800+ stairs, 2 feet and a cane at a time

I will give you fair notice that this is picture intensive, I cut out well over 100 pictures, and they're small to help them load faster. HOWEVER, if you click on any one of them they will enlarge. I suggest you do one of two things, a-click on the pictures or b-get yourself here!



The day before Graduation ceremonies we headed up to Watkins Glenn State Park in the Finger Lakes area of New York state. They're closed from November to Mid May. They were just opened and my daughter couldn't wait for us to go for a 'walk'. Sounded good to me!

The is the map of the 1 1/2 mile trail along the water we wanted to visit.

Read the sign carefully, 800+ stairs. Yep. All of them. And more. straight.up.

and off we went!

Follow us around this fall....

First side up close


The backside of the falls.

And the other side...

powerful water...

and that's where it all goes...amazing. (Did I turn the water off at home?)

Very peacefully soothing up here.

More stairs...and peaceful moments

Fabulous way to celebrate her Master's Degree!

When he gets back to school, think of the stories he's going to be able to tell!



And these weren't even the best part of the section..that awaited just around the bend....

Please, click on this picture of the Rainbow Falls area! This is the 'money shot' even if the rainbow didn't show at this time of day. Amazingly beautiful!

That's a deep cut in the rock...and a lot of water smashing all over the place.

The guy in the white shirt? RAN ALL THE WAY UP!

Holding onto Mom to keep her from sliding into the water, it was cold but fabulous (don't try this at home!)

The last push of 180 stairs. Took me awhile but at the top I found...

...the best cheerleaders of all time! They waited at the top of the stairs with water and encouraging words.

My proof that I'd made it to the top-after a rest and our lunch at the top. The disclaimer? They hiked down and brought the car back up for me. It was much faster for them to go without me. I'm OK with that! 1 1/2 hours up...~45-60 minutes for them to get back down and drive up for me. Good decision, I think.)


This is the moment I let him know that the blanket he'd been watching me crochet for a long time was his! Yes, he was excited-does it show? [ Lion Brand's Crayon Ripple Throw pattern, I Love this Yarn! in White (2.5 skeins) and Royal (3 skeins) size J hook. Finished size 42"x 72" . Pattern found on the Lion Brand web site. ]

While riding back in the car, he wanted to put down everything he was playing with so he could have 'cuddle time' with his blanket. Now I ask you. How can you not love knitting and crocheting for such a kid?

Yeah! for airport knitting

Yeah! I have finally gotten a sock to fit me! Took me 4 years to get sock yarn on (US)1's to fit my foot!

To compare, it took my daughter 2 years to earn her Master's Degree.

Yes, I'm a slow learner.

And Yes, I have the 2nd one cast on already.

Finished!

oh, so close!

I flew into Syracuse, NY on Mother's Day..having flown the red eye out of California. Why? I have a daughter who's about to be hooded. YEA! On the way I worked on my new socks. If you're a sock knitter, you can see with the sock that I've adjusted the tension here and there. I had debated over ripping it out but decided this would be my sock that will show me from here on out how far I've come. I think I'm finally getting used to the 'hang' of the tiny needles, tiny sock yarn feel. It's something I think I've battled in my sock knitting quest. All I have to do now, is rip out the toes of this first sock, because my counts are way off. The top of the toes have more stitches than the under side of the sock. This MUST be the results of knitting through the night on a flight without any TVs or movies or music while being half asleep. Right?

That's my story and I'm sticking to it being sooooooooo close to finishing this sock. It certainly couldn't be that I just messed up, now - right?

Do you know what this means? Yep, those cranberry bits that have been cut.

Simply put, it means that on my Knitting Pure and Simple sweater, I picked the roll back sleeve cuffs, cut and weaved in the ends. It's my final decision. And I really like how they turned out. It's been a nice surprise.

The jury is still out on the bottom of the sweater. It's still got the 2x2 ribbing on it apart of the pattern directions. Eh...I don't think that matters as much to me. Sleeves are different, sleeves have a tendency to really bug me. I am a 'leaner'...I lean my wrists when I played piano, when I type, and my knitting needles always get caught in my sleeve cuffs. I rarely, if never, keep long sleeves down by my wrists. But at the same time, I don't like wearing 3/4 length sleeves, I'd rather push them up. If a sleeve is the correct width, it'll stay pushed up. If they stretch, they're going to bug me all over again when they keep falling down.

Since I landed here with my daughter still working during the week, I've been concentrating on getting the crocheted afghan finished. The cutest 8 year old joined us last night and doesn't know this is going to be his. I am 'this' close to getting it done. 3 1/2 stripes to go!

Here we are prior to the first pitch of the game. Waiting for the fun to begin...

And here was my son's main event! Stephen Strasburg, 2009's top draft pick for the MLB. Clocking in at 96 and 98 mph. So glad I'm not on the receiving end of them.

Bonus, was the chance to see one of my son's old fellow Little League player on the opposing team.

Sadly, he also was on the receiving pitches at 96 and 98 mph, three times!

I'm off to work on the afghan some more. The 8 year old showed up after a train, a bus and two planes toward the end of the game. Must.crochet.faster.

Happy Mother's Day!

Happy Mother's Day Mom!

Ya know...

