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We’re having a heat wave!  It’s all the way up to, uh, 75?  I know, laughable to a lot of you, but in some parts of western Washington it’s in the 90’s today.  Way too hot!!  Luckily for us, we’re surrounded by coastline, so we’re staying relatively cool.

Not much knitting content because I’ve been sewing, sewing sewing.  But I did make a new knitting bag – because we can never have too many knitting bags, right?  To celebrate my new alumni status, I even made it in Washington State colors.  Tastefully elegant on the outside:

Wild and crazy on the inside:

This is the Miranda bag from Lazy Girl Designs.  I highly recommend this pattern for those of you who sew.  The directions are very clear and the project was amazingly quick.  There will definitely be more of these in my future.  I’m going to stash some basic knitting notions in here and when I need to go I can throw in my wallet and current knitting project and I’ll be all set!

There were also knitting goodies for graduation.  Mom and Dad gave me a sock knitting book along with a check for yarn.  Thanks Mom and Dad – you really know the way to girl’s heart!  Here’s the book:

I gave this technique a whirl, but found it awfully fiddly.  There were just too many things to keep track of.  But even if I don’t use the technique, there are lots of really cute patterns in here, including some darling toddler socks I’ll have to make for Isobel.  However, it did get me thinking about the dreaded Second Sock Syndrome and my tendency to fall prey to it.  Marguerite mentioned that she knits the two socks at the same time, each one on its own set of two circular needles, along with a fifth circular for doing the heel.  That seemed just the ticket for me, so I used Mom and Dad’s check to order 5 size one circs from Knit Picks.  I also searched high and low on the internet to find some Dream in Color Smooshy in Chinatown Apple.  I think I scored the last skein available!

These weren’t the only gifts I received for graduation.  My friends and family have been very generous.  My sister gave me this Lladro:

Isn’t she precious?  She reminds me of Isobel.  My friends from church gave me a rose bush.  The lovely pink blossoms will remind me of this celebration for many years to come (providing I don’t kill it!).  My friend Jan gave me two beautiful Waterford goblets.  The neat thing is that she also gave me two when I got my Associate’s Degree!  She bought these at the same time and has been holding on to them for four years.  She was probably also holding her breath that I would graduate and she wouldn’t be stuck with two mismatched goblets!  And my brother-in-law and sister-in-law gave me a book on machine quilting.  I’m going to get a lot of use out of it and am already planning projects.  There is still one more gift to come – from hubby.  But I will keep you in suspense.

Lastly, I leave you with this pathetic little face.

Our little girl is a woman now.  Maggie came into season last week.  What a pain!  She really does not like wearing the doggie diapers, and I don’t blame her.  I made these for her because the ones we bought had a hole for her non-existent tail and they kept slipping down.  Our agreement with her breeder was not to spay her so that she could be bred at least once.  Hopefully we won’t have to put up with this more than one more time.  And, it will fun seeing her become a mother. 

 

Look – I have new license plate frame:

And a new coffee mug (thanks Sis!):

Pretty cool, huh?  All the company is gone and life is getting back to what I call the "new normal".  My parents left on Wednesday and after I got home from work it really hit me.  Even after all my assignments were done, I still had the run up to graduation with all the ordering and planning, etc.  Then graduation weekend and the days after with company in the house.  But on Wednesday night it was all over.  I thought I’d log into the school website to my personal page and just see if there were any last comments by instructors, but when I logged on, I got the message, "You are not enrolled in any classes."  It hit me then that it really is over and after 10 years a different life is beginning.  I certainly don’t feel lost without classes, but it is a little strange not to have assignments hanging over my head!

One of the most common questions I get is what I’m going to "do" with my degree.  It’s almost as if the degree is useless unless there is some kind of financial pay-off.  My cousin Margaret said it best in her comment, "Education’s empowerment is felt in every aspect of your life, and in ways we can’t imagine."  I’m a firm believer that education has value for its own sake, regardless of any financial return.  I’m a different person than I was 10 years ago, and I hope, a better one.

As I mentioned, stealth knitting was going on.  I even have an FO.  I present the Flutter Scarf:

This was a great pattern and I highly recommend it.  It would be a good first lace project.  The main pattern is only four rows, easily memorized and goes on forever with a "flutter" of activity at the end.  I gave this to my mother for Mother’s Day.  We didn’t get any model shots while she was here, but I hope she’ll get some and send to me (hint, hint).  The yarn is Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Iris colorway, needles Knit Picks Options #3.

