Airplane knitting means....

Airplane knitting means...what?

Three guesses and the first two don't count.
Guess where I am?

Back with my Mom!

Nothing serious this trip. While we are doing the usual round of docs and such, I have time to visit family..some planned..and some a big surprise! Now, boys and girls, give a big hello to Marianne. She and her hubby make these fabulous baskets and if you're in Frankenmuth tomorrow-stop by the arts and crafts fair and buy them out! Tell 'em I sent ya! She'll love it.

Mom and I went down to visit her and so Mom could see all the baskets all decked out. What we didn't know was how many others in the family were going to show up with us at the same time. What a great mini family reunion we had today!

Now, how big do you think a single doughnut can be? Here's one next to my fat brat.

And here's Dad's reaction when he opened it up!

Oh.my.goodness! That was priceless!
Enjoy your weekend!

May 18 and Oct 10th, 2011

Get your pre-orders in now! The 2011 Knitting Pattern a Day calendar will be available, according to Amazon.com by August 20th. Check with your LYS to see when they'll have their supply ready for your hot little hands. Why? Check out the May 18th and Oct 10th pages...

New patterns from moi!

This is really getting fun!

Surprises come in different types

Surprises come in all kinds of shapes and sizes, not to mention how you are surprised by them. Take these for example. Can you see it? I'm not talking about the fact that they are wood, which I adore, and the grooves in them that I doubly adore. Cable needles with grooves are my favorite types. But,...look closer...

Ya, the middle one...that's the kind of surprise that stinks. Like when you're in the middle of a couple of cable sleeves and SNAP! it goes that fast.

But then you get a phone call one day from your LYS and are told that because you've been using their reusable bags and entered their monthly drawing, you have been the winner for May's drawing! So...off you go and this is what they have waiting for you...

It's Lantern Moon's new Mindy Case in the Champagne color.

See how cute it is?

So then I showed them my not so pleasant surprise and was momentarily saddened that they didn't care the birch cable needles. However...

For the same price I paid for the birch needles, out popped the rosewood and ebony sets!

I had a hard time picking between the two to purchase...

So, I reasoned that with dark yarn I would HAVE to use the rosewood set while NEEDING the ebony set for lighter colors of yarn. See how pretty they are? Like knitting art, I think.

Grooves and all! Thank you Cindy and Alamitos Bay Yarn Company! I was happy with the bags-this is just icing on the cake. Color me, errr...knit me a happy camper!

The last kind of surprises are the touching and informative kind. Like my Friend Arlene I saw last week. She's constantly amazing me with what she comes up with next on her knitting machine! Here's a dishcloth she made and gave to me using short rows on her knitting machine! And here I thought a knitting machine would be the fast track to knitting up squares and rectangles in the form of baby blankets to whittle down my yarn stash! Thanks, Arlene! You are an amazing friend who never stops surprising me with your knitting machine tricks. I gotta get mine out of the box one of these days!

But, in the meantime, I'm packing and heading up to Michigan for a couple of weeks to stay with my parents before driving my daughter back to California. Another Mother-Daughter set of adventures will begin soon. I'm wondering if I'll FINALLY get to Mary Maxim in Port Huron this trip???????????

Here's hoping all your summer surprises will be the kind you're looking forward to!

The weekend was scary, sweet, and fun

It's a scary day when you go to put groceries away and realize you're standing in a puddle of water in front of your refrigerator. Further investigation reveals these next pictures...

Thanking my lucky stars that I have a cell phone with picture capability, I was able to get help #1 turning off the main electrical switch before replacing the breakers that were no longer usable. It's also a great day when your daughter's boyfriend has a father who has been an electrician for many years, and is willing to talk his sun into the correct parts to touch, not touch, and replace after I'd done my shopping at the hardware store. I was thanking my lucky stars last weekend, that's for certain!

All things were up and running in time to wrap up the Aloha Kitchen set of knitting to bring it over to the daughter's birthday celebration. (pattern is found in the 2010 Dishcloth Calendar you can click on the picture to go to the web site.)

Lots of laughter and giggles, hugs and of course cake came later that afternoon as the reality of how lucky we were with the breaker box outcome hit home. Whew! (notice the blue and white hat? I'll knit for that kid ANYTIME!)

The next day found me knitting up a pair of baby basic socks from the American Needlework book: Knit a Dozen Baby Socks. This is the basic sock pattern, but this time (again) I used a 2x2 ribbing and then extended the ribbing down the top of the foot stopping the ribbing at the toe section. I like the way they turned out! So many things you can do with a sock pattern-even for babies! The more I'm learning making adult socks from worsted weight patterns to fingering weight, I like putting them into the baby sized socks. These were passed off to Arlene who is a member of the AC4C yahoo group. When we were able to answer the question..What's better than 2 AC4C members getting together?

Why that would be when four AC4C Members can get together! What a fun day, dinner and evening as the four of us (who we found out that day all lived in Michigan at one time or another!) were coming and going. That would be Camille, Arlene, Chris, and me. Knitters-what a fabulous group of people!

She's a quarter of a century today!

Happy 25th Birthday!