Ya know, I ONLY showed you the 5 projects that I had worked on last week...I didn't show you how many projects have been started and thrown into a corner/box/bin/garage and left undone! That would just be a big ol' can of worms! (Or would that be a big old box of yarn knots?)

I would HATE to actually go and count up all of those! I did, however, get the first sock done for afghans 4 Afghans current 7-14 aged collection. It seems like I'm not going to make it in time for the May 14th deadline, but then again, ya never know! I do like this idea of using up wool left overs for socks! I had pulled out a lot of my 'end of hat' left overs and didn't even use up one tiny little ball for the cuff and toes! Soooo, maybe this would be a great way to stash bust? And worsted weight on sizes 5 (3.75mm)needles sure goes faster than 2.5mm needles! On my way to use up some more!

How does the saying go?

Oh, I remember, if you wanna make God laugh, tell Him your plans. Right? Well in that same vein, if a knitter wants to make a deadline, then I guess you're supposed to line up your projects?

Yea, I think I've developed some serious Knitter's ADD...

Here are the sleeves for my Yankee Aran sweater...coming along nicely, with the changes to the pattern. I really do like the Wishbone cable going up the center of each sleeve. Can you see the ribbing on the outsides of the sleeves? They're the same ones were in Mom's sweater a year+ ago back in Nov/Dec, 2008. I really don't like seed stitch, etc...these make me happier. But boy, after knitting the Top Down sweater from Knitting Pure and Simple on size 9's...this is a 'little' bit slower! Nope, that's not going to be finished for the Syracuse trip next weekend... But then it doesn't help that I was also working on....

The 'blue stripes' afghan for the cutest 7 year old that was started when he was 6, and just happens to be, as of today, the cutest 8 year old. Hmmmm....wonder if this will end up being a 'take it to college with you' kind of project for him? And that was supposed to have been done for last year's birthday, then Christmas, then toady's birthday...now pushed back to....College Graduation?

But then, I had this brilliant idea that I'd knit up another Tam for Mom for Mother's Day! The one that's next Sunday? yea, keep laughing....

I saw the pattern in Ravelry when I made that decision...

Click on the picture to see the book's pictures. It's really cute. But, two things happened this week...

I only had 1 skein of yarn in the dye lot until yesterday, and didn't realize until I'd reached this point that I wasn't going to have enough. Point to remember...if the pattern says you need 2 skeins of 150 yards each? Ummmmm..1 skein of 190 yards won't be enough! Oh, and if you DON'T remember to stop along the way every so often to relax, you could end up like me with a pinched nerve in your shoulder! And let me just say how much it HURTS until you take time away from knitting to let it stop pinching. Yea...3 hours, pain pills, and a nap...do you KNOW how much time I lost there? Ulg. Next go round...I'm going back to some stretching every so often. Much smarter idea.

OK, this might not be much different than the last time I put up a picture of these socks. However, if you look carefully, you can see the definite area where I finally figured out the correct tension with these needles. I'm still toying with starting over, or just letting it sit for my first teeny tiny needles/yarn pair of socks so I'll always have something to measure my future socks. Subject still opened to debate... Yea, I thought I'd have had those finished while I was back in Michigan to wear and show my Mom....

And since we all know that I suffer from a major case of SOS (shinny object syndrome)....after afghans for Afghans sent out an email asking for socks for the 7-14 age groups by May 14th...

These are also in the works. I'm going to safely guess they won't get mailed in time for the deadline, but I can always hang onto them until they call for worsted weight woo socks again. After all, I still have 13 1/2 skeins left over from making Mom's sweater back in November 20008. If I were to use the rest all for socks, that would be a LOT of socks.

But then, I think I've already proven that I'd never get them done in any sort of short time period. Why? Because last night I also wound up the rest of the blue yarn from my cone of Lion Cotton that I used for the Aloha kitchen set that was part of the Dishcloth Hangups for 2010 pattern book. Why? I still need to knit up one more place mat before June 2nd.

Yea, I have a little bit, OK, a LOT of Knitting ADD going on over here. How about you?

Wonderful Wallaby #2

When you get a request from a cutie pie 7 year old to make him a sweater just like 'Alvin's', you KNOW you need to jump on it asap.

So, taking his suggestions, I measured him in his favorite jacket, since this is the size he wanted.

He took me by the hand and led me directly to where he KNEW the yarn was already in my house-smart kid, he pays attention!

But then he asked for thumbholes to be added to the cuffs. No problem, just make 'em like wristwarmers! I tried it on just before I went back to Michigan before I joined the sleeves to the body and realized it was a perfect fit for right then. No room for growth. Since I wasn't going to get it done prior to boarding the plane, we decided to add a little extra length in the body and the sleeves.

Then I finished it right after I got to Michigan so I had mailed it to him. I had THOUGHT I'd have left on Valentine's Day, February 14th. Since I didn't leave until the end of March, I had to wait until yesterday when his schedule met up with mine to get pictures of him wearing it so I could see how it fit.

I do believe we got him some growing room. Child sized 12 with extra length in the sleeves and body, just under 3 skeins of 'I Love this Yarn!' in Navy. Then add in one older brother to stand behind my shoulders to make him laugh while taking pictures to show his new big teeth! wa-la...makes the knitter happy!