to put a dent into the huge pile of UFO's.  I finished sewing the tops for the granddaughters' quilts and got them spray basted.  I'll start machine quilting them on Monday (pictures to follow later).  I'm also enjoying having the space to spread out and handquilt:

As you can see, I have my little nest with coffee cup, thread, scissors and remote controls handy.  My ancient little TV bit the dust during the transition, so yesterday I got a new small flat screen so I can watch my cheesy disaster movies while I quilt.  Truly my little bit of heaven on earth.

On the knitting front, I'm also trying to finish some UFO's before starting new ones, although my unfinished pile there is quite a bit smaller.  First up is finishing Isobel's Dale of Norway sweater.  Last night I finished the first sleeve:

The body is done, so as soon as the other sleeve is done I can start putting it together.  Toward the end of the sewing room project I finished the pair of Sunshine socks I was working on and found myself truly bored for the first time in a long time.  Hubby was putting in the floor, which is really a one person project.  I couldn't clean because my sewing room stuff was scattered all over the house.  I obviously couldn't sew.  I couldn't work on Isobel's sweater because it was at the bottom of a pile somewhere.  I finally found a stray skein of sock yarn toward the top of the pile.  It was left over from my Landscape Shawl and there seemed to be enough for some socks, so I was able to cast on.  I had told Marguerite that I would make another pair of Sunshine socks, but probably not right away.  However, I was in such doldrums that I couldn't even drum up enough energy to look through the mess for another pattern.  The pattern for Sunshine was sitting in my knitting bag and I had memorized most of it, so that's what I cast on.  First sock is already done:

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, color Into the Mystic, pattern Sunshine by Cookie A.

This afternoon I get to go meet with my dear friends in my Round Robin group.  I do so love this group of ladies and we always have such a wonderful time!  Next week I'll try to get my act together and show you what we're working on.

Woo Hoo!  The sewing room project is officially done.  It is so nice to have things clean and organized and all of my sewing "junk" back in its proper place.  For your viewing enjoyment, I offer a guided tour.  But first, a "before" picture:

And now, after:

Work table – hubby built this work table for me years ago and it is wonderful!  It's at a nice height for standing and there's a stool if I want to sit down.  All of my fabric cutting is done here.  Although I use a MacBook for my every day computing, I use hubby's old PC for my embroidery and sewing programs that only run on a PC.  I could use Boot Camp, but this is handier.  I have my good photo printer to the left and to the right are my quilting rulers, right at hand when I need them.  Above the table is a print by one of my favorite artists, Charles Wysocki.  We have several of his signed and numbered prints.  Although the table is constructed so that it can fold down, we've never had it folded down!  And I use underneath for yarn storage bins.

Bookcase – I did some weeding out of books, so the bookcase is not as crowded as it used to be (believe it or not!).  They are roughly sorted by knitting/quilting/other, but probably more weeding out and organizing needs to be done.  I'd like to get the knitting books organized on Ravelry.  The corner unit holds my "entertainment center" consisting of the TV/Tivo/DVD player.  I often have recorded CSI and Law and Order programs going on in the background while I work.  To the right is a hook holding my large quilting hoops and more yarn storage bins.  To the left is my cart of embroidery threads.

Sewing Center – I have an old and yes, a little ugly sewing cabinet, but it was free and is really a great piece of furniture if you get beyond the looks.  For one, it's terribly sturdy – no wobbling or shaking, even when I put the pedal to the metal while sewing.  It's got storage drawers on the left, which really need to be sorted out.  It also can pull out from the wall and has a table that folds out, giving me a very large surface for machine quilting or when I just need more room.  My serger is on the floor to the right and can easily be put on the fold out when needed.

Ironing Center/Doggie Relaxation Center – My iron and ironing board are handy, just a few steps away from the sewing machine.  I could lower the board so I could just roll over from the machine, but I find the getting up and down actually is better for my body.  Whenever I'm in my room, Maggie is usually there with me.  Since there is no longer carpet, I thought a doggie bed would be comfortable for her.  She hasn't yet claimed it as her own, but I'm sure she will once I start working in there.  On the wall above the ironing board is a wonderful quilt – Quilter's Heaven – made by a dear quilting friend.  I had always admired the quilt and was constantly talking about it.  One day she offered to sell it to me.  I was envisioning hundreds of dollars, but all she asked for was a pittance.  I gave her twice what she offered and said if that bothered her she could donate it somewhere, which I think she did.  I love this quilt and especially the connection to my friend, who will be moving to Florida this year.

Fabric Stash Closet – here you see my fabric stash.  The wire bins come in handy for sorting by color.  I've also found that the clear plastic containers that our salad comes in are great for holding small pieces such as fat quarters.  The white cardboard boxes hold projects.  My goal this year is the get some of these done and the boxes emptied for new projects!  The hook on the left holds all my tote bags (you can never have too many tote bags).  On the floor is room for magazine storage and assorted sundries. At times my magazine collection has threatened to take over the house, and in all honesty I must admit that I have a whole shelf of them in our master bedroom closet.  But I have already cleaned out a ton and will continue to destash them through the year, tearing out articles and patterns, filing them in notebooks and recycling the rest.  My goal will be to have no more magazines than will fit on the floor of this closet!

So there you have my room.  I did notice that because of the flash, the color looks a little washed out.  It is really a nice, warm, sunshiney yellow.  It is such a refuge for me and I really love that I have the luxury of this space.  Technically, it's not finished because I still need to make curtains.  Believe it or not, in the 25 years we have lived in this house, that window has never had curtains!  I think it's about time.  The fabric you see on the sewing table should find itself on the window within the next week or so.

I don't know if you can see out the window, but there is a light dusting of snow.  We had pretty heavy snowfall this morning, but it was warm and didn't stick too much.  However, the weather pundits here have predicted a major snow "event" for later in the week.  We made a trip to the grocery store this morning to stock up on a few items, so we are well prepared.  A perfect excuse to hunker down in my beautiful new room.  Bring it on!!

We're approaching the home stretch on the sewing room project!  In fact, it should be finished today – then comes the hard work of sorting and moving everything back in.  We finished painting yesterday and this morning hubby finished the floor:

It's really hard to get a panaromic shot of the whole room.  I love the cheerful yellow walls!  In fact, as I was walking down the hall this morning I wondered if I had left a light on in the room.  I hadn't, but the walls were reflecting the rather weak light coming in through the window.  It's been so grey and dreary here the past few days and the sunshine yellow walls made me happy.  All that's left is for hubby to put down the molding and we'll be done!

I've found myself really at loose ends today.  Up until today, I've been busy on the project – cleaning out and painting.  Once he started on the floors, there really wasn't much I could do to help.  I can't clean the house because there's sewing room junk scattered through just about every room.  I finished the socks I was knitting and can't start new ones because my sock yarn is buried, to say nothing of my swift and ball winder.  I did find the yarn and pattern for the sleeves on Isobel's sweater, but I changed the colors on the chart and did not mark the chart.  So I need the body in order to match the colors.  I have no idea where it is right now!

Speaking of socks, the Sunshine (appropriate name, eh?) socks are finished:

I should name this "Still Life of Socks with Thread".  Still can't find the ball band so I can't credit the yarn yet.  I did run across it during the cleaning out, but who knows where I put it??  This is the first pair of six for my sister's "Sock Club" this year.  I'm rather proud of myself that I am so far ahead.  We'll see how long this lasts.

Less than an hour and I can start moving things back!  I can't wait to be able to sew and find things again.

It's got to get worse – a lot worse!  Hubby and I have been putting off a remodeling project in my sewing room.  We want to put in a new floor and while we're at it texturize two walls that were never done when the house was built and repaint.  Because we knew it was going to be a HUGE hassle, we have been procrastinating.  However, the time has come and it is now.

This is what my sewing room looks like now:

But this is the guest room:

That doesn't include the floor to ceiling bookcases in the bathroom and dining room, or the piles of stuff in the sunroom and our bedroom.  I'm not sure how in the world I fit everything in there!  I did do a lot of cleaning out and have boxes to give away, plus a box of books I sold at Cash 4 Books and some stuff that has  gone to the thrift shop.  I'm already having withdrawal – I really want to sew!  But with a lot of hard work, by this time next week I should be moving stuff back in.

Here's hubby hard at work!

I did get a little sewing done before the big move.  I made a case for my Kindle:

This was the second attempt.  The first was a pouch with some really strange directions.   So far I have to say I love the Kindle.  It took a little getting used to the navigation, but I love how lightweight it is and the ability to store so many books.  I find myself spending way too much time playing word games on it, but I justify that by reminding myself it staves off dementia.  Right?

While hubby is prepping the room for painting, I've been in the kitchen putting together some freezer meals.  A couple of years ago we went to a store called Dinners Ready.  You could go there and put together meals for the freezer.  Then, when you found yourself standing in front of the cupboard wondering "What's for dinner?", you could just pull a meal ready-to-cook out of the freezer.  It was a little more expensive than home made, but not quite as expensive as eating out.  The downside was your choices were pretty limited and the store closed after only a year or so.  But recently I found the site SavingDinner.com.  She has recipes for freezer meals.  After trying a few during December, and being really impressed, I am ready to go for broke.  I put together  15 meals this afternoon! 

Of course, we may end up with take-out tonight because I'll be too tired to cook, but it should keep us in good shape for the next few weeks.  And I'm starting to look at my own recipes with the idea of preparing them ahead of time and freezing.  I'll keep you posted on our progress.

It really came home to me this year how much fun Christmas is when there are children in the house.  For so many years we've had an "adult" Christmas, and while it's certainly fun, it doesn't hold a candle to the excitement when there are children around.

We've always opened our presents on Christmas Eve, but with the girls we needed to change things around a little.  We didn't want them up late and tired and cranky the next day.  So they drove up to the island for Christmas Eve and we did our stockings:

The next day we drove down to their house and opened gifts and had a wonderful brunch cooked by our dil.  As is our custom, we read the Christmas story before opening our gifts.  This year the story was read by our very own Isobel:

Mei-Mei announced that she did not want to hear the Christmas story.  Thankfully, lightning did not strike.  It was so much fun watching the girls open their gifts.  Their parents are raising them with such an attitude of thankfulness and they were so grateful for everything they received.  Here they are modeling hats and scarves given to them by Uncle Allen:

At least there were some knitted gifts under the tree!  Our gift to Mei-Mei was a little pink fairy costume and it was a big hit!

On my end, yarn and IOU's were gifted!  Hubby received a box of yarn for a Cambridge Jacket.  He liked Ben's so much that he needed one of his own.  I wasn't sure of the color and he requested something different than was in the box, so it has been returned and a nice charcoal grey heather has been ordered.  I gave my sister an enrollment in the "2011 Sock of the Month Club", which entitles her to one sock each month for a grand total of six pairs this year.  I'm already ahead of the game!

This is Sunshine by Cookie A.  I seem to have misplaced the ball band, but as soon as I locate it I will update the information on my Ravelry page.

Hubby came through big time with a gift certifcate for our LYS, along with a post-it note informing me of a big after Christmas sale.  My original intention was to get yarn for a sweater for me, but there wasn't enough of any of the yarn I wanted so I splurged on sock yarn!   This should keep me occupied for a long time!!

As usual, at this time of the year I start thinking about resolutions.  I think this year I will look at them more as goals.  Resolutions can carry such a negative connotation.  Several of my goals include:

1.  Dejunking and destashing.  I really seem to be a pack rat when it comes to magazines.  I've been collecting Quilters' Newsletter since the 70's and it's time to bid them adieu.  I'll be selling the earlier editions, which have some collector value, on eBay.  The rest I will go through and tear out any patterns I want and file them in a notebook.  Then off to recycling they go!  This is a HUGE step for me!  This is also part of a redecorating and clearing out of my sewing room, which includes a new paint job and wood floors.

2.  Read more.  I do read a lot now, but I like rereading books and I've gotten into the habit of only reading books I've read before.  I need to branch out and vary my reading diet.  I think this will help:

Hubby questioned why a Kindle when we already have an iPad.  There were several reasons:  The price has come down considerably.  Even books are getting cheaper.  I got a New York Times best seller for only $5.00.  The iPad is definitely much better as an all around tool, especially for web browsing and playing games, but the Kindle is much, much lighter.  I can even throw it in my purse.  I don't have to share.  The iPad belongs to both of us and often when I want it, hubby has it.  I can be selfish with this! 

Of course, there are the usual diet and exercise goals.  I think I'm going to approach it a little differently this year.  Each month I'll set a different diet and/or exercise goal for the month rather than trying to look ahead for the entire year.  I don't need any drastic changes; I just need to instill a few healthier habits.  For January my goal will be to add more fruit to my diet.  Hopefully this will help replace my unhealthy attraction to sugar!

Off to spinning group today.  I haven't really done much spinning in the past few months.  With my sewing room out of commission, it will be nice to have something besides knitting to turn to.  Happy New Year to all of you!!

Christmas is all about preparation, but I think we've come a long way from the initial preparation that announced Christ's birth.  Usually I don't get too crazy, but I've had to keep reminding myself this year to put on the brakes and not try to "do it all"!

A fun part of preparation this year was having the girls to help us.  We had them over the weekend so that their parents could have some much needed R&R.  Earlier in the week hubby had gone out and picked out a tree at our local Christmas tree farm and put their names on it.  On Saturday we ventured forth in the cold, biting wind.  The girls were told we needed to find a tree with their names.  They were very excited to find it.  Isobel shouted "Timber!" as we cut it down.

You can see from Mei-Mei's face how cold the wind was.  When we got it home, hubby got it all set up and the lights put on and then Isobel and I decorated it.  Mei-Mei was supposed to help, but when I looked around, she was gone.  I found her in her bed, fast asleep!  Picking out a Christmas tree is hard work.  After a good nap, she was content to play quietly with the Nativity Set while Isobel and I made turtles.

Later in the afternoon we went to the local Christmas village.  The highlight for both girls was feeding the animals.  Mei-Mei especially liked the alpacas.  She giggled every time the alpaca took the grain out of her hand.

At one point in the weekend I had left my sock knitting on the couch.  Mei-Mei very gently picked it up and brought it to me.  "Here Nana – you need to put this in your knitting basket so I can't find it." 

We're so looking forward to having Christmas with them and their parents again this year.  We try to keep the gifts to a minimum and instead focus on Christ's birth and the importance of family.  Every year before we open gifts we read the Christmas story.  A different family member reads each year.  This year will be a highlight because it will be Isobel reading the story!

Merry Christmas to all my readers.  I really do this blog for myself and my family, but I so appreciate all the friends (real and imaginary!) that I've made through blogging.  May God bless you all this coming year.

In closing – a new scrapbook page featuring an upcoming new artist:

I had an epiphany at 2:00 a.m. this morning.  I have been stressing out about getting my Christmas knitting done.  I'm making sweaters for the girls, as usual.  Ivy's is done (picture to follow), but I still have to finish Isobel's.  I finished the body last night and calculated that if I spent every spare minute between now and Christmas, I might get the sleeves done, the steeks cut, sleeves sewn in and front and neckbands knit up.  That would mean skipping our annual spinner's party today and literally knitting every spare moment I have.  As I was tossing and turning at 2:00, I realized therein lies madness.  This is SO not what the Christmas season is about.  I would hate and resent every stitch I put in and that's not the love I want knit into this sweater.  The sweaters will be appreciated just as much two weeks after Christmas – maybe even more when they don't have to compete with toys under the tree.  I'm happy to say that common sense has prevailed and I will be enjoying the last week before Christmas. 

As promised, here is a photo of Ivy's sweater:

And a detail of the shoulder buttons:

I'm pleased as punch how it turned out.  I do think, though, that next year's Christmas sweaters will be a little bit less ambitious!

Here's the body on Isobel's:

As it lay blocking I had a little bit of a panic attack looking at how sloppy it looks with the neckline steeks cut.  But I have to remind myself that's what Ivy's looked like and it turned out just fine.  Steeking is a little bit like blocking lace – an act of faith.  And not just any old act of faith, a HUGE act of faith.  I took Ivy's sweater with me to my monthly sewing getaway last week and I thought several ladies were going to faint when I took the scissors to it!

This weekend should prove to be a lot of fun.  Barring any unforeseen illnesses (one side effect of having a kindergardner is that she brings home every germ floating around out there!) the granddaughters will be coming to spend the weekend with us.  We will be taking them to cut a Christmas tree and then they will help us decorate it.  Should be fun having a 3 and 5-year old help out with that!  If all goes well, we will also fit in a trip to the local Christmas Village.  We were hoping that would give Ben and Abby a chance to get out and have some fun, but they are both battling colds and may enjoy the opportunity to just rest. 

I'm off to browse through some patterns – I think I may just cast on a sock today.  Believe it or not, I only have two projects on the needles – Isobel's sweater and a vest for me that has been languishing.  I suppose I should take a look at the vest.  I'm pretty close to being done with it, but I think I need the rush of casting on a new project!  Can anyone identify with that??

I leave you with a model shot of my son's sweater.  I think he was pleased – at 6'6", it's very difficult for him to find sweaters with sleeves that are long enough.  He looks quite handsome, doesn't he?

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It looks as if I'm finally coming to the end of the road on Ben's Cambridge Jacket.  

The pieces are sewn together, all edgings done, the zipper has been ordered.  This sweater has not been without its issues:

Issue #1 – My original intent was to spin the yarn for the sweater.  After months of spinning and plying, I came to the humbling realization that I am just not that good a spinner yet.  While the yarn I produced was quite lovely, it was too bulky for this pattern.  I ended up buying Cascade 220 for the project.

Issue #2 – My son is quite tall and slim, so I knew I was going to have to alter the pattern.  I made the next to the smallest size, but lengthened everything – including using the depth of armhole for the largest size, which led to:

Issue #3 – In addition to the problems associated with altering the armhole depth, I knew I would also have to alter the sleeve width.  In reading the Ravelry comments (whatever did we do before Ravelry??), I saw that the width of the sleeve was way too wide.   I narrowed the sleeve by about 3 inches, and with these two alterations, had to rework the sleeve cap calculations.  After about three tries of coming out with rather bizarre looking sleeve caps, I found a trial version of Sweater Wizard, downloaded it and met with success.  I think a full version of this will be in my future.

Issue #4 – Once the sweater was seamed, I realized I was not out of the woods yet.  The lower edge has several areas of stockinette stitch with no border or ribbing.  The pattern instructs you to do a single crochet edge to control the curl.  That didn't cut it.  I tried adding a second row, and it still curled.  I briefly considered doing an applied i-cord, but worried that after all that work, it would still curl.  In a brief flash of brilliance (if I may be so bold), I decided to pick up along the lower edge and knit a hem.  That did the trick and it lays perfectly flat:

I'm going to go out on a limb and predict that this will be the end of my issues.  I've already tried it on Ben and it fits him beautifully.  Thanks Ben for your patience.  He only had to wait a year!

Christmas knitting continues on and I'm starting to get just a tad panicky.  I have one sleeve left to do on Ivy's, but that should be the work of only a few hours of knitting.  I've started Isobel's and the worst part of knitting the little ladybugs is over.  I do so hate carrying three colors in a row!

But I am finding that the stranded knitting tires my hands out, so I hope I will hold up.  I am remembering one of the downsides of multi-colored knitting – ends!!

Who would think that a tiny little sleeve could have that many ends to weave in?  Thank goodness Isobel's sweater is a cardigan and so I can whack those ends off.