I also started what I hope will be a quick baby gift:

This is the Yarni Cardigan by Mary Lou Egan.  Susan Lawrence calls this her new "go to" baby pattern and I think she’s right.  This just may become my baby present of choice.  Loads of fun and with all the great sock yarns out there, the possibilities are endless.  I’m using Regia Cotton Surf, which is not my favorite for socks, but is great for this pattern.  Knit Picks Options, #2.  This will be for our youth pastor and his wife who have a new baby.  My hope is to have it done before the little tyke outgrows it!

It’s official!  Ok, not technically – the Board of Regents still has to review my transcript and grant me my diploma, but it feels official to me.  Settle down because this is a picture intensive post.

We headed off to Pullman bright and early Friday morning.  It’s a long haul across Snoqualmie Pass, but the weather shined on us.  That’s usually a given at this time of year, but just a week ago there was snow in the passes!  We arrived at our beautiful B&B in Uniontown without incident:

That’s Mom and Dad.  The Inn used to be the parish house for the Catholic church next door.  We toured the church, which for its size rivals many of the cathedrals we saw in England:

That evening we went over to the University for a reception for the graduates in my program.  There we experienced what I think for my parents was the highlight of the weekend!  Washington State University has a new president – Dr. Elson Floyd.  It just so happens that he came to us from the University of Missouri and my parents have a mutual friend with him.  My brother-in-law, a professor of Landscape Architecture at the University just happened to be working on a project next door to the reception and the President stopped by to chat.  Phil mentioned the mutual friend and President Floyd actually sought us out to say hello to my parents!  They were thrilled and a lowly graduate got to have a photo opp with the President!!

After a lovely breakfast the next morning, my friend Jan picked me up and we went into Pullman for the requisite photo at Cougar Plaza:

I can’t say enough thanks to Jan and her daughter Krissie for dealing with a nervous, stressed out graduate!  They kept me sane and put up with my slightly freaked out behavior!  They delivered me safely to the line-up area, where I found my section.  The graduates in my program were the last ones to enter the stadium and we had a great bird’s eye view of the proceedings:

It took about an hour to read off all the names and I was 14th from the end!  After waiting so long, it seemed to go by in a blur!  All I could think of was, "Please God, don’t let me trip or embarrass myself!"  You’ll be happy to know that I did neither. 

Afterward it was all over but the smiling:

That’s my brother-in-law Phil, his wife Debbie (a new knitter) and my nieces Abbie and Carrie.

The Proud Hubby (who incidentally got a Certificate of Achievement at the reception the night before for all of his support).

And last, but not least, the patient babysitters – Jan and her daughter Krissie.  I would not have been there without Jan, who encouraged me from the first and was my greatest cheerleader.  Also with us was my sister, Claudia, who somehow managed to evade all photo opportunities! 

The drive home was long, but we arrived home safely.  Today will be spent just relaxing and visiting with my parents, who will be here until Wednesday.  I’ve taken a few days off to recuperate.  The one thing I will NOT be doing?  Studying!!!!

I’m glad this week is finally over.  I had to work five days instead of four and two of those days was with what I call the "high maintenance" doctor.  The younger one, who actually owns the practice was out of town.  He is low maintenance.  If he wants something, he will go get it if he is able.  If he makes a mess, he cleans it up.  The other doctor is just the opposite.  He can’t do anything for himself and seems to enjoy going around the office making messes for others to clean up.  Don’t get me wrong, he’s an excellent dentist, but working with him leaves one exhausted!

Yesterday I worked with the Community Quilt group from our guild.  The group gets together once a month to make quilts to give away.  Some go to the hospital – anyone starting chemotherapy gets a quilt to keep and children going into foster care in our area also get  a quilt to take with them.  I was able to almost finish a quilt top and brought it home to put the finishing touches on:

It will go back to the group for borders, quilting and binding.

I also worked on what I am calling my "Celebration Quilt":

Several people have asked me what I’m going to do with all the extra time I will have now that school is over.  It’s hard to say because it hasn’t really materialized yet.  I will be doing more quilting.  I have to say that it is my first love, but never fear that knitting will go away.  There should be enough of both to keep everyone satisfied.  I’m hoping for more time to exercise!  On Friday I did get home a little early and decided to take Maggie and walk to the bank.  It’s probably about 2 miles round trip.  The ladies at the bank were more than happy to have Maggie come in and she even got a cookie.  However, the walk back home is all uphill and we were two exhausted little hikers when we returned.

