Happy 82nd Birthday!

The Mall Walkers had cake to celebrate my Dad's birthday today! Enjoy the rest of your day while we're sweltering it out here in Michigan!

...my home sweet home!...

Happy 4th of July!

2 years, 10 months, 10 days old...

What's your excuse for not learning yet? ;-)

Hope your Holiday Knitting is just as fun!
Happy 4th of July weekend!

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!

What's a surefire way to...

...increase the number of projects you have on needles at any given point? Well, if you're like me, it means you've finished one and started 12 more. Or something close to that feeling.

A couple of years ago, I started 'filling in the blanks' when I joined Ravelry. And it's really helped me get organized with what yarn I have and to some lesser degree kept me from shopping for more. Well, maybe. I can say that it's put it into a better perspective. That's probably much more accurate. And I'm glad. I do know that there are times when I have gone and checked into the amounts that I already have on hand, and have chosen to NOT go shopping. Granted, it's rare, but it has happened. What it's also done for me, is to give me a realistic view of how much it takes to knit up a sweater dye lot wise. And it's shown me that I have a lot of mismatched dye lots even when I know I have nearly 45 skeins of Hobby Lobby Sweet Delights Baby in Angel, but then know that they're split into 17 different dye lots. Which, on a good day would be fine for knitting up baby sweaters, but not so good when it comes to knitting up a blanket. I learned my lesson long ago about matching dye lots. Just ask the turtleneck sweater I started for myself in Navy wool where the sleeves don't exactly match the rest of the sweater. I'm not sure I have that one listed on my Ravelry projects list I was so upset with the revelation the day I noticed the difference.

Fast forward to making my Mom's cable sweater for her 2008 birthday. When I had found the Paton's Classic Wool on clearance (no less) at an AC Moore store in NY, I just KNEW I needed to knit Mom a whole sweater. I didn't have a clue at the time which sweater I wanted to knit and since I'd been making mostly baby things I just grabbed all they have of the Too Teal wool sitting on the shelf. After all, I didn't want to get back to California and find that I'd been 'just this much' too short to finish a sweater for Mom. Heaven knows I have enough partial projects just sitting there waiting to be 'never finished' and I don't want to add to that pile. So..all 22 skeins of the Too Teal Wool jumped off the shelf, into the basket and were air sucked into zip lock bags to be shoved into my suitcase and brought home. Great plan-huh?

But here's the thing. Her sweater?

Took less than 7 skeins of yarn. Do the math. 22-7=way too much. So I thought I'd start some more projects. That, I told myself, would chew up a whole lot really fast! Couple of coffee sleeves, .23 skein. More coffee sleeves when Dad lost the first set? .16 of a skein. One tam, nearly one more skein. This was not going nearly as fast as I had hoped. I wanted to create some space in my bins!

So last month as I was pulling wool out of my bins before heading up to NY for the daughter's Master's Degree Graduation, I thought I'd pull a couple of skeins of the Too Teal and knit up a pair of socks for a4A! Yea, This would do the trick! After all when I knit for the medical transport for the troops, it goes right through a fair amount of yarn quickly! This was a fabulous idea! After all I had bits and pieces of black left over from black wool hats that would work well for the toes and cuffs. Oh baby, we were going to go to to town and burn up some needles. That feeling lasted until you learn I had this much left over after knitting up ...

...not just a pair of socks but also a Mushroom Cap as well!

Now, I know that the label says Merino Wool, but I'm thinking there has GOT to be some rabbit in there making it multiply. It just won't go away. And it's ooooooooooooooooooh so NOT my favorite color to work with. Here I thought it would just get used up fast and I could start more prepromised projects that I've had rattling around in my head. So, putting those left overs away, I got to working on some little projects that I had been waiting to do. Apparently one wasn't enough because...

Here's six more that I started since Thursday of last week. And my grey sweater and Mom's white hat and brother's black and red hat isn't anywhere to be seen, are they?

I'm thinking if you want the size of your project pile to be increased? Just tell yourself that you have to work out of your stash of yarn and the list of projects that you actually intended to do specifically for people who KNOW that you promised them that you would..and you'll not have to worry about having something on your needles.

Now, of course, I'm not going to tell you how to determine which one you're going to work on first, because three of those things were all started on Friday, and the other three were started on Saturday.

Yes, by me. Yes, while I'm on ice and pain pills. I'm guessing that it's my short attention span due to the pain pills that's causing it all to get so out of control.

My story and I'm sticking to it. Because I have eight more projects all charted out and ready to go. I'm not sure that I can hold out much longer and keep from casting them on. I do have the needles - that's what happens prior to having Ravelry so you're not aware that you already own a gazillion and twelve pairs of (US) 7's (4.5mm) and you end up picking up one more to go.

And Ravelry tells me I still have 13.45 skeins of Too Teal left all in the same dye lot. But Mom doesn't need another sweater in the same color and I can't wear that color.

Recognize the colors?

I decided awhile back that some of the 'stash' has GOT to go! It's prompted me to find ways to knit it up between other must do projects..after all there was NO way I was going to just toss it out! So, in that vein, I dove in to the gajillion skeins of "too teal" Paton's Wool that I have left over from knitting Mom's cable sweater. While reading though one of the afghans for Afghans' newsletter, I found the link to Elizabeth's Sock Class. Since making socks is one of my newest goals in knitting that will fit me, I'm open to practicing on lots of different sizes, with different fibers to learn new tricks. http://afghansforafghansknitalong.blogspot.com/2010/01/sock-class-part-1-cast-on-and-knit-cuff.html is where the tutorial/pattern begins. I like it. It is a little different than the last worsted weight pattern that I've been using to make the socks for Ship's Support. And I learned a little bit more as well. I like learning new tricks. Especially when I can carry the tips from one project to another. This pattern wasn't as specific as the previous one had been for me, so I had to learn to do a little bit of 'figuring'. And that's never a bad thing-right?

Having still yet MORE left over, I decided to make another Mushroom cap (#14 for those of you who are keeping track.) This time, I didn't have my notes right at hand, so I looked up the pattern again. Funny how you do something one way for a thousand times, and then go back to the original and find out you've been doing the crown top a little bit different. So this is knit to the actual pattern. http://www.ravelry.com/patterns/library/mushroom-cap-2 I still think these look a little goofy when you lay then on the table (or floor) to take their pictures. However, I'm so happy that the same number of stitches can fit so many different sized heads! It's a natural pattern to pick for charity knitting, because it fits such a variety of head sizes! And that's always a good thing, too.

Off to knit on my socks or maybe Mom's hat that also didn't get done in time for Mother's Day. I'm sitting on ice packs today for my back. That's not fun, but it means I'll not be doing much else until I can breathe without my back 'catching'. Love the ice packs, but really wish I didn't know so much about them.

She's a Birthday Girl!

Happy 23rd Birthday!

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?