In digital scrapbooking news, I received some incredible encouragement.  I belong to a subscription through Scrapper's Guide.  Every month I receive at least one (and sometimes two) kits and at least four video tutorials.  Linda Sattgast and her crew are absolutely the best teachers for digital scrapbooking and I highly recommend her classes.  Every month she picks a "top pick" of a scrapbook page using that month's kit.  My page, Cookie Time, was chosen as the top pick for November.  There were so many amazing pages in the gallery that I was very flattered and encouraged to be chosen.

I had predicted that our snow would be gone by Thanksgiving, but by last Thursday we still had roads that were icy and many were unplowed.  We decided not to risk having the family drive, so postponed our personal Thanksgiving until Saturday.  But on Thursday hubby and I headed over to our community Thanksgiving.  This is the 9th year of a community celebration and it's grown to serve over 5,000 people!  We volunteered to deliver meals to those who  couldn't get out and ended up delivering 17 meals on icy, snowy, hilly roads.  Forest came through like a champ!  I do miss my MINI at times, but was very thankful for the new car this year!  Monday we're taking it back so they can install the heated leather seats.  I'll like it even more then!  This car doesn't have a lot of bells and whistles, but that was one thing we both insisted on.  We had them on the MINI and we were thoroughly spoiled.

Off to do more color knitting – hubby and I have gotten hooked on the TV series "Heroes".  With four seasons of at least 21 episodes each, that's a lot of knitting time!  I'll just be glad when Hiro learns English so I don't have to keep looking up to read subtitiles.

I can't believe it's been three weeks since I posted!  For some reason, since we returned from vacation, life has taken an incredibly busy turn.  It doesn't seem to be any one thing, just lots of assorted family, church and social events.  All good stuff, but keeps me running.

Like many of us who entertain multiple hobbies, it seems as if they take turns coming to the forefront and becoming an obsession for a time.  Recently I've been spending a lot of time on digital scrapbooking.  I've signed up for a new class and am trying to refine my skills and speed up the time it takes me to design a page.  Currently I can often spend a whole day on one page.  I have a new incentive to get busy, though.  Several weeks back I decided to give the granddaughters the scrapbooks I had been working on since their births.  I thought they were old enough to enjoy them and since the pages are digital, if one gets ruined or bent, it's no big deal.  They were absolutely enthralled with them.  They each looked through their own book and then traded and looked through the other.  When Isobel saw all the blank page protectors in the back of her book, she said, "Look, there's room so we can put in our adventures!"  Awwww!  So now Nana needs to make a concentrated effort to keep up.  This past week we had them for an overnight visit and made Christmas cookies:

Next in line is to catch up on their birthday pages.  And of course, trying to make some semblance of order of the 38 years of family photos that I would like to eventually scrapbook.

Knitting hasn't been entirely put on the back burner.  For one, I am still plugging along on Ben's sweater, although no exciting photos to show.  From the notes on Ravelry, it was apparent that the sleeves on the Cambridge Jacket were going to be way too wide.  I narrowed them, but now have to recalculate the sleeve cap.  My first attempt was a little odd looking, to say the least.  I am now working on the second attempt and am hoping for the best.  Considering that this was Ben's last year's Christmas present, I really would like to have it finished by this year!

I've also been working on the girls' Christmas sweaters.  It was stealth knitting, but when Abby came last time she wanted to see, so I can now post photos:

This is Mei-Mei's sweater.  Isobel's will be the same theme, but a little different.

I've also made the impossible goal of 10 shawls in 2010!  I finished #10 this week.  This one still needs to be blocked, but I did finish blocking the previous ones:

Rosevine by Dorothy Siemens (Fiddlesticks Knitting).  Yarn – Exquisite, also by Fiddlesticks, size 2 needles.

Dewdrops by Dorothy Siemens (Fiddlesticks), yarn Exquisite, size 2 needles.

 
 Swallowtail by Evelyn Clarke, yarn Misti Alpaca Lace, size 2 needle.

Although this has been a fun challenge, it is not one that I will repeat in the future.  After the Christmas projects are done, I will probably start contemplating a large shawl project.  Both the Wedding Ring and Queen Susan Shawl are calling out to me and perhaps after the new year I will be ready to wrap my mind around a complex project.

We do have a new member of the family to report.  Well, not exactly family, but we did say a fond farewell to my little green Mini Cooper.  Agatha was a hoot to drive and so much fun, but we had to admit she had become impractical for our lives now.  We needed four doors and room for car seats.  In her place now is Forest:

Forest is a 2011 Subaru Forester.  One of his most endearing qualities is that he has all wheel drive.  This came in very handy this morning:

A very rare early snowstorm in Western Washington.  This was taken about 6 hours ago and it's been coming down heavy ever since.  Cars were slipping and sliding all around me, but I was nice and steady on the road and sure footed coming up the hill to my house.  However, I was not about to tempt fate and parked Forest in the garage where he will stay until the roads improve!  All of this snow will probably be gone by Thanksgiving.  Or at least we hope so!

Right before we left on vacation one of the ladies in my spinning group suggested that I enter something in the Island County Fair.  I told her I didn't have time to do that, so she volunteered to take some items for me.  She literally took Damson off my body and took a skein of handspun from my bag!  Imagine my surprise when she returned the items to me along with a huge honkin' ribbon:

I got Best Handspun Item!  To say I was gobsmacked is putting it mildly.  My humble little skein got a second place ribbon.  Definitely an encouraging turn of events.  Since I got back I've put in a little time at the wheel, but I've had some projects with deadlines that have taken priority.

This is not to say that knitting has not been accomplished.  I finished the Landscape Shawl. 

This is #9 of the 10 in 2010 shawl challenge on Ravelry.  Although I do have Christmas knitting to do, I think #10 will be fairly easy to accomplish.  The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy, size 4 needle.  I really do love this pattern.  It's not completely mindless because you need to pay attention to stitch count and there was some ripping, tinking and cussing involved.  But I think this is one that I will probably do again.

I also bit the bullet and started blocking my big pile of shawls.  I decided to do the most challenging first and it didn't seem to be as bad as I had anticipated.  I give you Aeolian:

Although this will probably be a one only pattern, it is by far one of my favorite finished shawls.  Yarn is Zen Garden Serenity, size 2 needle. 

Stash enhancement has also taken place.  I got a package today from Knit Picks:

From left to right – Stroll Tonal in Foliage and Deep Waters.  They were both a little more vibrant than I expected, but will make nice socks, patterns to be determined.  In the middle, Shimmer in the Hush colorway.  Man, I love everything about this yarn.  This is destined to be shawl #10, a Free and Easy Pie Wedge Shawl.  The thought of a shawl done entirely in garter stitch is a little daunting, but Li has done several and raves about them, so I'm going to give it a try.  I am so dying to cast this one on right this very minute, but I have some birthday socks that need to be done by Friday, so I will practice self control. 

The white is Lace Weight Bare.  This will probably be the Snowflakes in Cedarwoods shawl by Anne Hanson.  I've had this lovely pattern in my file for quite a while and think it's time to give it a whirl.  So, with all of this yarn, the projects I already have started, including my son's sweater and Christmas sweaters for the girls, my knitting dance card should be filled for the next 6 months or so.  Of course, that doesn't include any yarn that I might spin!  Retirement is certainly not boring!

Bill's mom's memorial service is this weekend, and the entire family will be in town – I think we counted about 42, so this will be a busy time.  I know it will be bittersweet as we say goodbye, but will also be a wonderful time of remembering and looking ahead to great family times in the future.

I can't believe it's been over a week since I last posted.  I have been quite the busy little bee, though.  Lots of knitting has been accomplished.

First off – I've finished the back and fronts for Ben's sweater:

I'm happy to report that they blocked out to the exact correct measurements!  I'm currently working on the first sleeve and holding my breath.  I had to redraft the pattern.  In looking at the Ravelry posts, it appears the sleeves are just too wide.  I looked at common measurements for the size I'm making, and sure enough, the sleeves as written are 3 inches wider than that!  What was the designer thinking?  Since my son is on the slim side, I knew I'd need to adjust.  So, I got out my Sweaters 101 book and made up a new pattern.  Here's hoping it works.

I also decided I needed to heed the call and knit some hats for Shanti's project.  If you're not familiar with her blog, you really need to head on over.  Shanti is a knitter, but is also getting ready to take command of a Navy ship.  How cool is that??  For Christmas, she would like to give all the sailors under her command (all 278 of them) a care package that includes a hand knitted hat, since the ship is rather cold.  I had put off doing some because I didn't have any 100% washable wool in my stash.  They can't have any acrylic because of the fire hazard.  But another plea went out because the hats just weren't coming in, so I toodled on down to my LYS and picked up three skeins and have almost finished all three Squib Hill hats. 

The yarn I'm using is Plymouth Worsted Merino Superwash.  What a wonderful yarn!  It's a little pricey, but it is incredibly soft and luscious. 

Another pair of socks becomes an FO:

These are Cookie A's BFF socks out of Knit Picks Stroll Tweed.  This is really a nice, basic sock pattern – not as complicated as many of her patterns are.  The pattern is for sale on Ravelry, but if you scroll down on the page, you'll see that you can get it free, which is what I did. (Edited to add – the link I had is not working, but Marguerite sent this: http://www.knitanon.com/blog/bff.html). Thanks Marguerite!

The Landscape Shawl is also approaching the end. 

I really do love this pattern, but it has not been without a stumble or two.  The patterns are no-brainers, but you have to be very careful of your stitch count.  It's terribly easy to get off and I've had to drop down and tink a few times because I forgot a decrease or added one where it wasn't needed.

When the granddaughters were here last I decided to give them their scrapbooks.  I figured they were old enough to appreciate them, but was really surprised by what a big hit they were.  They had so much fun looking at all the pages.  When Isobel got to the end of hers, she noticed all the blank page protectors.  She looked at me and said, "These are for all our adventures!"  From the mouths of babes – it really warmed my heart.  So, that does put pressure on me to keep up with our adventures:

Kits used – Harvest by Joanne Brisebois and Thankfully by Krystal Hartley.

It's off to Snohomish today.  I'm sewing dresses for the girls to wear to my mother-in-law's memorial service and I need to try them on before I get too far.  Then off to the Apple store for what I fear is going to be a very expensive battery replacement for my iPod Touch.

Last week hubby had to go downtown for something and he said he was a little surprised to find people going about their business as if nothing had happened.  It was an interesting phenomenon and a little surreal.  For us, life will never be the same without his Mom.  That's not to say that life will not be wonderful and joyous.  But when you lose a parent, life changes. 

One of the things that I really wanted to do this week was get back to my scrapbooking.  I finally got a system of organization going so that I can actually find things.  The first pages I did were a scrapbooking challenge from Scrapper's Guide.  I should add that if you are interested in getting into digital scrapbooking, they are the ones to go to for tutorials.

The template is by Jenny Binder, the kit used is In His World by Veronica Spriggs.

I also did a page using a quick page, Blumen by Theresa Lindamood (who I was so pleased to meet up with on our trip):

On the knitting front, I started the Landscape Shawl by Evelyn Clark and have found myself a little obsessed with it.  I think it's because it's rather mindless knitting, although you do have to pay attention to stitch count and what row you're on.  If you forget a picot or add one where it's not due yet, there is no hope but to rip back.  You can't pick those puppies up (not enough yarn), or let them down (too much yarn).  I'm on the last stitch pattern, but since the rows are rather long and it's getting a little bulky to handle, I've slowed up considerably.  I have a feeling this will not be my last Landscape Shawl.

The yarn is Dream in Color Smooshy.  This is a perfect pattern for a lightly variegated sock yarn.

I've also been busy stitiching a multitude of heavenly hosts for our upcoming church bazaar:

Things have kind of come to a screeching halt, however, as I have run out of water soluble stabilizer.  Our Walmart here used to carry a wonderful, cheap stabilizer, but I was dismayed to find out they no longer carry it.  I sent them a stern letter as now I'll have to make a trip over to the mainland to try and find it there.  If the Walmart there doesn't carry it, I'll have to find a new stabilizer.  I really hate it when something works, works well and then you have to find a whole new system!

Tomorrow hubby and I celebrate our 38th wedding anniversary.  We can't do much tomorrow because of some obligations around here, but will celebrate Friday by a trip off island to find stabilizer and then dinner out.   We really know how to live, don't we??

Ruth Waite

December 19, 1925 – October 6, 2010

We said goodbye to our dear mother and mother-in-law yesterday.  She is now in the arms of the Savior she loved and served all of her life.  We rejoice for her, but grieve that her loving presence is no longer with us.  She was truly a selfless servant of the Lord, always thinking of others before herself.  Despite an often challenging life, she never showed signs of bitterness or self-pity.  We will miss her.

Thirty days, sixteen states, 7,890 miles, 14 hotel rooms, 11 cousins, a new great-niece and great-nephew, 2 brothers, 2 parents, 3 national parks, numerous museums, gardens and national waterways.  Countless restaurant meals, 3 audio books and hundreds of tunes – bluegrass, classical, rock and gospel.  Three and a half shawls and one half of a sock completed.  And it was all good!  What a wonderful experience this was.  When we first started planning this trip we had certain attractions that we wanted to visit.  What we hadn't counted on were the unplanned attractions – places that the locals recommended or places that we just stumbled across.  It was wonderful to see different parts of the country – the scenery, the food, the people.  But when all was said and done – there really is no place like home.  Being away from home really reinforces how much we love where we live and how very comfortable our house is.  And sleeping in our own bed that first night was heaven on earth!

This was the most wired trip we have ever made: GPS, iPad, 3 iPods (his, mine and ours), a laptop and two cell phones.  We were a little reluctant at first, but we made use of all of them (except my iPod, which is having battery issues).  We couldn't have done without the GPS – we were never lost, although "Jane" seemed to have a sense of humor, including leading us through the slums of Indianapolis to our hotel, which was in actuality right off the interstate!  The iPad was wonderful – not only could we keep in touch with friends over Facebook while on the road, it was also a great photo album, allowing us to share old family photos with all of the cousins.  Since I also had my laptop with the same photos, we were able to download them to flash drives to whomever wanted them.  We had one iPod dedicated to audio books, which helped some of the long boring stretches go much faster.

We arrived at Ben and Abby's house on Wednesday afternoon and the girls and Maggie were so happy to see us:

We were worried that Maggie may have forgotten us and decided she preferred her new home, but she greeted us so enthusiastically.  Of course, she doesn't have a tail, but she was wagging her little butt so much I was afraid it was going to fall off!  The first two nights at home she seemed a little disoriented, but she fell back into our routines fairly quickly.

It was fun to get back in my sewing room and to my machine again.  I finished Mei-Mei's quilt top:

All of the blocks for Isobel's are done; they just have to be put together.  Then comes the real challenge – quilting them.  Realistically I will need to machine quilt, but that is definitely not my strength.

I also came home with a boatload of lace to block:

The pile includes two scarves which have been finished forever, but never blocked.  On the trip I finished Aeolian – those last border rows took forever!  And I finished three more small shawls from start to finish.

You might think I was burned out on shawls, but when I got home I cast on #9 of 10 in 2010 – the Landscape Shawl by Evelyn Clark.  I'm using the Dream in Color Smooshy that I bought at Paradise Fibers.  This is a pretty mindless knit, which is good right now as I settle back into routine.

And routine it is this week – Bible Study group, yoga lessons, knitting group, spinning group.  But that's all good too.

Today I visited Paradise – Paradise Fibers in Spokane, WA.  Words fail me.  It is truly a yarn and fiber lovers' paradise:

I was able to view the world's largest set of Addi Turbo's:

Of course, some goodies jumped into my bag, a couple of skeins of Dream in Color Smooshy for a shawl, some merino/silk top for a vest (I hope) and some really cute puppy snips:

Last night we visited with hubby's brother in Cheny, WA:

We met our new great-niece Shiloh for the first time:

We also snuggled with some really cute puppies:

We could have had one for the taking, but they are mastiffs and will grow to about 150 pounds, so we passed.  I don't think Maggie would be amused.

Tonight we're spending the night with hubby's other brother in Pullman, WA:

And my fellow knitting buddy, my sister-in-law Debbie:

Tomorrow we will be home and sleeping in our own bed.  Now that's paradise!!

It's official now – we are both homesick!  We're so happy to be heading home and have even managed to drive a little longer today so we'll be home one day early.  But we've had a lot to look back on fondly this past week.

We spent four days in Michigan with hubby's cousin Annie.  

She so generously opened her home to us and we used it as a base of operations to visit with both sides of Bill's family.  We visited with some maternal cousins and aunts:

On Saturday night, Annie had a huge get-together.  Her Dad (Bill's uncle) had 8 kids and each of those kids has at least four.  Many of them were there and it was a fun, noisy, chaotic party!  It's been so fun to watch hubby with these wonderful cousins who are as close to him as siblings.

On Monday we headed up to Spring Harbor to visit with another cousin and drooled over the beautiful vacation homes.  I picked mine out!

Then we kept on north to Mackinac Island.  To those of you not familiar with it, the island is accessible only by ferry and no motorized vehicles are allowed on the island – only horses and bicycles.

We were assured by our tour guide that they do allow the fire department to have real fire trucks!

That night we spent a lovely night at a beautiful lakeside cabin generously loaned to us by Bill's cousins.  We awoke the next morning to a gorgeous harvest moon setting over the lake.

Next on our stop was a wonderful visit with Bill's sister just north of Chicago.  We were able to help our great-nephew Caleb celebrate his first birthday in style:

And visit the Jelly Belly plant:

As much fun as we've had, we're so excited to be headed west and toward home!  We did officially find the Middle of the Nowhere smack dab in the middle of South Dakota (no offense to you South Dakotians out there!).  It just seemed that for hours and hours the road was straight, with no curves and no change in scenery.  Of course, we did make the obligatory stops at the Corn Palace and Wall Drug's giant dinosaur!

Not as much knitting being accomplished because hubby is getting weary of driving and is asking me to help out.  I'm not sure if I'll complete my third shawl, but I've definitely made headway.  I'll be having a lace blocking party when I get home!

We've completed the southern part of our trip and have now embarked on the northern leg.  After leaving Kentucky, we headed for Michigan. 

Our first stop was in Kalamazoo where a long-awaited blogger meeting occurred.  I finally met Marguerite – Stitches of Violet!  She treated us to lunch and it was wonderful to finally meet her.  She and I have made a special connection via our blogs and I loved being able to spend time with her.

She brought me a skein of her favorite sock yarn from Slackford Studios and we brought her some Whidbey Coffee.  Our time was over all too quickly, but she did suggest that since hubby loves airplanes we visit Air Zoo in Kalamazoo.  What a great place!  We liked it so much that we went back the next day.  If you're ever in the area, it is a can't miss!

Lots and lots of relatives from Bill's side to visit here.  We've been spending time at Bill's cousin's house and are really appreciating her hospitality.  As it turned out, they were in New York when we arrived, but we had instructions to just go in and make ourselves at home, which we have done.  She left us a list of things to do until they returned.  At the top of the list was Frederik Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids.  As it turned out, they were having a Dale Chihuly exhibit, which made us feel right at home!

They had a wonderful children's garden, which included a sculpture entitled "Mad Mom":

Hubby relaxed with a bear:

While Nana proved how very brave she was by petting a dragon:

We saw a really, really big horse:

And when we got tired, found a sweet couple willing to share their park bench with us:

This morning we went to a Farmers' Market and bought some bread and a freshly picked honey crisp apple.  I made my first yarn purchase of the trip – some Opal sock yarn at a cute store in Rockford.