With the price of gas ($3.75 when I filled up yesterday!), I think I will be looking at more opportunities to walk into town.  It isn’t always the effort that deters me, but time.  Perhaps with more time I can do that more.  I’ll also be looking for opportunities to take the bus.  For now, we have free bus service anywhere on the island.  I hope that continues!  I’d like to look at the possibilities of public transportation to get to my sister’s house.  From my house I can take the free bus and then get on the ferry to the mainland (also free to walk-ons).  But from there I’m not sure how to negotiate the bus system.

As I mentioned, you need not fear that knitting has been abandoned.  In fact, I’ve made quite a lot of progress on the Flutter Scarf, but it’s almost impossible to get a good picture.  I present this merely as proof that I have been knitting:

And knitting – dang this thing is long!  It starts with a provisional cast-on, is knitted in one direction and then the provisional cast-on is picked up and knitted in the other direction.  So, I’m a little over halfway done.  This is about as close to mindless knitting as lace gets!  There’s only a four row repeat, easily memorized and a "flutter" of activity at the end.  As with all lace, it looks pretty crappy now, but I’m confident it will block out.  The yarn is Knit Picks Alpaca Cloud in the Iris colorway, needles are Knitpicks Harmony in size 3.

This week will also include a "flutter" of activity.  My Mom and Dad arrive in Washington tomorrow and after a couple of days at my sister’s house will arrive here on Wednesday.  Friday we take off for Pullman.  There’s a reception for the graduates in my program on Friday night and the big event on Saturday.  After commencement, my brother-in-law and sister-in-law are throwing a barbecue for us.  Then we will head home Sunday.  I’ve taken off the next two days to recover and visit with my parents.  So, I will not be posting next weekend, but will have loads of exciting photos for you when I return.  And knitting content – the long drive to Pullman and back will give me lots of knitting time!

How can a week in which you only work three days seem so long?  I went back to work on Wednesday, and although the days were very busy, the week just seemed to drag!  Plus all of us felt really disoriented.  It’s bad enough coming back after 2 weeks on vacation, but coming back midweek is really confusing.  However, the end of the week brought some excitement.  Hubby’s brother is a professor at Washington State University.  He, his wife and daughters came over to visit and stayed with us.  They made a quick stop at the University to pick up this for me:

It’s starting to feel real!!  Graduation is May 3rd, which incidentally is Isobel’s third birthday. 

Since I now have all this free time, I did get a bit of knitting done.   However, I’m going to keep you in suspense.  I started this project and by the time I got around to thinking about posting about it, it’s impossible to get a good picture.  So I may just wait until it’s done and keep you all guessing.  Those of you on Ravelry can bop on over and get a clue; the rest of you will just have to stay tuned.  By the way, my sister-in-law, who is a new knitter, is on Ravelry.  Her id is "waitingtoknit".  I’d love it if you’d go on over and "friend" her.  She’d get a kick out of it (and wonder – who are all these people?). 

While we were sitting around waiting for them to arrive Friday night, we peeped out our front window and were greeted with this:

Yes, that is indeed snow.  In late April.  It’s kind of an odd juxtaposition next to our flowering cherry trees.  We ended up getting about two inches, which thankfully is now gone.

With so much studying to do, my quilting time has suffered over the past years.  So, I promised myself that when I was done with school, I would start a new quilt in celebration.  While the family was out visiting other family members, that’s exactly what I did.  Here’s what I have done so far:

I had originally planned on another design, but decided I wanted to utilize my embroidery machine, so switched gears.  I am loving this pattern.  I deliberately tried to go outside my usual color palette of pastels and blues.  All of these earthy colors are a real stretch for me.  They’re a real stretch for my fabric stash too.  Many of these pieces have been contributed by my friends, but I still need to go looking for some more brick reds.  I used up almost all I have on just these blocks.

Off to knit on my stealth project and watch "Law and Order" with hubby.  At last we have some new ones!  We’re addicts and are not above watching reruns, but it’s nice to have new material.  Sometimes we’ll just watch the reruns until we remember "who done it."  I know, our lives are exciting beyond belief!