Tonight is a big family reunion with some of Bill's favorite cousins.  Lots of old pictures will be brought out and old times relived.  All before my time, but I've got my knitting and will enjoy sitting in the background watching hubby have the time of his life!

A trip back to my hometown of
Thomasville, Missouri is always a bittersweet trip down memory lane.  The town almost seems frozen in
time.  I was born here, and although
my Dad’s Navy career took us far and wide, this is where we came when we “went
home”.  During at least one of my
Dad’s deployments I lived and went to school here.

 It was here that hubby and I
decided to take our relationship to “the next level”.  The newly engaged couple posed in front of my grandparents’
house:

 

And again, 38 years later:

The house where I was born
has changed:

But the gas station where my
grandpa would take us for a “pop” looks much the same, right down to the bench
out front where the old timers would spit and whittle:

The post office has long been
closed when the postal service decided the town was too small and took away its
zip code:

My grandparents’ house (where
our photos were taken) has changed little, except for the trees that have grown
so large.

Sadly, my parents’ house has
changed since the demise of the grand old tree out front:

Although my parents moved to
this house only 30 years ago, it is still the home where I brought my children
to introduce them to Thomasville.

While here we have dined
royally.  For a town of only 70
(give or take a few), Thomasville boasts one of the finest restaurants around,
The River’s Edge Grill. 

Here you can feast on catfish
and hushpuppies, slaw, beans and a fine sirloin steak.  If you want a table on Friday night,
you’d better get there early because people come from far and wide, including
real honest-to-goodness cowboys. 
They told my mom she couldn’t sit in the cowboy section unless she has
boots, so she keeps threatening to get some.

Yesterday, after visiting an old grain mill, we went to the big
city of Birch Tree (pop. 700), my Dad’s home town, for the annual Logging Days
celebration.  There we feasted on
deep fried pickles (actually quite good!) and the absolutely best pulled pork
sandwich and baked beans I have ever had.

Today we embarked on the next
leg of our journey, beginning with the National Quilt Museum in Paducah,
Kentucky.  Sadly, no pictures were allowed in the museum, but suffice it to say I was appropriately gobsmacked.  I was alternately inspired and determined never to touch a quilting needle again, as I am not worthy!  But I got over the not worthy part and while Bill is happily ensconced in the hotel with air conditioning, cable TV, internet and free snacks, I'm off to the Holy Grail – Hancock's of Paducah!  Yahoo!!!

Our first week on the trip has been a resounding success!  Our first event of note was a blogger meet up.  At the last minute we realized we would be right in Theresa's backyard and quickly arranged a get-together.  We had a wonderful time visiting with Theresa, her hubby and darling children – a boy and twin girls.

Theresa actually hasn't been blogging that much because, in addition to being a wonderful wife, mum and homeschooling her children, she designs scrapbook kits for Heritage Scrap and Faith Sisters.  I don't think her kits are showing up yet on Faith Sisters, but stay tuned.  Bless her heart, she gave me a disc with some of her new kits on it.  How cool is that?  We also found out that we had so much more in common than we thought.  She is also a spinner and we compared our experiences and she was excited to show me her new lace pattern from Fiddlesticks Knitting.  It's the same one I brought with me on the trip!  It's the pattern for the Featherlight Shawls.  More on that later.

Our first touristy stop was Yosemite.  Everyone had told us how fantastic it was, but words just cannot express the beauty of the place.  As an added bonus, the weather was on the cooler side (only 90) and for some reason on the day we were there, the crowds had disappeared, so it was relatively relaxed.

El Capitan – it still just boggles my mind that we saw several climbers on the face.

We stayed at a wonderful B&B way, way back in the woods.  Together with 2 other couples, we had the run of the entire house – the host does not even live there, but invited us to make ourselves at home.  Two wonderful ladies came and took care of us in the morning and then disappeared to give us privacy the rest of the time.

As we made our way out of California, we were surprised to discover that we were going right through Loma Linda, where my former boss (who made this trip possible with a generous contribution to my retirement plan), is going to graduate school.  We zipped off the highway and managed to surprise him as he was studying in one of the student lounges.  It was complete serendipity that we tracked him down, courtesy of his wife, but the look on his face was worth it.  I got the best hug!!  Only after we left did I realize I completely forgot to take a picture.

Our next stop was at hubby's cousin's house in Arizona.  Can you say HOT??  The temps ranged from a balmy 100 all the way up to 117.  But hubby had a wonderful time visiting with three of his favorite cousins and they delivered some outstanding hospitality.

Today was spent at the Grand Canyon.  I suppose we should have expected huge crowds on a Labor Day weekend, but it was even more crowded than we expected.  It made for long waits for the shuttles and some pretty cranky park rangers.  We were surprised at the contrast between the personnel at Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.  At Yosemite everyone was so nice and just couldn't do enough for us.  At the Canyon, everyone was pretty short, but that could be explained somewhat by the huge crowds.  But despite it all, the vistas were absolutely mind boggling.

The next three days will be travel days and not much sightseeing unless we see something by the side of the road that looks interesting.  That means a lot of knitting will be accomplished.  So far I've gotten quite a bit done.  I finished the Aeolian shawl.  Toward the end the rows got incredibly long and I was glad to see the end of it.  Of course, no blocking until I get home.  I've now started the Rosevine Shawl – no pictures.  I took one, but it didn't come out that well and I am SO tired!  Off to run a hot bath and relax.

The bags are packed and the checklist, well, checked, and only the last minute things left to be accomplished.  As usual, I worry that I've forgotten something, but I also remind myself that we're not exactly going to the ends of the earth.  We realized this week that this is the first time in over 17 years that we've gone on a vacation that doesn't require airports, security, passports, etc.  It's so nice not to have to worry about what will or will not be allowed in our luggage!

I was hoping to get the girls' quilts finished before I left, but it's been slow going.  However, I'm really pleased with the way they are coming out.  They just look happy!

I was especially pleased with the little sheep block.  I had put it off to the last because I thought it would be a bear appliqueing the Minkee fabric.  But it went together with no problems at all:

Since we'll be gone for Mei-Mei's birthday, we joined the family at Alderwood Mall Sunday for a little party at Build-a-Bear.  Despite Abby trying to distract Mei-Mei with other bears, she insisted on a pink bear.  She is definitely a girly-girl.  But how could you deny this kind of love?

When it came time to select outfits, pink won out again and the pink bear was outfitted in a pink ballerina costume.  Isobel made big points with her grandpa by picking out a firefighter costume so her bear would look like Yeh-Yeh (grandfather).

I also have a modeling shot of Evenstar.  I gave it to my niece for her graduation from Washington State University and she looks gorgeous in it:

She and the shawl are off to Ireland for an internship in a couple for weeks.  It's a dream come true for her and I know she is going to have an incredible time.

I hope to be able to post from the road on our trip.  I'm a little embarassed to admit how many electronics we are taking with us.  Between iPods, IPads, computers, cell phones and what not, we have enough chargers to open our own store!  But with any luck I may even be able to create a few scrapbook pages while the memories are still fresh. 

When we made plans for our trip hubby and I discussed the fact that neither one of us likes to be away from home for any length of time.  We knew that being gone for 30 days was really stretching it, but we were confident we could do it.  This week, as we were planning our trip, I began to feel homesick already.  And we haven't even left!  But I'm sure we can do this.  We'll see lots of wonderful places and visit with some wonderful people.  But I do know that when we return I will be ecstatic.  I'm hoping Maggie will not forget us and decide that living with Ben and Abby is way more fun!

I've pretty much packed most of my projects.  On deck is lots of lace, a couple of skeins of sock yarn (just in case) and fiber for spinning.  My Spindolyn has been shipped and should arrive Monday.  That will give me just enough time for a little preliminary practice to determine what fiber to take with me.

This week I've been concentrating on quilting.  The quilts for the girls have been languishing and I decided I'd better get cracking on them while they're still young enough to enjoy the juvenile theme.  Here are some recently completed blocks:

I thought I was being oh-so-clever on the bear blocks by digitizing the flowers and embroidering them on my machine.  After all, I did the same with the faces and they came out great.  It was a good idea until I got the first block all embroidered and started searching for the second one.  I couldn't find it anywhere.  Imagine my horror when I realized I had stacked the blocks when I did the embroidery!  Do you know how hard it is to unpick densely sewn embroidery stitches without tearing the fabric??  Thank goodness I was able to "un-sew" without damaging the blocks and all was saved.  I do think it's time to quit for the evening, though.

The Aeolian shawl is progressing nicely, but is now at the point where it resembles an amorphous blob.  I do love this pattern and am already planning another one with beads.  The Cambridge Jacket is coming along nicely too, but not much to show – just more of the same, only longer.

I have been musing this week on how very blessed I am.  I often read on Ravelry of women who want to spin, but can't afford even a modest spindle and make do with dowels and CD's or other home-made tools.  I am so thankful that I have all the wonderful tools I do – lots of yarn and needles, a beautiful spinning wheel and a spindle on the way, a top of the line sewing machine and the software to make it do what I want it to do.  And now, as icing on the cake, I have a comfortable retirement with time to enjoy all of it and a husband who supports my crafts.  And two beautiful granddaughters to sew and knit for.  Thank you God!

I guess we've dodged the bullet long enough.  The heat wave that has been scorching the rest of the country has finally paid a visit to the Pacific Northwest.  Although I know our temps pale in comparison with those in other areas, you must remember that very few homes here have air conditioning.  It was in the mid 90's in the Seattle/Tacoma area yesterday and today.  It was a little cooler here on the island, but that didn't help us because were were in Tacoma for our nephew's wedding.  And, as fate would have it, hubby had volunteered his vintage 1970 Karmann Ghia convertible for the wedding.  Which meant – a 2 1/2 hour drive down and back in a non-air conditioned car.  "Ah," you might say, "but it's a convertible.  Just put the top down."  In this heat you might as well throw in a stick of butter and set it on broil!  That's to say nothing of the wind shear associated with tooling down the freeway at 60 miles an hour.  So the top stayed up on the drive down and back.  And, as Abby said, everyone probably thought we were one "hot" couple.  They would have been right.  But it was all worth it because the wedding couple were thrilled and got some beautiful photo ops:

And we got to spend the day with some of our favorite people in the world, including Ben, Abby and the girls.  Isobel and Mei-Mei were not nearly as impressed with the wedding as they were with the tree house that they got to play on during the reception.

Afterwards we tooled on over to Lakewood and spent a lovely evening with John and Lorette ( the Knitting Doctor).  They always spoil us rotten and we feel as if we'd had a stay in a four star hotel.  It was so blessedly cool by the the lake:

And peach martinis did a lot to take the bite out of the heat:

And just to prove that I am not above looking a little dorky, I once again demonstrated why they call them drop spindles:

Lorette is determined to make a spindler out of me, so just to please her I have ordered one.  I'm not sure if I have the patience for the dropping kind, so I ordered a supported spindle, the Spindolyn.  They're fairly inexpensive and this will give me some practice during our road trip.

It's certainly been too hot to work on Ben's sweater, so I started another shawl for the 10 in 2010 challenge. 

The yarn came from the Embrace the Lace club last year.  I didn't really care for the project included with it, so it has been marinating in the stash awaiting the right moment.  After several false starts with other patterns, I finally settled on Aeolian and it is a winner!  This is a beautiful pattern and has enough complexity to be interesting, but not so much that I have to keep referring to the chart.

Tomorrow we really need to start planning in earnest for our road trip.  There are so many things to consider when you're going to be away from home that long.  Although we'll have someone minding the house, we still need to do some planning.  And, of course, I need to have plenty of projects to keep me busy on the road.  Somehow I don't think that will be a problem!

Once again I find myself knitting under the influence.  Thank goodness it's not illegal, because it's the only thing keeping me sane.  My oral surgery on Friday went as well as one could hope.  Although it certainly couldn't be classified as a good time, I was in and out in about 45 minutes.  The oral surgeon was very, very good and I didn't even feel it when the tooth came out.  He said the root on it was fractured, so there would have been no saving it.  The aftermath has not been especially fun.  He said lower molars are more painful than uppers and I can attest to that. 

I've been alternating between two projects – Ylva for me:

  and Ann Budd's Cambridge Jacket for Ben:

I ended up ordering some Cascade 220 from my LYS in a lovely (or is it handsome?) grey/chocolate tweed.  I had forgotten how much I really like this yarn.  It's just flowing from my needles.  Good thing – my son has extremely long arms, so this is going to be a largish sweater (at least up and down).  I'm happy to report that my knitting has not suffered too much from my drug induced comas, although I did have to rip out about 4 rows of Celtic knots and try again!

I finished a pair of socks – Cookie A's Summer Sox in Cascade Heritage:

I can't believe this only leaves me with three projects on the needles, Ivy's Christmas sweater, Ylva and the Cambridge Jacket.  Of course, now I'm really feeling a little bereft without some lace going.  I received my shipment of Fiddlesticks yarn and pattern:

But I'm trying to hang onto that for my road trip knitting.  My goal is to knit up three shawls while on the road.  Oh, didn't I mention?  I caved and joined the 10 Shawls in 2010 group on Ravelry.  I thought I was too far behind, but then realized I've already completed four;  three on the road would put me up to 7, so I'd pretty much be right on track.  So, in the meantime I am contemplating starting a Pi shawl to commemorate the 100th anniversary of Elizabeth Zimmerman's birth.  Technically I should wait until tomorrow because that's her birthday, but Abby and the girls are coming up, so I'll be a little bit occupied.  I have two skeins of Knit Picks Bare in my stash – not enough to finish the shawl, but since it's undyed the color match should be ok.  If it's not I may consider dying it after I knit it.  Nothing like living dangerously!!  I'm sure EZ would approve.

This week I got the chance to see in action what happens when an irresistible  force meets an immovable object.  Our dog Maggie gets a little grouchy around other dogs.  We keep trying to socialize her and she'll usually come around after a little exposure.  This week I made arrangements to meet my friend BeBe down at the beach with her two dogs, Maggie (a golden retriever) and Penny (a Brittany Spaniel).  They are both very large dogs.  When our Maggie saw them, she gave a growl and went running up to their Maggie.  She raised up and with both of her little front paws gave Maggie a hard shove on the shoulder

.  The other Maggie looked down at our Maggie very coolly as if to say, "What's your problem, pipsqueak?"  Our Maggie sat back in surprise and immediately decided that discretion was the better part of valor.  She was an absolute angel the rest of the walk and has decided that Penny and Maggie are ok.  It was hilarious to see how far she backed down on her little display of bravado!

She does, however, approve of my sewing attempts.  I made a bag to take with me on our road trip.  I'm trying to decide whether to use it as my project bag and stuff if full of yarn or to stuff it full of clothes:

So far the yarn is ahead.

One of the downsides of posting your adventures on your blog is that you often have to admit failure.  Of course, I could just sweep this all under the rug and never mention it again, but in the interests of full disclosure I will confess.  For the Tour de Fleece my goal was to finish spinning the yarn for Ben's sweater.  I came pretty close with all but a few singles left to ply.  However, that was not my failure.  It only took another day or so to finish up and the skeins were washed, dried and ready for knitting.  This is where the failure comes in.  As I started my gauge swatch I realized that this was nowhere near the worsted weight I had thought I was spinning.  It is more like a bulky weight.  I figured out the numbers, cast on and it only took a few rows for me to realize that I hate knitting with bulky weight.  Not only will it not come out to the sweater I had envisioned, it is unpleasant to knit with and hurts my hands.   I am really disappointed.  The skeins are so beautiful:

All is not lost however.  Someone is going to love all this bulky weight yarn and I'm going to skein it up nicely and perhaps offer it at our guild's sale in November.  In the meantime, I have ordered some nice, predictable Cascade 220 for Ben's sweater.

I guess this has taught me that I really have a long way to go before I can expect to be successful at spinning a sweater's worth.  I'll stick to small projects for now..

I also decided that the vest I was making for myself out of handspun was not pleasing to me, so I have frogged that.  However, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that I had 10 skeins of Silky Wool in my stash that I had forgotten about.  So Ylva has been resurrected in a more appropriate yarn.

I've gotten in a lot of knitting time this week because I've felt too crappy to do much else.  The antibiotic that did such a good job of knocking down the infected wisdom tooth also caused an allergic reaction.  I've spent the last few days broken out in an ugly rash.  The Benadryl that helps also makes me very groggy.  So far, I have to admit that turning 60 has certainly been a challenge.  I hope things stop breaking down!

On the bright side, a couple of weeks ago we had a lovely dinner out with Ben & Abby.  As a belated anniversary present they took us to Ivar's on the water at the Mulkiteo ferry dock.  It was an outstanding meal with wonderful company.  Kind of makes up for the rest!

I can't believe this is happening.  Remember back in April when I went through the dental nightmare?  It's happening again!  Actually, I don't think this time will be as bad.  Last time there was some confusion as they thought they had caught the problem and did a root canal on a bicuspid.  It turned out that I also had a molar that was abscessed, but since it was difficult to isolate the pain the dentist didn't realize I had two teeth involved.  This time there is only one, the pain is easy to isolate and the x-ray clearly shows the abscess.  After two days on antibiotic I've been able to go off the Vicodin, which absolutely wipes me out.  It's hard for me to understand that people actually like to take that stuff!  Since this is another third molar, I have an appointment on Monday for a consult with an oral surgeon to take it out.  So I'm hoping this won't drag out for three weeks like the last episode.

I have been spinning like a crazy woman for the Tour de Fleece.  My goal was to finish the yarn for Ben's sweater.  I finished spinning the singles this morning, but don't think I will get to the plying until Monday.  Ben, Abby and the girls are coming over today and tomorrow we have our annual Knitter's Picnic.  I was a little worried that I might miss it because of my dental woes, but since I'm feeling so much better because of the antibiotics, I should be able to make it.

I've been working away on my bag of dish cloth cottons and last night finally put a finish to it.  This type of knitting has filled the bill for me the past couple of weeks, but I am thoroughly tired of dish cloths now.  At least I have a nice stack for personal use and for gifts:

Next up is to finish a pair of Cookie A. Summer Socks.  These are a gift for a friend.  I'm using Cascade Heritage sock yarn and I absolutely love it!  It's so soft and it just seems to flow through your hands.  After I've knit enough out of my sock stash to justify buying more yarn, I will definitely be getting more of this.

As for the next spinning project, I'm not sure what fiber I will be using, but it will be a project aiming for a two-ply fingering weight for a challenge our guild is doing.  About once a year or so we do a challenge, with everyone knitting the same pattern.  This year they've chosen the Gaia shawl.  The original pattern calls for Noro sock yarn so you get the stripes.  I haven't decided yet if I'll try to spin for the stripes, but since I'm one of the few spinners in my group, I will probably be the only one spinning for the challenge.  Before I start, I need to install a new poly cord drive belt on my wheel.   I've been wanting one to fit my wheel and Ashford just came out with it.  The reviews are good – it's supposed to give more traction with less friction and make treadling easier.  Can't wait to try it out, but I need to finish Ben's sweater yarn first.  I don't want to install it now and risk messing up my tension and getting a whole 'nother kind of yarn.

I'm really itching to start another piece of lace.  I can't believe I don't have any lace on the needles.  Now that I am out of the dish cloth doldrums, I'm really tempted to start another Evenstar.  But I don't know if I want such a large project at this point.  I did break my yarn diet long enough to order a project for our road trip in September.  This seemed like a good deal with the extra skein of yarn and will give me plenty to keep me occupied for a month on the road.  Throw in enough for a few pairs of socks and I'll be set.

We had a great time with the girls today.  We continue to be amazed that we get to see them so often and what wonderful little girls they are!  Today's entertainment was lawn bowling.  We didn't have the appropriate equipment, so we were forced to use girls instead:

It's about time I posted and proved that I am indeed still here and blogging.  This summer is proving to be very, very busy.  Hubby's advice that I would find myself this busy in retirement has proven to be true!  In fact, I'm discovering that I really do need to be careful about over committing myself.  However, it does give me a lot to blog about.  Where to start?

Last weekend I went on a road trip to Sisters, Oregon with some ladies from our church.  Every year the town hosts a huge outdoor quilt show.  It grows from a sleepy little town of about 1700 to over 100,000 visitors in one day!!  Even with that it didn't seem to be too crowded, although it was plenty warm.  That didn't dampen our enthusiasm too much and we all had a great time.

I did most of the driving – about 18 hours total – and was exhausted at the end of it, but it was well worth it and the ladies seemed very appreciative.

No, that's not our car, but it is kind of cool!  Don't think I have that much time on my hands!

I did break my fiber diet a little – souvenir fiber doesn't count, right?  I found a shop that had a small spinning section and scored some beautiful blue Colonial top:

As soon as I finish spinning the yarn for Ben's sweater, this will be my next project for a shawl challenge that my knitting group is doing.  More on that later.  But, speaking of the sweater project – I'm making progress.  I finally caved and started plying, trying to mix up my bobbins as much as possible, although I do seem to be staying fairly consistent.  Four skeins down, ? to go:

Of course, there are always other temptations.  The last Mixed Blessings offering from Fat Cat was absolutely luscious – alpaca and silk.  And I was thrilled to discover that I won one of the random prizes – a beautiful braid of Falkland (alpaca/silk on left, Falkland on right):

And just to prove that I'm still finishing – two FO's.  First up, a blue shrug for Isobel.  As you might recall, she absolutely refused to wear the brown one I made for her.  I asked her if she would wear a blue one and she said yes, so Nana complied:

It seems to be a hit.  I also am working on mastering toe-up socks.  My goal is that they will be as intuitive to me as top down socks are now.  These are the Seashell Socks.  Pattern by Wendy Johnson, yarn is Regia Silk, size 0 needles:

Although I count these as a success, I don't highly recommend the pattern.  The stitch pattern biases terribly and is a little boring to do.  But I learned a lot about toe-up socks and will continue to explore, even though the next set on my needles is top down.  But they are for a gift and I want to finish them quickly.

Last but not least is a little project that taught me a lot about children and how we can go terribly wrong trying to impress them.  It seems that as adults we often think the big, expensive things are what make children happy.  We couldn't be more wrong.  When Mei-Mei was born I had made her a little Minkee dog that became her favorite "lovey".  She can't go to sleep without it.  They are a little reluctant to take "Bobo" in the car for fear of losing him.  Just before they got ready to leave here after their last visit, Ben asked if I could whip up something quickly for them to take in the car because they really wanted her to sleep on the way home.  I went in my sewing room and found a little square of Minkee.  I stuffed the head with some leftover cotton yarn, tied it around the neck and hubby drew on a face with marker.  The little ghost was promptly dubbed "Carbo".  All the way home Mei-Mei petted Carbo and told him how much she loved him – and then she fell asleep.  When she got home she had to take Carbo up to her room, introduce him to all her toys and have him give each one of them a kiss!  And just to prove Carbo is as simple as they come:

Sometimes we just try too hard!

My marathon spinning has begun:

I have three bobbins down on the BFL for Ben's sweater.  I have seven bobbins, so the plan is to spin six bobbins of singles and then start to ply.  I should be able to mix them up enough to even out any spinning differences.  At least that's the plan.  I've joined the Tour de Fleece as a rookie and my goal is to have all the yarn spun for the sweater by the time the tour is over.  At least that's the plan.  But life may get in the way, so we'll see.

I won't be be able to spin for three days next week because I'm taking a road trip to the Sisters, Oregon Quilt Show.  Three elderly ladies from our church wanted to go and asked me to go along, so I will be the designated driver.  They are absolutely charming ladies and I think we're going to have a great time.  Bill and I went years ago and it's a beautiful show.  In the 20 or so years they've had the show it's only rained a couple of times and wouldn't you know – it rained the year we went.  I hope I don't bring bad luck this year.

In the FO department, I finished Damson:

This was knit from my own handspun, a merino/silk blend.  This was probably the nicest yarn I've spun so far and it made me ridiculously happy to knit with it.  It is so much more satisfying than knitting with commercial yarn.  I highly recommend the pattern as well.  It's quick and easy and I love the way it drapes around the shoulders and stays put.  No modeling shots until I manage to change into something besides a sweatshirt and jeans.  With our weather that may be a while.

I'm having to take a good, honest look at my sewing room and make some firm resolutions.  I've come to the conclusion that I have more than enough fabric, yarn, fiber and books to keep me occupied for many moons.  In fact, it's getting to the point where I'm running out of room to put everything.  So – you heard it here first.  I'm going on a fabric, yarn, fiber and book diet until I manage to use up some of what I have.  I'm not going to put an exact amount in, but I need to get things down to a more reasonable level.  The only exceptions will be supplies to finish projects already in the stash and the Fat Cat fiber club when she offers it again.  That one only runs for 3 months at a time and it's one I really don't want to pass up.  And speaking of the club – I think I may have won a prize!  On the Ravelry group she posted the names of the prize winners and one of them was Dorothy W.  There just aren't that many Dorothys around, so I'm hoping.  She won't confirm, so I just have to wait until my shipment arrives.  I'm hoping it will come today.

Anyway – one of the first things up on my stash utilization program is to dive into this bag of cotton:

I have loads of dishcloth patterns to try out and right now they're the perfect project for my brain, which seems to be incapable of attempting anything more challenging.  Two down and a third started:

Hope everyone has a safe and happy 4th.  Our plans are to have a barbecue here with the family tomorrow and maybe even take in the parade.  And of course, fresh strawberry shortcake from our local fields!  Yum!!

No, not the running type.  A 2-mile walk around the block with Maggie is as intense as I ever plan to get.  This will be a spinning marathon.  I've cleared all other spinning projects off the calendar and will be concentrating on this lovely BFL:

At the Spin-In in April I bought 3 pounds to make my son a sweater.  I've subsequently learned that 3 pounds is probably overkill, but I'm going to go ahead and spin it all up in the hopes that I may even have enough for two sweaters.  I've already sampled and will be spinning a 3-ply heavy DK weight (I hope).  My experiences so far have taught me that I really need to do this all at once rather than intersperse it with other projects.  So it will be a marathon.  However, I am finding this a very relaxing fiber to spin.  After spinning so much merino/silk, this has a very different feel.  It's not as silky, crimpier but even though it's very clean, has a wonderful lanolin feel to it.  

My most recent project has been the aforementioned merino/silk.  This was the fiber:

When I 2-plied, I tried to see how much I could get on one bobbin – it worked out to 7 ounces!  However, toward the end it was very hard to treadle the heavy bobbin:

But it may have been worth it to get over 400 yards of a heavy laceweight/light fingering:

Another FO to report – Winterscape socks from Austermann Step.  These will be for a quilting friend:

And I am sad to report that Whistler has indeed been frogged.  The yarn is neatly wound and bagged and awaiting another Dale to be chosen when fall rolls around.  Although, at the rate our weather as been going, I may be casting on for warm woolies in the middle of August!  This leaves my knitting calendar also freed up to work on a project for my sil.  Her son is getting married in August and she has a rather ambitious afghan planned for him.  She enlisted the help of myself and my other sil (nice to have knitters in the family!).  My portion is two 6" x 60" panels of a leaf pattern – very easy and fun to do.  Almost mindless:

The yarn my sil is using is Wool-Ease.  I've never used it before and I'm finding I really like it.  It's 80/20 wool/acrylic, but is very soft and not at all "plastic" feeling as some acrylics are.  I've been looking for a go-to yarn for charity knitting and everyday wear for the girls.  I've been very, very disappointed in the Encore I've been using.  I know some pilling is inevitable, but the Encore's pilling has been horrendous.  Anyone out there have any experience with high wear garments made of Wool-Ease?

Back to spinning now!

My vacation is over and I think this is one of those times that I need a vacation to recover!  My sister and I flew back to Missouri to visit my parents.  Those of you who have followed my blog for a while might remember that my hometown is pretty small.  It's one of those places that you might miss if you blink:

Yup folks – that's it!  It was a little traumatic seeing my parents' house for the first time in a few years as they had to cut down the old maple tree in the front yard.  It was huge – I couldn't put my arms around the trunk – and had been there as long as I could remember.  But age and disease had taken its toll. 

Other than that the old homestead was as I remembered.  One of the nice things about Thomasville is the laid back lifestyle.  An exciting evening consists of hanging out on the front porch swing:

While I was there I relaxed and spent a lot of time knitting.  I found a good pattern for my handspun and completed a Multnomah shawl:

I wasn't able to make it full sized, but it turned out to be a nice little shoulder scarf/shawlette.

My parents flew back to Washington with us and it was great fun to see them meet their great-granddaughters:

The girls took to them immediately and showered them with hugs and kisses.  The girls had come up to our house on Wednesday and met my parents for the first time.  On Thursday we went down to their house.  When Mei-Mei saw my Dad she went running up to him, hugged him and said, "I missed you so much!"  Yes – they definitely made big points.

We were even able to get the whole family together for a portrait:

On Saturday we had our 4th Annual Spring Tea.  The tea was almost over before I remembered to break out the camera.  As you can see, Mei-Mei was quite proficient at serving tea;

Mom and Dad left yesterday and made it back home without incident.  The house is strangely quiet, but I've managed to fill my time productively.  I spent most of the day in my sewing room, straightening up and spinning.  Maggie even got to go out for a walk.  Life is back to normal.

It's raining, it's pouring.  No snoring that I know of, but we've got a lake in our backyard. 

While this is not unusual for winter, usually by this time of year things have dried out and we get a little more sunshine and warm weather.  We haven't even put our winter clothes away yet.  Brrrr.

This weekend has been a whirlwind of FO's.  Ok, so only 2, but still FO's.  First off – Evenstar:

I really thought the beaded border was going to do me in.  It seemed to take forever.  There was a little drama at the end when I grafted.  I got the wrong sides together (well, actually the right sides together, which was the wrong way), so I had to carefully unpick the grafting, which meant some dropped stitches.  All was fixed in the end and I'm quite pleased.  I may even do this pattern again.  As I've mentioned, I probably will not do a Mystery Shawl again.  I do not like working blind, especially with a pattern that has some "issues".  I won't come right out and call them errors, but there was quite the drama on the Ravelry group, with some members being unfairly criticized for expressing frustration.  I do not need drama in my knitting, so I think group KAL's are probably not my thing.

Also finished were my very first handspun socks!!

The pattern is Winterscapes, size 0 needles.  Do you notice something?  Yeah, they don't match!  I bought this fiber at the spin-in here in April.  It was sold in packs – one pack makes one sock.  Since these were the last two of this colorway on the table, I assumed they were a perfect match.  Not so.  That was completely my fault for not checking.  I also learned that it is probably wise to spin all the yarn for one project as close in time as possible.  I did another project in between socks and I spun the second batch of fiber a little finer than the first.  So, the first sock is 56 stitches to start and the second is 60.  Despite that, they are about the same size, although they don't quite look like it in the picture.  The photo of both the socks and Evenstar are not very color true – the colors are really much clearer and brighter.  But the rain and gloom has made good color photography challenging at best.

Next week I'm off to Missouri to visit the parents.  So, of course, I gotta get busy and plan my knitting to pack.  I probably won't be taking my computer, so no blogging.  I did pop on down to the Apple store in Lynwood to purchase an iPad to take with me, but alas, they were all sold out.  However, I did order one and it should be here in about three weeks.  Hubby and I are getting it because we are planning a big road trip at the end of summer.  I'm very excited that I have plans on meeting up with some blogging friends.

In the meantime, I close with cute granddaughterly sayings.  I was visiting this week and Isobel and I were out in her front yard making clover necklaces.  A delivery man drove up with a delivery of organic veggies for Abby.  While I was taking the delivery, he said to Isobel, "That's a very pretty necklace you have."  She said, "Thank you.  My grandma made it. (elaborate gesture toward me).  This is my grandma.  Her name is Nana."

All of us knitters have been there – the Black Hole of Knitting.  Sometimes it's sleeves, sometimes it's endless rows of stockinette.  You put down your knitting and when you come back, it almost seems as if you've made reverse progress!  And without any frogging.  This shawl border has been that way.  I could swear after putting it down in the evening, when I pick it up the next day I have twice as far to go as I did the day before.  Theoretically I know that's not true.  I have 16 repeats to complete out of 56.  I really, really would like to have this finished before I leave on vacation.  It is definitely NOT plane knitting.  Can you imagine hundreds of little beads rolling around on the floor of the plane??  So I continue on.

I did finish some spinning that I wanted done before I left, though.  This was the April Mixed Blessings fiber from Fat Cat Knits.  I spun the two braids separately.  The red I split vertically into about 4 long pieces, the purple I broke up into random chunks, both vertically and horizontally.  This is what I came out with:

Then I plied them together.  I couldn't for the life of me figure out how in the world this would come out to anything remotely resembling usable yarn, but lookie:

After spinning mostly neutral yarns, I was just tickled at the wonderful colors.  As I was spinning I was getting a little nervous.  There were stretches of almost fluorescent pink, olive drab and it seems just about everything in between.  How in the world did it come out to something this pretty?  I guess that's what makes Ginny a dyeing genius.  Alas, I only have about 320 yards of fingering weight, so I'm not sure what I'll do with it.  Any suggestions?  A small scarf or shawlette would be great, but the ones I've been interested in take about 400 yards.

Hubby wanted to do a garden this year and I talked him into giving Square Foot Gardening a try.  We decided to go with just one and see how it worked before committing ourselves.  So far, so good:

We've planted spinach, lettuce, radishes, carrots, beets, onions and strawberries.  Everything except the carrots is doing great.  In fact, we harvested some spinach to have with our salad last night and it was so tasty – tender and sweet.  And we have lots and lots of little baby strawberries.  Hubby built a critter cage to put over it – we have deer and rabbits.  It seems to have done a really good job of keeping them out and it's lightweight and easy to remove for harvesting.

I finally had my last dental appointment yesterday.  The permanent crown was placed and it really was a piece of cake.  I love this dentist – after your appointment you can have fresh baked Otis Spunkmeyer cookies and a cappuccino.  But I will be glad not to see him again until my check up in November.

And speaking of dentists – the woman who replaced me as office manager has quit.  Sad to say, most of the staff is looking for new employment.  It's a little discouraging to see all that you have spent years building up going down the drain, but I comfort myself in knowing that I can be really proud of all that I accomplished while I was there.  And pat myself on the back that I am retired!!!  It is such a relief to know that I don't have to deal with any of it. 

I've started the edging on the Evenstar Shawl and it is taking forever!  I'm not a stranger to long shawl edgings, but the beads on this one are adding a whole new dimension – in more ways than one:

However, I do love the effect and think it will be well worth it.  At the rate I'm going it will probably take at least another month or so to finish.  Stay tuned!

It seems that since I retired, my life and sewing room have both become more and more cluttered.  Hubby warned me that I would be more busy than I ever thought possible, and he is right!  I seem to have found so many fun things to do, but am sadly coming to the conclusion that I just can't do them all.  So, I am going to be looking at my commitments and doing a little culling.  Culling also needs to be done in my sewing room:

Despite my best efforts, this seems to be more normal than not.  I'm slowly going through things and have recycled a ton of magazines, but still have more to go through.  I'm also going to go through my projects and get tough.  I'm thinking that if I don't love a project, it either needs to be frogged, trashed, or given away.  If I love it – it really needs to go into a queue to get finished.  I actually don't have that many knitting projects going (most of my UFO's are quilting), but two are going bye-bye.  The first is the Queen Silvia shawl:

I started this right after the Nancy Bush Estonian workshop, and as you can see, didn't get very far.  I really never did feel the love on this one, so it has already been frogged.

The next one is not so easy.  Whistler:

This one started out with great excitement and anticipation.  Until I got to the three color rows. Not only are they a bear, but I'm just not happy with how they are coming out.  I dread picking it up and working on it.  I have lots and lots of Dale books and I'm sure I can find something I like as well.  So, with a little sorrow, I think this is going to the frog pond too. 

I do have projects that I am excited about.  I joined the Fat Cats Mixed Blessings club and received my first shipment:

This is the first multi colored fiber I've bought and I'm excited to see how it comes out.  Looking at how others are spinning this, I've decided to make a 2-ply as close to fingering as I can get.  The reddish fiber has been split into 3 lengthwise strips and will be spun as is.  The purple will be broken up into random chunks, spun and then plied to the reddish singles.  More experienced spinners (Pat, Kathy) – does that sound like a plan?  I can't quite wrap my mind around the fact that it probably won't look like a muddled mess.  But looking at what others have done – I think it will come out quite nicely.  This is Polwarth and is an absolute dream to spin.  I don't even need to predraft:

Off again tomorrow to see the family in Snohomish.  Abby is taking me to see the movie "Babies" and then we'll do some shopping with my sister.  Hopefully there will be time for a little granddaughter snuggling sometime:

A fun time was had last Sunday as we celebrated two birthdays.  I won't mention any ages, but here's a picture of the honorees:

We weren't sure what to get Isobel for her birthday.  Our son said that she had so many toys already and suggested that I sew her a superhero cape.  It really didn't seem like much, but as it turned out, it was a big hit.  Of course, it's always important that superhero capes be kept nice and tidy:

I also gave the girls their shrugs with very mixed results.  Ivy loved hers:

Isobel, on the other hand, refused to even try hers on.  For some reason, I think she got it in her head that the shrug and cape were exclusive of each other and a choice had to be made!  Once that was in her little mind, she would not budge!  Hmmm – I wonder where that stubborness comes from?  Certainly not her paternal side of the family.  Right, Abby??

The girls and the dogs also had a great time outside chasing bubbles.  Of course, sometimes two can go for the same bubble at the same time!

On Monday, I loaded up my spinning wheel and supplies for a three day workshop with Anne Field.  It was a very intensive three days and I was exhausted by the end of it.  I do have mixed feelings about the workshop.  First of all, three days was a little intense.  Secondly, we worked exclusively with raw fiber, although it was cleaned – after a fashion.  It seemed that we spent about half our time preparing the fiber.  This is not something I enjoy and I don't see it in my future.  I learned that the quality of your spinning has a lot to do with the quality of the fiber preparation.  Since I was so new at the prep, my fiber wasn't always of the best quality! 

However, I did learn a lot about the different breeds of sheep and how the crimp affects the finished yarn.  I learned the difference between worsted, woolen, semi-worsted, and semi-woolen and somewhat successfully spun all four.  I also spun from the fold for the first time.  Anne was a wonderful teacher and very patient with us newbies.  Her New Zealand accent was charming, although we often had to listen very carefully and occasionally ask for clarification.

It was nice, though, to get back home and to my own spinning.  One of the major things I learned in the workshop was to sample.  I know this should be a no-brainer considering my previous experiences, but I'm not always able to grasp the obvious.  So, learning that, I started spinning on the fiber for Ben's sweater.  I made two mini-skeins – one 2-ply, one 3-ply and knit them up into gauge swatches.  I'm waffling between which to use, but don't have to make a decision until I start plying.

And – speaking of handpspun – how many of you wagered that I would dive right in on my handspun sock yarn?  Those who know me well, knew I would!

The pattern is Winterscape and is free on Ravelry.  The yarn was actually a heavy fingering and so I did need to decrease the stitch count a little.  I was sweating having enough yarn, and only ended up with about a yard to spare!  Of course, this now gives a new meaning to Second Sock Syndrome.  I not only have to knit the second sock, I have to spin the yarn for it too!!

Well, I don't have handspun socks quite yet, but I am certainly on the right path.  I was very excited to find that I can indeed spin a 3-ply fingering weight yarn.  The breakthrough came with the workshop with Amelia Garripoli.  Behold:

Of course, I am chomping at the bit to reel this off into a ball and cast on, but I'm trying to restrain myself.  For starters, I already have a pair of socks on the needles and this is only enough for one sock.  I still have to spin the rest for the second sock.  With a busy week coming up, I may not get around to that for a week or more.  We'll see how long I can hold out, but if you are a betting person, I think you know where I would recommend you place your wagers!

I do have two FO's to show – a quick and easy project courtesy of Knitting Pure and Simple.  In just two days I knocked off two Little Girl's Shrugs:

The picture is kind of dark courtesy of an overcast day and the dark yarn.  The yarn is Knit Picks Cotlin, color coffee.  This was such a fun and easy pattern.  They were literally accomplished in two days of fairly easy knitting.  These will be perfect for keeping little shoulders warm during our cool spring evenings.  I mentioned last post that I mistakenly ordered 3 instead of 4 skeins.  When I called to order another one, it was backordered until the end of May, which also meant a different dye lot.  I decided to plunge ahead and was pleased to discover that I could make the two shrugs out of 3 skeins, with some left over!

Hubby mentioned the other day that my quilting has really taken a back seat to other endeavors.  Perhaps it has, but I haven't abandoned it entirely.  I've been working on a bunch of UFO's in that area and actually finished one this week:

It does actually lay flat without rippling, but I was trying to get a quick picture before a certain puppy could make herself comfortable right on top of the quilt.  This was a machine embroidered piece and was great fun to make.  I was able to find all the blues in my stash, with the exception of the long border strips and binding.

Quite a busy week coming up.  This afternoon I have to trek back to the dentist.  Yuck!  I've had enough of dentists to do me for quite a while.  This appointment will be to start the crown on the tooth that had the root canal.  At least the extraction site is healing and I'm relatively pain free in that area. 

However, the rest of the week will likely prove to be a lot more fun!  Sunday we are going over to Ben & Abby's to celebrate Isobel's and Bill's birthdays.  I'll be sure to get pictures of the girls in their shrugs.  Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday is the spinning workshop with Anne Field.  I am so excited about it!  I really hope to greatly improve my skills, then start spinning on the yarn for Ben's sweater. I will try to remember to take my camera and get some pictures.  Usually in such circumstances I'm so excited that I completely forget!

I'm learning a lesson about my spinning.  I'm not quite good enough at this point to be able to make too definite plans about what I am going to do with a yarn before it is spun.  Once again I've had to change plans for my silk/merino yarn.  I started the Beech Leaf Vest, got gauge and merrily knit away.  However, it quickly became apparent that my yarn was way too "rustic" for the delicate lace.  Hmmm – what to do?  I checked out my Elsebeth Lavold books and found a pretty vest – Ylva.  I didn't quite get gauge, but I did some calculations and figured if I made the smallest size, it would come out about right.  So far so good:

I am taking a chance on the size.  I keep reading that negative ease is flattering in shaped garments, so I am making this with 0 ease.  I really hope it fits!  I do find that I love knitting with my handspun, even if it is a little less smooth than commercial yarns.  I also started an attempt at spinning a 3-ply sock weight yarn and I think I'm coming close!

It's a little hard to see since the single is almost the same color as the dime.  I'm not sure if this was the best choice for my first attempt at a fingering 3-ply.  Don't get me wrong – the fiber is wonderful, a merino/tencel blend from BJS Fiber Creations:

But because of the color gradations, I can't split the pieces vertically to thin them down, so I'm having to draft across the full width of each piece.  It's challenging my skills, but I think I'm being at least semi-successful.  We'll see what happens when I ply it together.  However, this may have to wait since I am very, very slow at it.    I have to finish spinning up the yarn for my vest and then I have to leave my bobbins free for the big 3-day workshop I'm taking next week.  The topic is "Spinning Beyond the Basics" and is taught by Anne Field from New Zealand.  I signed up for this workshop in January, when I was still  a very, very new spinner.  There was a caution that this was not a beginning class, but my spinning group assured me I would be up to speed by the time it rolled around.  I think perhaps I am, but I'm still just a wee bit nervous!

I have plenty other projects to keep me busy, though.  The 6th clue just came out for Evenstar.  Here's a photo through clue 5:

As you can see, the straight ribs I wasn't sure about have morphed into some beautiful arches.  I also found beads for the edging.  The picture really doesn't do them justice – they are so pretty and irridescent.  I should finish clue 6 in a few nights of knitting and then a two week wait for the next clue.  That's what I don't like about these mystery knits.  I have a feeling that with 2900 beads to knit in, the edging will take several weeks and then it will be time to start thinking about a new lace project!  I'm debating about starting the Wedding Ring Shawl.  I've had the pattern and yarn for a while, but just haven't felt the courage to jump in.  Maybe the time is ripe.  But perhaps I should make myself work on Whistler first.  I've gotten a little bogged down in the three color rows.  They are an absolute bear, but I think I only have 5 more of them and if I just forced myself to do them, they would be over!

But I have other distractions to keep me busy.  

A Knit Picks order arrived in the mail!  I ordered 4 skeins of Cotlin to make shrugs for the girls, a book, a knit shaver, some needles and connectors and a funky little Norwegian yarn carrier that was on closeout.  I'm not sure it's going to work, but I thought I would give it a try.  I was a little disappointed to discover that I goofed and ordered 3 skeins of Cotlin instead of 4!  Now I have to order one more and pay shipping for a single skein.  Rats!

Busy week coming up – two birthday celebrations.  Hubby continues to march through his 60's and Isobel turns 5!  Ben & Abby have her signed up for kindergarten and she's is SO excited.  Where has the time gone??

This past weekend was a real contrast.  On the one hand, it was the most fun I've had in a long time.  On the other hand – well, not!  Let's do the fun stuff first.  Lorette and her hubby, John came up with their dogs, Lewey and Riley, and spent the weekend with us.  Lorette and I went to a two-day spin-in held at our local high school.  Over 200 spinners showed up with their wheels and crowded in for hours of fiber goodness:

There was a merchant mall with all kinds of enticements:

Both Lorette and I did our best to put a dent in the offerings so the merchants wouldn't have to pack up too much to take home!  You can see Maggie licking her lips and the lusciousness of it all:

I'll post more specifics as I spin each of them up, but suffice it to say, I have enough to keep me busy for months to come, thanks to a generous $$ donation by hubby!

The program was put on by Amelia Garripoli of Ask the Bellwether fame.  The subject was spinning for socks, and more specifically, spinning a self-striping yarn.  We were issued a fiber pack and got some actual hands-on instruction.  Although this skein doesn't prove it, Lorette and I were very pleased to discover that we can indeed spin fine enough to produce a 3-ply sock yarn!  The fiber we were issued had a lot of silk noil slubs in it, so was a little more difficult for us to spin, but I still produced some passable yarn:

It still needs to washed and set, and a second skein spun to match.  Then they will become a pair of fingerless mitts.

While Lorette and I went crazy, the boys found plenty to keep them busy:

Actually, they spent a whirlwind weekend doing sight-seeing on the island and just over the mainland.  They saw the tulip fields:

And indulged in ice cream treats:

We were very pleased at how well the dogs got along together. 

Maggie has issues with other dogs, but she welcomed both Riley and Lewey into her domain with no problems at all.  She and Lewey even played a bit, although Riley let it be known that she was much too dignified for such shenanigans.

The not so pleasant part of the weekend is that I have been struggling with dental issues for the past three weeks.  It started out with extreme sensitivity to cold and constant, throbbing pain.  It was determined by my dentist that I needed a root canal, and I dutifully went to the endodontist and had it done.  That only solved part of the problem.  The sensitivity to cold went away, but the constant pain did not.  It was the most excruciating pain I've ever had.  Pain meds helped some, but left me almost comatose.  Then the pain started getting worse and making me nauseous.  Finally, after a week and a half of the endodontist telling me it should be getting better, he saw me again and determined that there was another tooth causing the problem.  This was a wisdom tooth and it needed to come out.  The oral surgeon couldn't get me in for at least a week, but my original doc came through for me and got me in immediately for an extraction.   Even that did not go well.  Despite his best efforts, the tooth broke off in the socket.  I saw the oral surgeon the next day and he said the tooth was so fused to the bone, that it would have probably happened in his office too.  He advised leaving the root tips alone and allowing things to heal.  If I don't have further problems, no more treatment is necessary.  He also upped my pain medication (to morphine!) and gave me something to help the nausea.  FYI – neither helped, but last night I was able to just back off to Ibuprofen.  For the first time this morning I am feeling almost human.  I'm still going to take it easy for a few more days and try to get my appetite back.  I've hardly eaten anything in three weeks (a diet I do NOT recommend), but nothing sounds good because of lingering nausea.  So there you have my tale of woe – probably more than you wanted to know.  I was beginning to feel as if I would never feel good again and I'm so happy to be on the road to recovery.  In fact, I may even feel well enough to spin today!  And FYI – I can actually knit lace on morphine without screwing up.  Who knew!

As a new spinner I'm learning that the best laid plans sometimes go awry.  My original plan for this lovely merino/silk blend:

was for the Beech Leaves Vest.  After spinning my singles, it looked to me as if a 3-ply would give me the weight of yarn I wanted.  After plying and winding on my niddy noddy, I confirmed that this was so.  But I made a rookie spinning error!  I forgot to factor in how much the yarn would bloom when washed to set the twist!!  I did end up with some lovely yarn, but it is more of a worsted weight than a light dk.  When I tried doing a gauge swatch, I discovered that there was no way this was going to work.  Well, rats!  The frustrating thing is that if I had 2-plied it, I would have had the perfect yarn for the pattern.  I had leftover singles that I did just that with and after washing and knitting – I got the perfect gauge in a very nice, drapey material:

I have 4 oz. leftover and rather than spin that up to a 3-ply to match what I already have, I think I'm going to forge ahead and 2-ply this and order some more fiber.  I like this yarn so much that I really want to have a garment from it.  It occurred to me this morning as I was knitting my sample that I have spun Silky Wool!  That's always been one of my favorite yarns, but it always seemed a little on the skimpy side.  This silky wool has a little more body and has all kinds of possibilities for Elsbeth Lavold designs.

In the FO category, I finished the basketweave socks:

As you recall, these are out of the Araucania that felted on me in a warm wash, so these will be run through a cold wash just to confirm that they can be machine washed and then, if all goes well, they will be gifted to my friend Kim for her birthday.

We had a wonderful Easter with the girls.  Hubby did a scavenger hunt for them and they really seemed to enjoy it.  And their dresses fit them perfectly:

Are they not exceedingly adorable?

This week is turning out to be a bit of a challenge.  I am still having tooth issues.  The endodontist said the continuing pain is normal and it will just take time.  In the meantime, I am back on pain meds, which are leaving me dopey (or at least dopier than usual).  I'm hoping for some quick recovery so that I will be pain free this weekend.  Lorette and her hubby are coming for the weekend and while the hubsters do whatever it is guys do, Lorette and I will be attending a two-day spinning event!  Last spinning event I was so overwhelmed I completely forgot to take pictures, but I promise to do better this weekend.

After what has felt like a lost week, I am finally starting to feel human again.  It started last weekend with a tooth that has been sensitive to cold for quite a while.  It finally got tired of being ignored and got very, very angry.  My dentist called in an antibiotic and pain med until he could see me on Tuesday.  That meant several days either doped into zombie status or experiencing excruciating pain.  So I mostly stayed zombie.  On Tuesday he took x-rays and said I needed a referral to an endodontist.  Around here that often means a wait of several weeks, but I was very lucky and got an appointment on Thursday.  That meant several more days of living in a fog.  By Wednesday the Vicodin was not working so well, and I was dopey and in pain!  The root canal on Thursday was actually a piece of cake and I'm feeling a lot better.  There is still some residual pain, but it's easily knocked down by Ibuprofen and the doc said it should feel a little better every day. What's not feeling better is my savings account.  Paying for the whole fiasco was a shocker!!

I didn't want to knit anything that required even a modicum of thought, so my fall back (when I wasn't sleeping) was spinning.  I discovered that I spin pretty much the same high as I do sober.  Good to know.  I've finished about 3/4 of the merino/silk for my vest.  Since I seemed to be pretty consistent, I went ahead and plied when I had three bobbins full:

As soon as they're dry, I'll wind them into balls and do a gauge swatch.  I'm hoping I can get a good gauge to do the Beech Leaf Vest and have ordered the pattern.

Other than that, there really isn't much to tell.  When you've spent the entire week either in the dental chair or sleeping, it makes for pretty dull blogging. I did manage to finish two dresses for the girls that I had started before my dental crisis.  A friend pointed me to this site of patterns for children.  Isn't that just perfect?  I emailed her a picture of my Izzy and Ivy and she kindly wrote back and said she was sending me some patterns if I would take pictures and allow her to use them on her site.  Abby consented and so I received two adorable little patterns.  These are the dresses:

Front:

And back:

But here's the best part – look at the label!

Now the girls have their names in their dresses.  Of course, Izzy may not be so thrilled.  For months she was "Diego" and now she's "Indy" (Indiana Jones).  Not sure when Izzy or Isobel will make an appearance again.

Happy Easter to everyone.  Enjoy a wonderful day celebrating the resurrection of Christ!  He is risen!  He is risen indeed!

I've finished my first project with my very own handspun!  Better yet, I've finished two.  First up – Pretty Thing cowl by the Yarn Harlot:

This uses the silk/merino that I spun.  This was definitely the most consistent yarn I've made to date.  It came out to a heavy fingering and I am so pleased with the finished result.  And I may even have enough for another one.  Also finished was the diagonal scarf:

This skein was not quite as consistent.  This was the last fiber I spun before I got my Woolee Winder.  Despite its inconsistency, I was amazed at how lovely it was to knit with.  Most of the lumps and bumps seem to just meld into the knitted fabric.  I think I can say I'm now addicted to knitting with my handspun.  Spinning continues on the new silk/merino that I started:

I had originally considered doing the Featherweight sweater with this, but I think it may be just a little too heavy.  If I ply it into a 2-ply fingering weight I'm pretty limited, but a 3-ply dk/sport weight gives me more options so I am planning on that at this stage.  This may take a while, though, because I'm not the speediest spinner in the world.  However, I am being monogamous at this point in the game to try and keep the consistency.  One of the patterns I'm considering is the Beech Leaf Vest by Fiddlesticks.

I have four repeats of the newest clue in Evenstar finished:

I'm not quite sure about the lines of twisted rib in the middle of a shawl.  It should be interesting to see how they are finished out.  I think I can say that this will probably be my last mystery KAL for a couple of reasons.  First of all, I find that I am not  a community knitter.  I don't really feel compelled to join in on the social aspect of it.  It might be fun to knit a project with a few close friends, but I don't particularly feel called upon to be an active part of the group.  The second thing is the errata.  Now, I know that it's probably realistic to expect errors in knitting patterns.  No one is perfect.  However, I did think that in a mystery project they would have been worked out.  In a "real" pattern you at least have the safety net of a picture, so you have a fair idea of what it's supposed to look like.  In a mystery project you are essentially flying blind.  If there's a mistake in the pattern you don't know it until it's too late.  Thankfully I've avoided having to do any major frogging, but others in the group have not been so lucky.  And unfortunately, they are the new lace knitters.  When they expressed their frustration to the group they were slammed as somehow being disloyal to the group and especially the designer.  While I have sympathy for the designer and feel that overall she has done a fine job, I think the group has been a little unfair to those expressing frustration.  All in all, too much drama for a knitting project for me!

The biggest drama I've had in my own knitting is multiple froggings on Nutkin!  I got down to the heel and decided I wanted to mirror the design, so I ripped.  Once again I got down to the heel and realized I was in a state of denial.  No way were these going to fit the intended recipient.  So I frogged again and this time did a simple basketweave stitch:

Much better!  As soon as I finish this clue on Evenstar I'll get cracking on the socks so I can gift them mid-April.  On the agenda this week is a trip to the dentist.  No, not working!  Gossip from the office has me SO thankful that I'm retired and determined never, ever to go back.  This time I will be returning (to a different office) as a patient.  I have a tooth that is really throbbing.  Realistically I can probably expect a root canal and crown in my future.  Hmm – will I need to take out a second mortgage??  I was definitely spoiled by 24 years of mostly free dental care.  Thankfully I got a good deal on plane tickets to go back home to Missouri to see the parents.  Best of all, they're coming back with me and my sister for a visit.  They've never met Mei-Mei and I'm so excited that the girls will be able to see their great-grandparents.

Our first day of spring is promising to be a wonderful one.  Temps should be in the 60's and the sun is shining!  As far as the spring flowers go, we're about a month ahead of time.  It's always interesting to note the timing of the bulbs over on the mainland.  There are fields and fields of daffodils and tulips and every year they have a Tulip Festival.  Some years they hit just the right week, but often as not, the bulbs are either too early or too late.  Last year they were too late and this year there is some concern that by the time the festival rolls around, the bulbs will be all gone.  This picture was taken about 10 years ago – we usually avoid the crowds that descend at tulip time.

I finally dived in and started knitting with my handspun.  I was a little hesitant, because once I wound the blue merino into a ball, it didn't look anywhere near as nice and even as it did on the skein.  But it's amazing how the humble little garter stitch can even out yarn:

The yarn is fingering in some places, close to worsted in others, underspun, overspun, you name it!  In some places the underspun singles broke while I was plying, but I just spit spliced and moved on.  Despite it all, I find it extremely satisfying to be knitting with yarn that  I made!  One of the reasons I gave for rejecting spinning last year (never say never!!) was that it added one more step before you could start knitting.  Now that I'm spinning, I realize that the added step is really a destination of its own.  I've been surprised at how much I love spinning for its own sake. There's something about feeling the fiber flow through your fingers and twist into yarn that is hypnotic.  In fact, I'll find that I can sit and do it for so long that I have to remind myself to get up and move a little every once in a while so I don't freeze up.