I can’t believe that I’m finally saying this, but I’m done, finished and it’s all over but the shouting!!!  Today I took my last exam and handed in my last assignment.  After 10 years of hard work, I have completed the work for my Bachelor’s Degree!  I think I’m still in shock!  Ten years ago I was approaching 50 and mulling over the things I had wanted to accomplish in my life, but hadn’t.  A Bachelor’s Degree was at the top of the list.  So, I went out to lunch with my best friend, Jan, and asked her what she thought of the idea.  Jan teaches at our local community college and not only encouraged me, but after lunch drove me right over to the college to sign up for the asset test!  The rest, as they say is history.  It took me 6 years to get my AA degree, but I graduated at the top of my class with a 4.0 and transferred to Washington State University.  I will be graduating from there summa cum laude with a 3.94.  I have taken at least one class every single quarter/semester (except for summers) for the past 10 years.  I’m nothing if not stubborn!  Graduation will be May 3rd, which incidentally is Isobel’s birthday.  My mom and dad are flying out for the ceremony. 

In other news, the Second Annual Spring Tea was yesterday.  Here are  pictures of some of the lovely participants:

By the way, Jan – the lady who spurred me on to college is on the far left.

A fun time was had by all and I can’t believe I put this together (with a little help from my friends) only two days after I returned from Orlando.

And, in knitting news, I am almost finished with the front of Torgier.  When I laid it out on the floor to measure, Maggie pronounced it good and promptly went to sleep on it:

Off to get ready to go out.  Bill is taking me out to dinner to celebrate.  I told him I was way too educated to cook.  He told me I was educated enough to read a cookbook, but he’ll cut me some slack today!

Greetings from sunny Florida!  Well, sunny most of the time anyway.  I think we’ve seen more rain here in a week than we have in Washington in a month!  And when it rains here, it comes down in buckets, not the gentle mist of the Pacific Northwest.  Thunder and lightning too!  However, that has not daunted us because of course, we came for other scenery:

Two little princesses!  We have been having a wonderful time snuggling and playing and generally seeing if we can exhaust Nana and Aunt Claudia (my sister), which of course, they can! 

Today we met up with Kris of Sonny and Shear:

Kris and Anna Grace met us at Monkey Joe’s and the girls had a great time jumping and sliding.  Photo ops were hard to come by as most of the time the girls went by in a blur:

Others in the party found all the excitement too much to handle:

They played into happy exhaustion and then we went for lunch and a stroll around the mall.  Anna Grace was helpful in holding Isobel’s hand and helping keep her from running off:

Thanks AG!  During the evenings after the girls have gone to bed, mindless knitting has been the order of the evening:

They met with the baby stamp of approval:

Tomorrow is our last day here.  I hate leaving the girls, but I also miss Ye-Ye (Mandarin for grandfather) terribly!  It will be good to be home.

So far today we’ve had rain, snow, hail and sleet.  It’s spring for cryin’ out loud!  But all is forgiven because the sun came out this afternoon and it was so beautiful Maggie and I went out for a walk.  It was a great walk, too, until the very end.  I’m working on exposing Maggie to different distractions so I decided to come home a different way than usual.  As we were passing a trailer park, we were charged by a pit bull!  Dear Maggie was ready to defend me, so I grabbed her and picked her up and kept on walking, not making eye contact with the beast.  After a while I didn’t see the other dog, so I put Maggie down.  The pit bull appeared and charged us again.  So I grabbed up Maggie once more and started praying!  God protected us and we made it home safely, but I carried Maggie until I was sure the pit bull was no where in sight.  Now my shoulder is killing me, but we are safe.

And, all is good because I am officially on vacation.  Thursday was my last day at work, but yesterday I wrote an 8-page paper, completed another school assignment, completed three tax returns (ours, my mother-in-law’s and Allen’s), paid bills and I forget what else.  When I put the last stamp on the last envelope, I told Bill, "NOW I’m on vacation!"  Today has been spent getting some last minute sewing done and general organizing.  I checked out Mason Dixon Knitting from the library and I really liked several of the projects.  They’re quick, cute and just the ticket for my frazzled brain.  I especially liked these darling baby bibs:

Aren’t they too cute?  These fall into the category of "Why didn’t I think of that?"  Super simple and quick.  One can easily be whipped out in an evening.  They’re made of  cotton dishcloth yarn – I used some coned Peaches and Cream from my stash.  I also have some Sugar and Cream that I’ll toss in my suitcase.  If Abby likes these I can make a few while I’m there.