I finished a new skein this week and I am ridiculously happy with it:

This is Ashland Merino/Silk blend in the Sea Mist colorway.  It was gifted to me by Lorette before I even started spinning (an enabler if I ever met one!).  This was pure pleasure to spin.  And, it's come out so even and nice that I can really see some potential for this skein.  Right now I'm thinking of doing the Yarn Harlot's Pretty Thing cowl.  This is so soft and silky and would feel wonderful around my neck.  I loved spinning this so much, that I have ordered enough for a sweater.  I wasn't sure how much to order, so I ordered a pound.  I have a feeling that may be way, way too much, but I don't want to run out.  And, if I have some left over, I can start knitting cowls for Christmas.  Depending on gauge, I'm thinking about the Featherweight Cardigan.  Marguerite mentioned this on her blog.  I would never have given it a second thought until I saw some of the changes that Ann had made.  Technically it calls for laceweight, but I believe I'll be able to get gauge with a fingering weight.  

Lots of things between here and there, though.  With spring comes some yard work and gardening.  Not my favorite thing to do, but we at least need to clean up the yard so we're not embarrassed when John and Lorette come to visit next month.  And, we've decided to try a small vegetable garden.  Just a trial to see if we can win out over the deer and rabbits.  I also need to finish the Auracania socks for my friend.  I went through my stash and just couldn't find anything I liked as well, so I've decided to finish them and toss them in the wash on cold water.  If they come out ok, I'll just give them to her with specific washing instructions.  Let the chips fall where they may!

When we got our new front loader washer, I was pretty sure I could not felt in it.  But, according to Kathy, you can.  Unfortunately, I found that out first hand, although unintentionally.  I washed all my handknit socks, as usual, and imagine my dismay when two pair came out felted!

The ones on the right are some pretty old socks from Mountain Colors Bearfoot.  No big loss – as you can see they've faded at different rates.  From the very first washing I might add.  But the ones on the left are brand new.  This was their very first washing!  They are out of Araucania.  And I loved them!  The socks didn't even have the good grace to shrink all over, but just widthwise, so there's no use taking them down to the granddaughters.  I checked the settings on the machine and the only difference is that I usually wash on warm/cold and the setting had been changed to warm/warm.  It's hard to believe it would make that much difference.  The 8 other pair in the wash are just fine.  So, I will not be using Araucania again, despite how luscious it is.  Problem is, I already have a pair started:

These are Nutkins (and yes, I did check that they are indeed Nutkins) and were destined as a birthday gift for a friend.  However, I can not in good conscience gift socks that might shrink, so I will be looking for another yarn for her.  These were a little larger than my size, but the pattern is pretty stretchy, so I will keep them for myself and hope for the best.  That does, however, leave me with a dilemma.  I currently have four projects started.  That is pretty much my limit for "knitting peace".  Do I start a new pair for her so that I will be sure and have them for her birthday in mid-April?  Probably so.  I can put the Nutkins aside and the Evenstar shawl knitting is pretty sporadic as the clues only come out every two weeks.  I'm almost done with the clue that came out Friday:

This is a nice project, although the charts are a little odd.  Nothing an experienced lace knitter can't decipher, but I think it's got the new lace knitters' knickers in a little bit of a twist.

I've started on Ivy's Christmas sweater.  I'm very excited about it.  Abby has expressed the desire this year to be surprised, so I will not be posting progress photos.  However, if you'd like to see it, pop on over to Ravelry and check it out on my project page.  Just don't be too specific in your comments, please.  If you're not on Ravelry and want to see, leave a comment and I'll email you a photo.

I've been spending a lot of time on spinning lately and I think all the practice is beginning to pay off:

This is Ashland Bay merino, Baltic blue, two ply.  It's about 20 wpi and the most even yarn I've made so far.  I messed up on the plying of the other 1/3 of it, so it doesn't match very well, so there's a not a huge amount that's usable.  I'm hoping they'll be enough for a pair of fingerless mitts.  However, I just finished plying another batch of the same fiber in the color Riverstone (brown, with hints of blue and yellow) that came out fabulous!  It's a 3 ply and still came out to 20 wpi (about a sport weight).  There was very little waste on this and I figure I have about 450-500 yards.  I think this will be destined for a nice cowl for the Christmas box.  I'll post a picture next week.  It's currently hanging on a towel rack in the bathroom drying.

One of the things hubby told me when I retired was that I would be so busy that I would wonder when I ever had time to work.  He is so right!  It seems that my days are so full and I don't get done half the things I'd like to!  I haven't even touched my scrapbooking and there's some hand quilting that I had hoped to get accomplished.  But, I also have to keep reminding myself I don't have to get everything done the first few months.  And I'm having lots and lots of fun.  Abby and the girls came down last Monday and spent the night.  I taught Abby how to use my old Bernina and she started working on curtains for the girls.  I may have just enabled another sewer.  I certainly hope so!

One last picture.  Saturday before last I met with our quilt group at church and we worked on American Hero quilts for returning soldiers.  I started this one and brought it home to finish:

We received a really nice letter from a nurse in Baghdad.  Apparently there were enough quilts at Madigan Army Hospital that they sent some to Iraq to use for the soldiers who were transferring out from combat to the hospital in Germany.  She said the soldiers who were conscious were so touched by the fact that someone they didn't know would make a quilt for them.  And for the ones who weren't aware, the nurses said it gave them such pleasure to wrap them in a little bit of home. 

When I received my paycheck for the two weeks I worked in February, I was torn about what to do with it.  I considered a fiber spree, but fiber seems so fleeting and I really wanted something permanent to remind me of the joy of retiring for good.  After some thought I decided to use part of it to buy a Woolee Winder for my spinning wheel.  I placed the order and prepared for a wait.  According to their website, due to a fire in the workshop they were backlogged on orders.  It could take up to eight weeks to receive my order.  Imagine my delight when, only about a week later, the package arrived on my doorstep today.  Since this replaces the flyer on my wheel and since the bobbins are not interchangeable, I had to quickly finish up some Ashland Bay Merino that was in progress.  That took me a little over an hour and I was ready to install the Woolee Winder.  It was a quite simple process of loosening one maiden, removing the old flyer and snapping in the new one.  I had another 4 oz. of Ashland Bay Merino, so I sat down and started spinning.

In the immortal words of Mei-Mei, "Oh. My. Goodness!"  I don't know if it was the winder or not, but all of a sudden I was spinning singles that were exactly what I dreamed of when I started spinning!  They are fine and even and, if I am not mistaken, when 3 plied will be about a sock weight.  Woo Hoo!!!  I'm a spinner.  Here's a photo of the winder and my first singles:

I love the way it winds the yarn smoothly, with no hills and valleys.  The bobbins are also a little larger and so will hold about 1/3 more yarn.  Here is a comparison shot:

Timing is everything, however, and I will not be able to play with it this weekend.  Tomorrow I'm meeting Abby at a fabric warehouse to help her pick out some fabric for curtains for the girls' room.  She's interested in starting to sew and that will be a great first project for her.  After that I'll go home with her and my sister will pick me up later in the day.  Sunday it's the opera (Falstaff).  On Monday Abby will bring me back home and spend the night here with the girls.  So I won't get to play with my new toy, but I will get some great time with Abby, my sister and the girls, so all is well!

As promised last week I have pictures of yarn to put up this week.  Those of you not interested in spinning might want to skip to the end of the post for other news, but I did want to show my progress.  Although I have posted a picture of my first skein, here is a recap for reference.  This is Icelandic wool from a sheep right here on Whidbey Island:

Not bad for a first effort, but plenty of room for improvement.  From there I went on to some Mystery Wool that was a retirement gift from my friend Christall (speaking of whom, we really need to get together and spin!):

Still not great, but getting better.  Next up was some Blue Faced Leicester (do they really have blue faces?) that my friend Lorette, the Knitting Doctor had sent me even before I had my wheel.  She was thrilled to enable another fiber addict:

This was the first skein that I didn't really struggle with.  Still a lot of thick and thin places, but eventually may find its way into a project.  The next skein was some Romney from a sheep named Rainbow (don't you love fiber from a source that has a name?), owned by my friend Lois here on the island:

This skein may get framed.  Although far from perfect, I felt the real joy of spinning with this one.  No struggle – the fiber just flowed through my fingers.  It felt a little rough as roving, but when washed bloomed into a very soft, lovely yarn.  This was my epiphany that I might actually make it as a spinner.  The pink Corriedale was ordered with a gift certificate from my kids for my retirement:

With this skein I learned that at least until I'm more experienced, I should spin a fiber from start to end and not try multiple projects for now.  This was interspersed between other projects and the end is so much better than the beginning!  So although it doesn't show in the photo, it's quite uneven.  Last up – Punta from Corgi Hill Farms that I bought way before I had my wheel:

I had been saving this fiber until I felt good enough to not ruin it!  I am quite pleased with this and I think will actually start looking around for a project.  I figure I should dive in and actually make something with the yarn I'm producing and this might actually be worthy.  The interesting thing about this skein is that although it is not as fine as some of my previous efforts, it is more consistent.  On some of skeins I had trouble figuring out the wpi's.  In some places lace, in others worsted!

From now on I'll try to post my spinning as it comes rather than inundate you with it all at one time.  Of course, with the Olympics lots of knitting has been accomplished as well.  Whistler is up to the body pattern:

As usual, Maggie feels that she needs to get in on the action.  Just a few more rows and I'll be into the three color rows again, which I am not looking forward to!  But bless Ravelry, on the Stranded group I got some good ideas and am anxious to see if they help. 

I finished the Monkey socks and they have been gifted to my friend Caroline to great appreciation:

These are the first hand knit socks she's ever had.  She was amazed at how well they fit and how comfortable they were.  Yarn is Lorna's Laces, size 0 needles.  Next up are socks for Kim.  I checked out Socks From the Toe Up from the library.  I'm going to try one of the patterns.  In looking at the book, I think it's one that I may want to add to my library.

I mentioned previously that I was considering making Nagano sweaters for the girls for Christmas.  However, when I looked at the pattern, the sizes start with child's sizes, not toddler (guess you've got to have a lot of room on the chest for dragons!).  Since Dale sweaters run huge, there is no way they would be able to wear them for years.  However, I trolled through my Dale books and found the perfect choices for them.  Yarn has been ordered and I'm anxious to start.  Want a little hint?  Ladybug, ladybug, fly away home!

It's finally over!  Since before I retired I knew I had these past two weeks hanging over my head.  I promised my co-worker I would work for her and was silently hoping they would not want me to come back!  But now it's done and final.  In some respects, going back was a good thing for two reasons:  1.  It reinforced how right my decision to retire was.  2.  It removed all feelings of guilt I might feel if they experience a crisis (as in the entire staff quitting) and want me to come back.  In all honesty, seeing how they are treating their employees gives me no reason whatsoever to feel any sense of obligation.  So, 'nuff said and on to happier things.

Perhaps it's the relief at being done, or the signs of an early spring, or the results of my healthier eating, but today was such a pleasant day!  Maggie and I got out for a long walk, I went to yoga and spent time knitting.  I finished up Clue #1 on Evenstar:

Attention for non-knitters – knitterly geekiness ahead; you might want to skip over.  This was my third attempt at this.  The first one didn't look too bad, but in reading the Ravelry board, it was brought to my attention that on the k7 out of 3, there were several ways of doing it.  My understanding was that the pattern said to do k1, p1 for 7 stitches.  But then some on the board said, no, it was k1, k1 through back loop for 7 stitches.  Well, I did it the first way first and it didn't look too bad.  But then I ripped because I thought it was wrong and might look better the other way.  But the k1, k1b was really ugly – as smooshed up.  In more discussion, the suggestion was made to do k1, yo for 7 stitches.  I tried that third and liked the resulting stars much better.  I also deviated from the pattern as suggested on the board by closing up the side petals with a k4 tog on the right side, but a ssssk on the left side.  Much more symmetrical.  I know all you non-knitters are yawning right now and saying, "HUH??"  This isn't the best picture in the world, but may be the best for quite some time.  It will be too bunched up on the needle to take any more quality pictures.

As I mentioned, we seem to be experiencing an early spring.  Although it's still getting a little frosty at night, the days have been in the 60's.  The trees are blooming and the crocuses (croci?) and daffodils are starting to bloom.  Spring here is usually pretty reliable and we don't often get slammed with late snowstorms or freezes once it starts.  The dark is receding too and that makes me happy.

I mentioned hubby's project last week and I'm happy to report it is all done.  Here are the before and after pictures:

Doesn't it look great?  He did a wonderful job.  It was a little challenging.  This is an owner built home (not by us!) and we've found over the years that not everything is level and square.  I had my doubts about the floors – I was afraid it would look cold, but the wood actually makes everything look warmer.  Maggie is not as entranced.  She's having to get used to new footing and can't run quite as fast.  That's probably a good thing because a few weeks ago she hurt her back by running so fast down the hall that she slammed into the closet door.

I hope to get back to more spinning this week.  In addition to having to work, I was also hampered by an injury.  I got a little too aggressive chopping onions and took off a chunk of my finger.  I chopped off the fingernail on my left finger about halfway down.  And yes, it was painful and icky as it sounds.  Surprisingly, it hasn't hurt to knit, but the bandage got in the way of spinning.  I promise – pictures next week!

So . . . I sat down this week to work on the Nutkin socks I am making for my friend.  Since I hadn't worked on them in a few weeks, I had occasion to refer back to the pattern.  Imagine my surprise when I realized I am not making Nutkins, but Monkeys.  Must have been a senior moment.  I have updated my Ravelry page accordingly.  One Monkey down, dog's nose added for scale:

And add another FO to the project page:

This is the Enchanted Wood shawl from the mystery KAL.  Yarn is Green Sheep Fingering in the Michigan Morning colorway, size 4 needles.  This was a fun KAL.  I have to admit to a little frustration having to wait for the clues, but the finished product is worth it.  I have found that I love adding beads to my knitting and will certainly look for more opportunities.  (I noticed that I labeled this picture Evenstar – wow, I really am having some senior moments).  I started Evenstar this morning, but I'm afraid progress pics will be few and far between.  It's a circular shawl and it's almost impossible to get good pictures.

In another show of knitterly fickleness, I have also changed my mind on Nagano.  Michele posted pictures of her Whistler sweater and I fell in love with a passion that is unseemly for a knitted garment!  I had looked at this year's Whistler sweater and was not impressed.  I love this one so much and was able to snag the last copy at our local yarn shop.  Here's my progress so far – cast on and worked on during the opening ceremonies:

The grey you see there is Knit Pick's Squirrel Heather and I do like the contrast.  This will end up in the shoulder area.  Of course, after I cast on, I looked at the pattern a little more closely and imagine my dismay to realize that some rows require carrying three colors.  I have sent Michele a message asking if she will hold my hand through this.  She lives close by, so maybe we can even meet up for some knitting therapy.  Never fear that thoughts of Nagano have been abandoned entirely.  I got to thinking that two little girls would probably love dragon sweaters for Christmas.

Speaking of little girls – this exchange was heard between Isobel and her mom lately:

Isobel:  What are you doing?

Mom:  Taking care of the trash.

Isobel:  Why are you taking care of the trash?

Mom:  Because it's full.

Isobel:  Why is it full?

Mom:  Because we put things in it.

Isobel:  Why do we put things in it?

Mom:  Why do you ask so many questions?

Isobel:  I don't know.  Because there are so many.

Ah – the world through a child's eyes.  This weekend hubby, in the spirit of Valentine's Day is embarking on a home improvement project.  We have decided to rip out all the carpet in our house (except for the bedrooms) and put down laminate wood flooring.  He did this in Allen's apartment and it came out so nicely, we made the leap.  Too late to turn back now:

As usual, Maggie feels she must help.  What am I giving him for Valentine's Day you might ask?  My cold.  Who says romance is dead.

Oh, and you also might ask how work is coming along.  Don't ask.  Just let it suffice to say that three days next week and it is over.  There is absolutely nothing they could use to entice me back!

No, don't panic – it's not permanent!  Shortly before I retired, my replacement found out that her mother in England has cancer.  Since her replacement was pretty inexperienced, it would be hard for her to get away to visit her.  So, I told her that I would come back and sub for her so she could go for a visit.  She'll be gone for two weeks, but I may not have to work every day.  The schedule is pretty dead (hmmm?) so we'll just take each day as it comes.  But I'm hoping to make at least a bit of money for fiber enhancement!  That will be the consolation prize because I'm not really looking forward to it.  Here's hoping it will pass quickly.  It's going to be interesting because I was told they are having computer problems and the computer guy is taking an extended vacation.  If they do run into problems, I'm going to just tell them I'm taking off and to call me when they have it fixed!

Spoiler alert for Enchanted Wood;

I finished clue #4:

The gradience is quite interesting.  I'm not sure I would do it again, although I will have enough left over for a small project.  There's more striping in the transition from blue to pink than I like, but overall, I'm happy.  The beads really add a lot and I'm sure more beading will be in my future.

I got the yarn for my next KAL – the Lord of the Rings "Evenstar" shawl.  I got Eos from Unique Sheep in the Moonstone colorway.  The dyer contacted me and asked if I wanted the color "pushed" toward purple to match the cloak that Arwen wears in the movie.  I told her yes, as long as the yarn is not lavender:

I was little disappointed when I opened the package, because it sure looks lavender to me, although nowhere near as lavender as it looks in the picture.  But the more I look at it, the more I like it.  You can't see in the picture, but it has lovely silvery heathering throughout.  I think it's going to be beautiful and I love knitting with a 50/50 silk/wool mix.

Nagano is coming along, but I need some advice.  I am ready to start the top pattern.  I'm using the yarn from the Lusekofte kit I bought and was hoping to just use the colors that came with it.  However, I'm not too sure about how it's going to look:

I had planned on having the yarn on the left as the lower border with the aqua as accent.  But I'm not sure there's enough contrast.  I don't want to use the aqua as the border because there's too much contrast.  What I'd really like to use is a light/medium grey, but Telemark doesn't come in that color.  If I went that route, would there be a substitute?  Or should I go with my original plans?  All advice is welcome.

This past week has been a new beginning for me.  I was debating about posting it, because I was afraid if I failed, I would have to admit it!  But I have started on the Prism program.  It's billed as a weight loss program, but that's not the primary reason I have started, although I could certainly benefit from shedding a few pounds.  I just need to learn how to eat healthier.  I know I have a horrible sugar habit and it just seems so much easier to reach for cookies and crackers rather than healthy food.  This program emphasizes whole foods as close to nature as possible.  The first part is a little restrictive in order to break your dependence on some "habit" foods, but eases up as you learn to eat better.  The first few days without sugar I had a terrible headache.  But I'm feeling a lot better and I really hope I can learn to keep sugar out of my diet. 

Yesterday I spent a lovely day with friends at the Cottage Hobby House in Anacortes.  It's a lovely little cottage that has been set up for sewers and other crafters.  Lots of space, wonderful light, ironing boards and irons, cutting tables and rulers, plus a little kitchenette.  Just within walking distance (or a short drive) of two fabric stores and a yarn shop.  We spent almost 12 hours laughing, eating, sewing, eating, visiting, eating – well, you get the picture:

During the day, one of my friends admitted to an embarassing number of UFO's (Unfinished Objects).  At first I felt a little self-righteous because I don't have anywhere near that number.  But then I realized that given the number I DO have, I have no reason to feel superior. So, I am declaring this year the year of UFO's.  I am going to commit to working on and finishing a number of them.  No real goals as to specifics, but a determination to visit some things that have been hibernating way too long.  Most of these are quilts, and many of them are quilt tops that just need to be quilted.  I've always been a hand quilter, but I'm taking a machine quilting class in February in hopes that I can at least tolerate it and get some of these tops done.

First up (simply because it was on top of the stack) – the Snowman Quilt:

I just have a few more small filler blocks to embroider and then it will be ready to piece.  Since most of the blocks are pre-quilted, this will be easy to machine quilt with just straight lines.

Never fear, though, that knitting will take a back seat.  Evenings are still my knitting times and I've gotten quite a bit accomplished.  I finished the second clue on the Enchanted Wood shawl:

I'm not entirely sure if I'm in love with the gradience – it looks a little sharper to me in person.  But I love the way the beads are coming out – they look like dew drops on the trees:

And I'm up to the plain knitting portion of Nagano:

Last Saturday we spent a Girls' Day Out with Abby.  We poked around the antique shops in Snohomish, visited Uajimaya – a big Asian supermarket.  I think Abby was in heaven and piled her cart high with things that she can't get at American supermarkets.  Some of it looked pretty tasty, but I think I'll pass on the dried squid (sorry, Abby, but that's just more for you!).  To cap off the day we took her to the Crab Pot in Bellevue.  The dinner she and I chose consists of crab legs, mussels, oysters, clams, fish, potatoes and corn on the cob in a big pot that they dump on your table.  Yummm!!

Believe me, there wasn't much left when we were done.

They say that it's a woman's perogative to change her mind.  If that woman is a knitter, it must go double!  Since my last post, several plans have changed.

First up is socks.  I started the Lacy Scallops, and as is often the case with my small, skinny feet, it was apparent from the get-go that these socks were just not going to work.  They were immediately frogged and I searched around for another pattern.  After auditioning a bunch, I settled on a tried and true.  Marguerite's basket weave ribbing socks.  Marguerite's socks are simple and well fitting.  And even though I have a lot of patterns in my personal sock-of-the-month-club, if they are not well fitting, they will not be knitted up.  So there!  Just a day or so after starting them, I was on a fabric shopping outing with my Round Robin group.  I was mentioning my sock knitting venture for the year and there were strong hints given that some of those socks could be gifted for birthdays.  These are probably the only three people on the face of the planet that I would knit for besides my immediate family, so I took the hint to heart.  The first recipient, Caroline, has a birthday coming up in February.  The socks I had already started won't fit her, so I started a new pair.  The yarn I chose has limited colors, but because the color runs are short, still reads as very busy.  I was a little frustrated trying to find something that the colors won't overwhelm until I remembered Nutkin.  It seems to bear up well under busy patterns, but is still rather impressive and fun to knit.  So – on the left, the basket weave socks and on the right Nutkin:

The basketweave socks are in Koigu PPM and the Nutkins are in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock.

Next up – Lusekofte.  I sat down to read the pattern and it is so convoluted!  I had expected that this would be patterned after an historical Norwegian knit, but I should have read closer.  It appears Knit Pick's aim is to take historical patterns and "update" them to make them more wearable.  I don't think this has been an improvement.  I started making note of all the changes I would make to the pattern, when it occurred to me I might as well change direction.  I dug out all of my Dale books and found one that makes my heart go pitter patter (whether in happiness, or trepidation, I'm not sure).  Nagano.  I've had this in my library forever and have occasionally taken it out and dreamed over it.  So now is the time.  Although, in looking at the charting, perhaps I should have my head examined!

But I have made progress – see?

This is my second attempt.  On the first attempt, I cast on for a Small.  My mind just couldn't wrap itself around the concept that I'm anything smaller, so I completely ignored the actual measurements.  It soon became apparent that Small is actually Huge.  So I frogged and am now making an XS.  I like their sizing – it's very flattering.

Last weekend Abby brought the girls up on Sunday because Ben had to work.  They went to church with us and it turned into quite an adventure.  Right in the middle of the sermon Mei-Mei looked up at me and said, "I'm going to scream!"  And she did.  It was just a quick, high pitched squeal, but it was enough to get everyone's (including the pastor's) attention.  Good thing she's so cute.  And speaking of cute:

Busy week this week – but haven't I said that before?  I keep waiting for things to slow down, but I'm not holding my breath.  I just have to keep reminding myself everything doesn't have to be done the first month of retirement.  Yesterday I was sitting down in the middle of the day knitting and trying to quell the feelings of guilt.  It seemed so decadent.  But I had to remind myself I'm making great headway on my organizing goals, fixing hubby a good home cooked meal every day and pretty much keeping up with all my other responsibilities.  I'm sure the feelings of guilt will go away very, very soon!

As much as it's fun to spin with hundreds of spinners, it's also a boatload of fun to spin with just one.  This past weekend, hubby, Maggie and I headed down to Lorette's.  We were a little worried about how Maggie would get along with the dogs, but after a little posturing between Maggie and Riley over who was the alpha female, they got along just fine.  Riley and Maggie agreed to co-share the alpha bitch status and pretty much ignored each other.  Lewey, the only male, seemed a little befuddled and, like a typical male, was a little confused over how to win Maggie's heart.  He alternated between completely ignoring her and trying to knock her over.  Toward the end of the weekend, they were starting to play a little and I think given another day or two would have been chasing each other all over the house.  While the hubsters solved the weighty problems of the world (how does this label maker work??):

Lorette and I happily spun away.  I'm not sure if we look happy or a little insane:

I suppose it depends on who you ask.  John and Bill might have voted for the latter.  And, just for the record, chocolate martinis do not seem to have a detrimental effect on my spinning.  I have a few new bobbins spun up of a beautiful Romney from a local sheep named Rainbow.  It's such lovely fiber and it almost spins itself.  No pictures because I've been struggling with dark gloomy days – maybe next week.  I plan on having two bobbins spun up to take to the local spinning group for help with plying.  I think I'm going to splurge on a tensioned lazy kate.  My last two plying experiences were pretty miserable.

I do have my first finished FO of the year:

These are a generic top-down sock with a YO cable from Charlene Schurch's book.  The yarn is Araucania Ranco.  This is a lovely, lovely yarn – so smooth and squishy.  I decided to take some advice from the Yarn Harlot this year.  I have her page-a-day calendar and in it she suggested that rather than joining an expensive sock club, you make your own. Go through your sock stash and pick out 12 skeins of yarn (I KNOW we all have at least that much, or more!).  Pair it with 12 patterns you've been planning to knit and Voila!  Your own sock club.  Throw them in Ziploc bags and each month pull out a new one.  I now have 12 bags ready to go.  My plan is to close my eyes and pull out at random.  Next up will be Lacy Scallops socks using some Koigu PPM that's been in my stash since the Dark Ages.  That pattern has also been in my queue since then, so it's nice to finally pair them up.

I also finished the first clue in the Enchanted Wood Mystery Shawl.  WARNING:  Spoiler picture ahead:

Forgive the crappy picture – grey gloomy days are not providing much love for photographs and the flash washed it out.  So far this is proving to be fun.  So much so, that I am joining another Mystery Shawl KAL – this one the Evenstar Mystery Shawl KAL.  I figure since I'll be waiting for clues to come out, I can justify two shawls going at the same time.

Also in the mail this week – a box full o' yarn:

This will be the Knitpicks Norwegian Lusekofte sweater – for me!  My original intention was to do this for the Ravelympics – you know, the insanity where you commit to complete a project during the Olympics.  But the more I thought about it, the more I discarded that idea.  Retirement is all about lack of stress and the last thing I need to do is to stress myself out over knitting.  I may start on that tonight.

As I mentioned there are lots of grey, rainy, gloomy days here in the Pacific Northwest.  But I can't possibly complain.  I have an intact roof over my head, warmth, plenty of food and water and plenty of productive things to entertain me.  My heart is breaking for the people in Haiti.  If you haven't already, please donate to the organization of your choice.  Ours is the Red Cross, but Doctors Without Borders, World Vision and dozens of others are great ones as well.

Yesterday I went with a friend to a St.Distaff's Day spin-in.  There were probably about 150-200 spinners there and just about as many varieties of fiber.  It was complete sensory overload!  So much so, that although I took my camera, I didn't take  a single picture.  I was probably saved by the fact that most of the vendors were small and didn't take credit cards, so I had to stick to the cash I had on hand – probably a good idea in any situation.  But I did come home with some goodies:

Alpaca/silk and every bit as yummy as it looks.  This will definitely wait until my spinning skills improve a little.  I also bought a pretty little zebra wood wraps-per-inch measure:

I did get some very positive encouragement from fellow spinners who told me my first efforts were looking quite good.  Since coming home I plied my second skein.  This plying effort just about kicked my butt, with tangling and backspinning, but I learned a lot and by the last 1/4 of the skein was doing much, much better.  It is drying now and I'll post pictures later.

I also came home to some packages in the mail.  Ben & Abby gave me a gift certificate to Paradise Fibers. I was a little overwhelmed at all the choices on the website, but finally just dived in and made my choices.  They have terrific customer service.  I ordered on Thursday and the package arrived on Saturday, and that included a holiday in between!

The two fibers on the left are variegated Merino top, the pink is Louet Corriedale.  Thank you Ben & Abby!   I think I am all set for fiber for a good long time now and will probably save up my fiber money for the big spin-in that is here on Whidbey Island in April.  Well, except for some Romney that I may buy from my friend here who raises sheep.  How can you resist fiber from a sheep named Rainbow?

Lest you think knitting has totally taken a backseat, I have been knitting and blocking lace.  First off, the Creideamh Shawl is finished:

This is a big shawl – so big I can't get it all in the picture.  Stats:  Creideamh Shawl by Renee Leverington.  Yarn, Miss Babs Yearning in Sandstone, Knitpicks Harmony needles – size 4.

Also finished and blocked – Sue's Swallowtail Shawl:

Stats:  Swallowtail Shawl by Evelyn Clarke, yarn – mystery lace yarn from my stash, needles Knitpicks Harmony, size 3.

And, a new pair of socks started with some beautiful teal Araucania Ranco:

And a Happy Anniversary to my parents who celebrated their 62nd (is that right Mom & Dad??) anniversary yesterday.  What a blessing it was to grow up with parents who showed me what a marriage should be.  I never saw them treat each other with anything but love, kindness and respect.  I'm sure they must have had their struggles like the rest of us, but after 62 years, theirs is still a love story.  Love you guys!!  Edited to add:  My Dad informs me it's 63 years!  I made the error of doing my math using 2009.  Yes, it is 2010 now – wow!

Breaking news – I have made yarn:

This is my first official skein of yarn.  The fiber was given to me by the owner of the shop where I bought my Traveler.  She referred to it as Icelandic wool and said it is from a sheep on Whidbey Island.  Local yarn, no less!  I am quite proud of it.  It's a little bumpy and thick and thin, but that's to be expected for my first try.  And not all of the bumps are totally due to my inexpertise.  The fiber actually had some slubs in it, so there was no getting around them.  They do tend to hide my little glitches, though.

This is my second go around and I think I am actually getting a little better:

Not sure what this will end up, but it seems to be at least a fingering weight single (possibly finer in sections).  I'm looking forward to a great time this Saturday when I go to my first spinning get together with my wheel.  My friend is picking me up for a St. Distaff's Day spin-in.  It should be lots of fun.

In other fibery news – I finished both the Nutkins and a Flower Basket scarf:

The Nutkins were given to my sister for Christmas and the scarf to my best friend.  I also finished Sue's Swallowtail Shawl, but it still needs blocking.  This now leaves me with only two projects on the needle, the Reversing Tide scarf and the Creideamh Shawl.  The shawl is getting very close to being done.  See?

Yes, lace knitting is indeed a leap of faith.  Without any way to spread out my work and check it I'm assuming that since each successive row lines up with the one before, I'm good.  It's always worked before and I am confident it will this time.  If all goes well, I hope to complete this before I start the mystery KAL on January 10th.  Retirement has indeed made me more productive!!

This was the first Christmas with the whole family nearby and it was as wonderful as we hoped.  The girls were very excited, but also very grateful for the gifts they received.  One of their favorites was a dress-up box that my sister (with a little help from me) put together.  Two lovely ladies ready to go shopping:

Robes sewn for them by Nana.  And I have to share this picture that hubby took at my retirement party:

Could that not be a Christmas card?  However, don't let the angelic expression fool you:

After Christmas I went home with my sister for my birthday treat.  We spent a fun day ice skating, dining out, shopping and a movie (Avatar – a wonderful, magical treat).   I haven't been ice skating in probably 30 years and I managed not to break my 60-year-old neck!

Hope that everyone has a safe and enjoyable New Year.  We're meeting the kids for a daytime party at the Children's Museum, early dinner and home by 8:00.  We always have been real party animals.  Happy New Year everyone!

I have the first week of retirement under my belt and am ready to determine it all good!  I do have to admit to a little disorientation.  Hubby and I kept thinking every day was the weekend!  We would get ready to do things that we normally do on Friday or Saturday and then realize that it was the middle of the week!  If that's the only downside, I think we can get used to it fairly quickly.

Where to begin?  How about at the beginning?  Saturday was a big retirement/birthday party for me at the original doc's house.  I was so humbled by the amazing outpouring of love and appreciation.  There were about 20 people there, including former employees and my favorite former doc, who attended via webcam.  Ben & Abby and the girls and my sister were there and it was an absolutely wonderful night.  Some of the gifts were even fibery – here's Isobel trying to cop my wool:

And two dozen beautiful pink roses – one for each year:

The week started off with lots and lots to do.  I think everyone is right – whenever did I find time to work??  There was Christmas sewing to do (pictures after Christmas) and even a little leisure time visiting some knitting projects.  I started Sue's Swallowtail shawl and made decent progress – I've finished the body and started the first Lily of the Valley border:

Notice the little dog nose.  Maggie thinks she needs to be included in everything.  I decided I needed to get this done before starting the Enchanted Wood Mystery Shawl in January.  And, spurred on by Kris, I started a pair of Nutkin socks.

This is a fun little pattern.  I'm not ready to do multiple pairs, but am enjoying the process.  Work also continues on a Reversing Tide scarf. 

This is a great, almost mindless pattern – very easy to memorize.  The scarf is reversible, but has a different pattern on each side.  The yarn is a lovely handpainted merino that came in one of my Embrace the Lace shipments.  It was intended for knee socks, so the yardage is substantial.  I just couldn't see this as knee socks, but it's making a beautiful scarf (maybe two!).

This weekend was busy with granddaughterly doings.  We met the family at Warm Beach Camp for the Lights of Christmas.  The whole camp is decorated with millions of Christmas lights.  And, of course, the obligatory visit with Santa:

The girls really enjoyed it and we took them home with us for a sleep over, giving Ben & Abby a few childless hours.  The next day we took them home, dumped them off and then went on a Christmas dinner cruise, given to us by the new doc and his wife as a retirement present.

By the end of the day we were exhausted!  Definitely a surplus of excitement, if there can be such a thing.  Today will be a relaxing day.  After church I will be playing with my new toy.  Oh, didn't I mention??  Friday I took delivery of this – some assembly required:

After two hours, this is the result:

It's an Ashford Traveller.  After much research I felt that I couldn't go wrong with an Ashford.  On Thursday I attended a local spinning group and was welcomed with open arms.  I think the ladies were really excited at getting their hands on a newbie!  They've set me up with workshops, spin-ins and offered to give me all the guidance and lessons I could possibly use.  Oh my – when did I have time to work???

I hope all of you have a very blessed Christmas.  This year, especially, we are counting our blessings.  We are so grateful for the good health and prosperity that God has given us, along with the blessings of a family that is near and time to enjoy them.  But most of all we are grateful for the gift of God's Son sent to us.  May His peace be with all of you.  Merry Christmas!

It's hard to believe that the day has finally come!  This whole week has been a little surreal and yesterday was no exception.  I have to admit the last day was wonderful.  In some respects it was business as usual.  There were still patients to be greeted, insurance problems to be solved and personnel issues to be discussed.  But throughout it all was the constant thought that this time would be the last time that I did each of these tasks.  The day started off very nicely with a desk piled high with cards and a dozen red roses from the original doc and his wife:

The new doc took us all out to lunch to celebrate my and the original doc's birthday (we share the same birthday, but I'm a year older than he is).  I thought I was going to be able to hold it all together until about the last hour.  The original doc's wife came by to bid me farewell and tell me how much my being office manager has meant to them.  Her husband gave me a touching card telling me that I am one of the most competent people he's ever known (high praise in my book!).  Then the doc who just sold the practice called from California.  He told me how much my being his office manager had meant to him.  He said that for 10 years I had kept him organized at work and was truly his "work wife" (our little joke).  He said that he and his real wife were so grateful for how easy I had made his life. 

The interesting thing is that through all of this the new doc remained strangely silent.  Although he took us out to lunch, he does that for every employee on his or her birthday.  He never said a personal word of congratulations or thanks to me.  But this was perfectly ok as it confirmed that I was making the right choice – as if there was any doubt!

Last night I had a defining moment.  I usually wake up in the middle of the night and have a hard time falling back to sleep because my mind is racing with worries and concerns about work.  Last night I woke up and in that half asleep/half awake state I visualized a bunch of folders.  The largest one was labeled "Work".  I opened it up and it was empty!  So I rolled over and went back to sleep.

My random number generator (hubby) picked a number and the winner of the Swallowtail Shawl is Sue – Cody Country Knitter.  Congratulations Sue!  I have already been in contact with her and she wants a white shawl.  Perfect in my opinion.

And now let the party begin:

It's really getting close now – only 4 more working days until retirement.  There were a few days this past week when I wasn't so sure it was going to happen, though.  We promoted from within to fill my position and then hired a new person.  This past week she was admitted to the hospital with suspected appendicitis.  She is still in the hospital, though, while the doctors try to figure out exactly what is going on.  As she said, "They've ruled a lot of things out, but nothing in."  This created a real dilemma for me.  Our front office is basically a two-woman operation.  Could I really go off and leave the other one in the lurch?  Thankfully, my problem solving skills kicked into overdrive.  We are entering a very slow season and the schedule is pretty empty, necessitating having dental assistants take unscheduled time off.  This next week I will pull one of the assistants up front and do a crash course on front office skills.  Everyone is happy.  The dental assistant is happy because she doesn't have to take time off, the other lady is happy at not having to run the office by herself, the new girl is happy because her job is being held for her and I'm downright giddy that I get to retire in 4 (count 'em!) days!!

A really bright spot in the past week has been some intense fiber enhancement.  The Friday after Thanksgiving saw the arrival of two packages.  The first contained my new Embrace the Lace shipment.  It has the softest camel colored wool along with a cute pattern for a matching cowl and fingerless mitts.  

I had momentary thoughts of diving in and knitting these for a Christmas present, but therein lies madness.  I squelched that thought pretty quickly and will address that pattern when I have more time.

The other package was a beginning spindling kit.  Hmmm – was it just a few months ago that I said I wasn't going to take up spinning?  As Lorette says, "Never say never!"  I seem to have become slightly obsessed with the idea of spinning.  I started with the spindle and have managed to spin some incredibly crappy yarn:

I will still keep playing around with it, but this has convinced me that I want a wheel.  I've spent hours poring over the internet, reading Ravelry groups and different articles.  Double drive vs. single drive, single treadle, double treadle, finished or unfinished, Lendrum, Kromski or Ashford?  It seems the more I read, the more confused I get.  However, our LYS sells Ashfords and I stopped in yesterday to talk to the owner.  I have an appointment today to go and try out a Traveller.  I think I'm leaning in that direction simply because she's local and will give free lessons.  She's also available for advice and coaching.  Living in a slightly remote area as we do I'm thinking that is a clear advantage.  In addition, I've been invited to join a spinning group that meets here locally every week, even if I do not yet have a wheel.  Regardless, the actually purchase will have to wait until after Christmas.  I don't need any distractions between now and then.  However, I have already begun buying fiber!  This lovely roving from Corgi Hills Farm just arrived on my doorstop:

This had to be the best customer service ever.  I ordered it and seriously – within 10 minutes I had notice that it had shipped.  Was the postman waiting on her doorstep?  I had it within just a few days and she included some beautiful samples as well.   This is so beautiful that it is going to have to wait until I hone my skills a little bit.

Another package arrived a few days after the first two.  I was a little puzzled because I didn't remember ordering anything else.  Turns out this is a Mystery Shawl group I had joined several months ago.  The mystery begins in January and they were holding off on shipping the yarn until November.  I had completely forgotten about it!  This is the Enchanted Wood Lace Shawl Knitalong.  The yarn comes in gradations and you use them in order (forward or backward doesn't matter as long as you use them in order).  I've never done a mystery shawl and I think it will be great fun.

Oh, and knitting peace?  I think I may have somewhat achieved it.  I am down to three projects, as long as you don't count the Dale sweater that has been hibernating for several years.  I have one lace shawl, a pair of socks and a scarf:

The scarf is for the Red Scarf project.  Not sure if I'll finish it before the deadline of December 15th, but if not I'll save it for next year.  Of course, knitting on it is such a pleasure since hubby gave me my Christmas present early:

Dog added for scale. It's a Varilux light and I love it!  No eye strain and it has a perfect little shelf for all of my knitting doo-dads. 

Well, off for a busy day.  I seem to have done something to my serger so I have to run it down to the south of the island for repair.  It will be a nice road trip for me and Maggie. 

Late breaking news – I came home from our road trip to find this in my mailbox:

I'm pretty sure I have The Knitting Doctor to thank.  Thanks Lorette!

We have so many things for which to be thankful this year.  Yesterday we went down to Snohomish and spent our first Thanksgiving ever with our biggest blessings:

Abby cooked her first Thanksgiving dinner and it was wonderful.  It was probably one of the most relaxed Thanksgivings I've had in a long time.  I didn't have to do a thing!

I was also able to deliver some knitted goodies to her.  Her cable and rib jacket was all finished, including the zipper, and I'm happy to report it fit her perfectly:

I also delivered her Coriolis birthday socks:

They turned out just a little large for her, especially in the heel, but I think they'll suffice for keeping her toes toasty on these damp, cool Pacific Northwest winter mornings.

I especially want to give thanks this year for my mother-in-law, Ruth.

Despite some very difficult odds, she managed to raise a wonderful, caring son (along with 4 other wonderful children).  She's been a kind, compassionate mother-in-law to me for over 37 years.  On Thanksgiving day she suffered  a heart attack.  At first they didn't think the damage was too great, but further tests showed significant damage to her heart.  She has been declining rapidly over the past few months and her doctor has recommended that she begin receiving hospice care.  She's still in the hospital, but the hope is that in the next few days she'll be able to return to the adult care home that she's been living in for the past few years.  They are set up to care for her there and it will be a familiar place to her.  We are all praying for peace and a comfortable, pain-free situation for her as she enters into the last days of her life.

One of the things I’ve been coming to terms with the past
couple of weeks is letting go.  I
suppose everyone who has worked at a job for as long as I have (over 24 years)
feels a certain sense of ownership. 
In my case it was strengthened by the fact that the original doc and I
literally opened the doors together. 
I was with him the first day he started seeing patients in this
office.  I’ve seen the practice
grow from only having about 20 patients to having over 3,000.  During that time I’ve been given a great
deal of say in how the practice has been developed and have had a great deal of
responsibility.  When the practice
sold 10 years ago, the new doc was even more accepting of my involvement and
made me feel like a real partner.

With the new ownership all of that has changed.  It’s probably fortuitous that my plans
for retirement have coincided with the change.  I’m not sure I could have stayed on otherwise.  But I’m also having to grasp the fact
that the practice I’m leaving is not the practice I’ve spent 24 years building
up.  That’s really hard, but I
think I’m coming to accept it.  I
have to, because I can’t change it. 
But accepting it is making my last few days a little easier.  I’m teaching as much as I can, but what
the new ownership has the employees do with that is their decision and one that
the practice will have to live with. 
I can leave with my head held high knowing that I did all I could to
make the practice successful.

I’m now looking forward to a whole new chapter of my
life.  My emphasis will be totally
altered – from business/medical oriented to an opportunity to indulge in
artistic endeavors.  I’m looking
forward to concentrating more on my quilting.  I have a competition quilt that I would like to finish in
2010, along with an embroidered quilt for Abby.  Quilts for the girls’ bedroom are on the agenda and I would
like to be more proactive in either altering knitting patterns to suit me more
or designing my own.  I hope to
have more time to exercise and do yoga. 
Maggie and I have started agility training and I look forward to the day
when we can compete.  I’d like to
take up some new interests – improve my photography skills and learn to use my
camera and maybe even eventually dabble in spinning.  And of course, continue on with my scrapbooking.  Whew!  I’m exhausted just thinking about all of the possibilities.

A lot of people have asked how we can afford to retire so
“young”.  I’ll get on my soapbox a
little, but bear with me and there will be a payoff at the end – I
promise.  A lot of that has to do
with my husband’s defined pension plan. 
He was offered a cash bonus for early retirement at age 55 and jumped at
it.  But we wouldn’t have even been
able to afford that if we hadn’t run across Mary Hunt many years ago.  Mary has a website called
debtproofliving.com.  I highly
recommend it.  Her philosophy is to
give away 10% of your income, save 10% and live on 80%.  She calls this “living below your
means”.  The central tool in all of
this is to carry no debt.   We
began living that lifestyle.  We
used our credit card so we could earn air miles, but we paid it off every
month.  We made it a goal to pay
off all of our debts except our mortgage (and we’re working on paying that off
early) and not to go into new debt for anything.  If we couldn’t afford it, we did without or waited until we
had the money. 

You might think this would cramp our lifestyle, but in
contrast we felt very liberated. 
When you jump off the great American consumer machine you feel such
freedom.  You no longer have to
“have it all”.  I like Mary’s
quote, “Because I live frugally doesn’t mean I don’t spend
money. It means I spend money thoughtfully and with a sense of discipline and
purpose. As my life is blessed and my income increases, 80 percent increases as
well.”  We’ve learned to manage our
money instead of letting it manage us.   When the recession came and we watched our investments
tumble, we felt a little concern, but not panic.  In fact, we’ve decided to live off hubby’s retirement and
leave mine to sit for a few years and gain back some of the losses.  One of the biggest impacts on our life
with being debt free is that we have choices.   We choose where our money will go, knowing that it is
not a bottomless well!  When your
money is going to pay high interest rates on credit cards, you can’t
choose.  The bank or credit card
company chooses for you.  And as of
now, they can choose to jack up your interest rate at any time and for any
reason!  That is bondage!!

Ok, so I told you that if you managed to
wade through my lecture (and a post with no knitting content and no pictures),
there would be a payoff at the end. 
To celebrate my retirement, I’ve decided to do my very first giveaway!  Leave me a comment and you’ll go into a
drawing for a Swallowtail Shawl, made in your choice of color.  All comments made from now until my
retirement date of December 10^th are eligible (except in all
fairness I probably have to disqualify any family members – but they can
contact me and I’ll do a shawl for them anyway!).   Each comment will be numbered and I will use a random
number generator to choose.  Just
be forewarned that the knitting will have to wait until January.  I plan on spending the first three
weeks of my retirement relaxing and playing with my granddaughters!

One of the first things I'm going to do when I retire is get myself organized!  Remember you heard it here first and you can laugh at me later.  I decided my goal for this weekend was to finally seam two sweaters that had been languishing in a basket by my bedside for way too long.  At least I thought they were languishing in the basket by my bedside.  I decided to tackle Abby's Cable and Rib Jacket first.  Only problem was – I couldn't find it!  How can you lose a project like that along with about 10 remaining skeins of yarn??  I realize that with everyone living here for two months things were pretty unorganized, but it's a small house.  How far could it have gone?  After about a half hour of searching I found it and successfully finished it except for the zipper:

I had to special order the zipper, but with any luck it will come this week and I can take it to Abby on Thanksgiving.  Speaking of Thanksgiving, Abby is doing her first official family Thanksgiving dinner this year and her menu sounds delish!

Saturday I finished up hubby's Torgeir:

Sorry for the crappy picture, but daylight is in scant supply here and the flash washes out the details.  One of the first things I'm doing when I retire is take a photography class.

The sleeves came out a little longer than I had expected – one of the downfalls of a dropped shoulder.  But all in all he seems to be pleased and I'm very pleased to have two projects checked off my list.  In discussion with Marguerite, I am seriously revisiting the idea of only having 3 (or maybe 4) projects going at a time.  Ok, you can stop laughing now.  We call it "Knitting Peace" and I do want to have more discipline in my projects.  I'm thinking that a shawl, a pair of socks and a sweater would give me enough variety to keep my brain stimulated.  The only reason that I would throw a 4th in would be if the other three were not good traveling projects.  Gotta have a traveling project for those trips down to Snohomish.

And, speaking of trips – we popped down to see the kids over the weekend.  Ben needed hubby's help with a project and Abby and I took the girls over to see my sister.  We also wanted to take Maggie down to see how she would fare with the other dogs in a different environment.  She's definitely an alpha female and we didn't know if she would try to assert her dominance on their dogs' territory.  Turns out she did fine – the only scuffle was when she and their dog went after a toy at the same time.

We had a great time at agility tonight and the trainer gave me some tips on handling Maggie's aggressiveness.  She explained that Maggie is indeed an alpha bitch and she considers it her job to keep all the other dogs in line – however she does it by aggression.  We have tried controlling it with positive reinforcement, but it just hasn't worked, so the handler suggested some negative reinforcement – every time she got aggressive I was to grab her collar and shake her while yelling "No!" That's just what she needed.  After just three times she calmed down and coexisted peacefully for the rest of the evening.  I guess she just needed to know I was more alpha than she was!  Just don't call me a bitch!

It is amazingly quiet here!  No toys to trip over.  No baby locks to struggle with when I try to get in a cabinet.  I can leave my knitting lying on a table and it's still there (and on the needles) when I return.  I don't have to worry about my hot coffee sitting on the edge of a table.  However, there also are no little voices calling, "Nana! Nana" first thing in the morning and no hugs and kisses to greet me when I get up.  But those hugs and kisses are only an hour and a half away.  I'm not saying that the past two months have slightly fried my brain, but when I was getting laundry out of the linen closet today, I found a cup of coffee in there!  I don't know how long it's been in there, but I'm thinking weeks.  I know it was mine because I'm the only one in the household who takes cream!

Ben & Abby finally moved into their house last weekend.  We kept the girls for the weekend while they got things organized.  Since we had the girls for Halloween, we took them trick or treating.  A local church had a great festival and even had a professional photographer doing free photos:

On the way down to deliver the girls to their new home I told Isobel that we were going to their new house.  I told her that she would be living there with Mommy and Daddy, but that Nana and Yeh-Yeh could come visit her often.  She said, "And you can watch me grow up!"  I got a little teary eyed at that one.  Out of the mouths of babes!  Poor Ivy was so sad, she cried all the way down.  Not screaming, just quietly sobbing.  I think she was tired and missing her parents.  When we drove up to the house and she saw Abby, she was SO happy.  And when she walked into the house and saw all of her familiar toys, she was grinning from ear to ear. 

So life is settling back to normal.  We are enjoying the peace and quiet so much.  I have begun knitting again and have started two new projects:

These will be Abby's birthday socks – she chose Coriolis.  I think it's a good choice – she wanted something fairly plain, but I wanted something interesting to knit.  Oh, and don't freak out Abby – the yarn really is grey – it's Dream in Color Smooshy.

I also started on a  Flower Basket scarf to go into the Christmas basket:

I'm using a lovely fingering weight alpaca/wool mix, but I'm too lazy to get up out of my chair and check the ball band.

I also got a goody in the mail this week.  Lorette had blogged about a neat little container for stitch markers and what-not.  I love little containers almost as much as I love tote bags and ordered one immediately.  How cute:

I ordered it here, but who knows if there are any left.  I imagine Lorette caused a run on them!

The countdown to retirement continues – only 18 1/2 working days!!  Are you tired of hearing about it yet?  It just seems that the drama is such a large part of my life right now.  Every time I turn around I discover yet another boneheaded move by the computer guys that makes my work more difficult.  Starting tomorrow, though, I get to do one of my favorite things – teach.  Our new employee starts and I think I'm really going to enjoy the training aspect.  

Speaking of learning, I've spent most of this weekend learning myself.  I got my new copy of Photoshop Elements 8 for the Mac and have been going through Linda Sattgast's marvelous tutorial.  I can't say enough for her video. I made four scrapbook pages, but they'll have to wait for another post.  I'm debating whether to start another blog just for scrapbooking.  What do you think?  One all purpose blog or two specialty ones?

Two lights are emerging at the end of the tunnel and neither one appears to be an oncoming train!  Ben and Abby are moving into their house today.  Yesterday Abby and hubby (mine, not hers!) went down and cleaned the new house to a fare-thee-well.  Ben stayed here with me and helped with the girls and attempted to get things on this end organized.  This morning they loaded a 17-ft. U-Haul and they were off.  We will keep the girls for the night and deliver them down tomorrow.  We almost hit a major snag when we realized that they had taken off with both keys to their car with the car seats that we were going to use to take the girls home tomorrow!  Thankfully, Ben's friend's parents are there and coming back here tonight, so they're bringing the keys.  Whew!! 

Of course, this means we get the girls for Halloween for the first time.  We really weren't going to do anything, but Grandpa couldn't resist some cute costumes he saw at Wal-Mart and came home with them.  He is such a softie!

Currently Mei-Mei is napping and Yeh-Yeh and Isobel are carving a Jack-o-Lantern.  Isobel is especially fascinated by the "pumpkin goo".

The other light is, of course, retirement, which looms ever closer.  Things at work have been especially difficult and I decided this week that I really needed an attitude adjustment.  There is so much that I cannot change so I need to really focus on anything positive so that I can leave in the best light possible.  The wife of the older doc, who was the first owner of the practice, asked me the other day if I would be coming back after I retire as a consultant.  I told her that I hadn't been asked and I would have to make a decision depending on the circumstances.  The only thing, is that so far, they haven't asked my opinion on much and when they have asked it, don't follow my suggestions.  It's hard to believe they would want me back after I leave, but I suppose it depends on how desparate they get.

I'm really looking forward to getting back to some more challenging knitting projects.  Everything has been in such turmoil for the past two months, I simply could not focus on anything even remotely intricate.  Plain old stockinette has done it.  I have, however, finished two Wonderful Wallabies:

And I also made a contribution to our Thing 1 and Thing 2 costumes:

Yes, those are Hallowigs!

So, tomorrow, things get back to "normal", whatever that is.  I will, however, miss coming home to Mei-Mei running up to me, wanting a cuddle and saying, "I missed you Nana".  And, of course, sharing spaghetti ala Lady and the Tramp:

But all of that is only an hour and a half away!
   

No, that's not a typo.  Recently Marguerite and I were chatting about Cookie A's book, Sock Innovations.  When it first came out, we both expressed our intentions of knitting every sock in the book – we were so in love with them.  Marguerite has come a lot closer to that goal than I have, having completed several pairs.  I haven't even completed one.  We were discussing her experience that while the socks are indeed lovely, they are not quite as well fitting or wearable as a lot of the "Plain Jane" socks we love and wear almost every day.  Which begs the question, "Why knit them?"  The case could be made that they are works of art.  As I explained, I could knit shawls for the rest of my life and never wear a one because I consider them works of art.   But socks?  If they were works of art, you'd only have to knit one!  So this is indeed "foot for thought" and I am reconsidering my goal.  Of course, it's an entirely moot point now because my knitting time is mostly engaged in completely mindless stockinette stitch sweaters for little bodies.  I did complete Isobel's and I don't think it's been off her body except for a quick trip through the washer:

Note the blueberry face!  Given her love of blueberries, I think the choice of yarn was perfect.

Mei-Mei is currently wearing the Wonderful Wallaby I made for Isobel when she was a baby:

It's a little snug but does the trick.  Her new one is in the works and I just finished fusing the pocket to the body.

Wonder of wonders, I did manage about an hour of sewing in my sewing room yesterday.  I asked hubby if he would help Abby keep an eye on the girls and snuck in there for some solitude and quality time with my sewing machine.  It was a challenge – all of Ben & Abby's luggage is there, but I managed to clear a little hole for myself and finished the blocks I've been working on for a mystery quilt I'm doing with friends:

I can't remember if I've mentioned this group or not, but it's a small group that's alternated between 4-6 members.  We've been meeting for over 10 years.  At times we do a Round Robin project, other times mystery quilts or just help out on blocks for each other.  We've done some pretty mind boggling projects, and others that are just simple.  Regardless, they are a wonderful group of ladies and we so enjoy our time together.  Next time we meet I'll try to remember to take some pictures.

I'm plugging along at work, literally counting the days (down to 60!!).  Things have not been easy.  I think I finally figured out why the new doc and I are a little like oil and water.  The two previous docs have always treated me like an equal partner.  The new doc treats us as if he is the captain of the ship and we are his crew (not surprising – he is a former Navy Captain).  Don't get me wrong, he's a great human being and a great doc and is kind and compassionate.  But there is no question that I am just an employee.  Many administrative privileges that I had have been taken away.  This is not necessarily wrong, but just a different management style and one that I am not used to.  I've tried very hard not to make waves because it really doesn't make any difference.  However, I do think it is good that I'm retiring and making way for someone who isn't used to the previous regime.  We will be promoting someone from within to my spot, but she's only been with the practice five years and will not expect, or even desire, the amount of responsibility I was accustomed to.  Tomorrow I start interviewing candidates for her replacement.  With any luck we will have someone by the end of the week and I can start training.

I leave you with more granddaughterly adorableness:

Saturday Hubby and I decided we really needed to get away from the fray, so we took off for a day together, just the two of us to get our batteries recharged.  Although we had a blueprint for the day, we ended up doing something totally different.  As hubby explained, this is what retirement will be like – doing what you want when you want to!  All I can say is, I'm ready.  And in that vein, I'm happy to report that the ad for my replacement went in the newspaper this week.  Here's praying for some really viable candidates.

Our first stop yesterday was Washington Park in Anacortes.  There is a winding 2-mile loop with some really breathtaking views:

I think next year we're going to have to take a picnic lunch and Maggie and spend some time there.  Next stop was some furniture shopping.  Our old and battered recliners with the puppy chew marks really needed to go, and since I don't need room for a lap dog anymore (sigh), we decided the time was ripe.  We looked at the Ekornes chairs from Norway.  After wiping up the drool, we gave some serious consideration, but were put off by the exorbitant price.  They were indeed about the most comfortable chairs we've ever sat in, but some serious saving would be in order.  We decided to check a few more places and lo and behold, found some Action recliners that were quite similar and about half the price.  They are every bit as comfortable and while probably not as high quality, suit us just fine.  The style we got is similar to the one in the link, but just a little different.

Mei-Mei had her first dental visit this week.  She did pretty well for a two-year-old, although she kept saying, "I'm done, I'm done".