Recently I started reading Theresa’s blog.  She had admired the ladybug dress I made for Izzy, so I asked her if she would like me to do some embroideries for her two adorable twin girls.  Well, a trade was made and these arrived in the mail this week:

These are notecards that she makes with her stunning photography.  Thanks so much Theresa – I’ll always be up for a barter with you!  She sells these, so hop on over to her photography blog if you’re interested.

Tomorrow I start packing in earnest.  No, not clothes.  I already know what I’m taking there.  What knitting to take??  I always agonize over this.  Like most of you, I have this morbid fear of either running out of knitting, or having the wrong project.  I’ll take either a scarf or socks for the plane portion of the trip and the cotton for bibs.  I keep reminding myself it’s only a week and Michael’s is close by with plenty of Sugar and Cream!

Getting excited!!  Can you blame me?  In less than 72 hours I’ll be snuggling with these beauties:

He is Risen!  He is Risen indeed!  Happy Easter to all of you.  Ours has started off with heavy rain – pretty typical for us.  You can almost always count on rain on Easter and the 4th of July.  However, we don’t have snow like many of you in the Midwest.  Or floods like my parents in Missouri.  They live within a few hundred yards of a river, and the waters came up to just across the road from them.

I have to admit Easter sneaked up on me this year.  I missed Palm Sunday because of my shoulder (more about that later) and it dawned on me yesterday that I had made no preparations for Easter dinner.  So I did the only thing a self respecting woman could do – I picked up the phone and made reservations.  Hubby and I will take Allen to the CPO club on base for Easter brunch and then we will head off to our respective churches for Easter services.

I’m scrounging around in my brain trying to figure out an interesting photo to post, and I just cannot come up with anything!  Maybe hubby could take a picture of me with my nose in a book.  That’s where it’s been most of the week.  I have a textbook I have to finish before Wednesday and it’s boring, boring, boring!  In the syllabus the professor said the book was an easy read, but she didn’t mention that it would put you to sleep.  There probably won’t be much interesting this next week either.  I have my class on Wednesday and the rest of the week will be spent trying to get ahead on my assignments so I can relax while I’m in Orlando.  There’s a paper due after the class and I really want to get it done before I go.  But I promise to make up for it by posting lots and lots of cute granddaughter pictures while I’m there.

I did go to the doctor this week and I did indeed do damage to my shoulder.  I have a shoulder separation, or a tear of the acromioclavicular junction.  A football injury!  At least that’s what I’m telling everyone.  Much better than telling them you tripped over your own big feet.  The good news is that it doesn’t require surgery, but that’s the bad news as well because there really is nothing else they can.  I have some exercises to do, but it’s just going to hurt for a while.  I may not be picking up the wee ones much, but I can certainly snuggle on the couch with them!

I discovered yesterday that in addition to being dull, I’m also clumsy!  I was outside beginning Maggie’s formal obedience training.  In teaching her to "heel" I’m to "stride confidently."  Well, I strode confidently right into the edging at the side of the lawn and ended up with an up close personal confrontation with the grass.  I have scrapes and bruises on my leg, but my shoulder took the brunt of the fall.  I don’t appear to have broken anything, but I definitely did some damage.  It’s a good thing I don’t have anything physically challenging coming up in the next few weeks.  I’m going to be taking it easy so I have the strength to haul my luggage around the airport!

After I went inside nursing my dignity and my bruises, I decided a little light duty was in order.  A friend had asked me to make a label for a baby quilt she is making:

Sorry for the fuzzy photo.  I hope she likes it.  The quilt actually has more hot pink and lime greens in it, but those were the hottest pinks I have in my limited thread collection.  I was also able to spend some time playing with the lessons for my digitizing software.  There is so much the program can do, but I just haven’t had time to play with it. 

This week was spring break at school.  I still turned in an assignment, so I’m a week ahead.  I’ll continue to do that until I leave for Orlando, so while I’m there I should be able to relax.  In addition, I’ll spend the next week and a half reading for my other class.  That will take place on the 26th.  I have an 8-page paper to write after the class and I hope I can get that done before I leave as well.

I have had some knitting progress as well.  I finished the back of Torgeir, Bill’s Lavold sweater, and have started on the front.  No pictures because I hurt too much to get up out of my recliner and go take one.  Instead I will leave you with two of the cutest granddaughters ever: