Pierced ears and communion wine

I told my girls they can get their ears pierced when they are 12. Anna turned 12 in December but being a bit nervous about it decided to wait. The wait ended this weekend, if you look closely you will see the glimmer of newly pierced ears sporting a tiny post. smile...to her suprise, it didn't even hurt! So my oldest girl continues to grow by leaps and bounds and now has beautiful earrings in place. Emily was in a funk as she is NOT 12 and declares life is NOT fair that she must wait as long as Anna did and she is NOT a baby and WHY does it have to be this way. sigh.....

Sunday involved the final communion class for Emily which entailed tasting the wine and wafers before the church service on the 8th. This way the initial reaction of the wine taste is done not in front of a crowd, just in front of the familes. Reactions ranged from Emily's crinkling of her nose, to a boy literally being wrestled up to the front by his mother where he then drank the wine to no obvious ill effects. funny kids...Emily was fine until a few minutes after drinking the wine, she burped and apparently the after taste was way worse than the actual drinking! Her reactions had me silently shaking in the pew with laughter. But I'm confident she will be fine when drinking the wine in church.

My knitting is taking a turn of never finishing ANYTHING. While I got the glove this far...I now get to add the "pretty part" of rows of "welting" and a section with a cable in it. But all the sudden I'm tinkering with another idea, while I have not one but two socks on the needles, not even the same pair, both past the heels, whipping down the foot, but still this idea has been rolling around in my head. I've seen the "blankie" by Shellie Kang, simply using a mitered square with the left over sock yarn she accumulated (on her own and with the extra help from the Yarn Harlot). It is very pretty. So I decided to do something similar. I found a basic how to knit a mitered square and just started. I toyed with actually knitting the new squares on to a previous one in an effort to reduce on the seaming and weaving in of ends, but didn't like how that looked and knew I'd really have to plan out the colors as I went, not at the end. So I'm just making squares and will (Lord help me) join them together at the end. I don't even know what I will end up with yet. It could be a baby blanket. It could be a pillow. It could be a scarf. It could be nothing! So far, I have 3 1/2 squares done. I doubt strongly I will do this straight through, but see it as something to do as I'm doing other things. Why that appeals to me I'm not sure...but here are 2 of the finished squares.

I see one advantage of sewing the squares together, while I will refrain from using some of my thicker sock yarn, it will have some sligh variation in size which if I'm careful, I can camouflage somewhat in the seaming process and by blocking as well. I have a variety of colors so feel like this will be my knitted version of a scrap quilt. Who knows, it may turn out less than pretty or really be unique and special. We will see as the knitting goes on. Any bets on how long this will take me?

Free Yarn

Can you believe how stunning this yarn is? It is Wollmeise yarn. That elusive yarn hard to find in the wild, but the Loopy Ewe (http://www.theloopyewe.com/) has this yarn in though it flies off the shelf as soon as it arrives. I was lucky enough to win this skein for making a comment on Sheri's blog. And it is amazing. This is the second time I've won yarn from The Loopy Ewe. It is wonderful stuff. I'm not sure what I'm going to make out of it, but whatever it is, it will be mine. smile...

I'm also working on some gloves out of Silky Wool, which I found at my LYS near work called Beyagi's, (http://www.beyagi.com/) it is a wonderful gem of a store. Has yarn, beads and gifts galore. The ladies are wonderful and very knowledgeable as well. They had the most vibrant colors of Silky Wool and a nice supply of it as well. When the owner saw I had some in my hands, she quickly showed me a book by Elsebeth Lavold called "Designer's Choice, Book Seventeen, The small things matter collection". The entire book is filled with patterns using Silky Wool. Now that was being a great saleswoman, not only did I leave with 2 skeins of yarn, I added the book. After going home and reviewing the book I returned and bought another 2 skeins of the yarn to make Anna a glove and hat set. Silky Wool is a great rustic looking washable yarn, perfect for gloves/mittens and the price can't be beat. I started some gloves for Anna, basic gloves until you add the last section by picking up stitches from the bottom of the glove and knit out using a Nordic cable pattern. Not much to show you right now, but here it is.

Long time no write

Over a week and no posting. Life had several curve balls this last week, but everything has been resolved. Lots of changes but things seem to be ok for now. I made progress on the lipstick sock, cruising towards the toes...did I say cruising? well it must be on my mind. My mom and my girls and I planned to go on a cruise in July after my nieces wedding. But we decided not to do that. While it is disappointing, it is life. Instead I will spend my cruise money on repairs to my old but reliable van. And one splurge for me. I'm doing it. I'm getting myself a spinning wheel. So in the next couple of weeks I hope to be able to post that I went and bought myself a wheel. A good friend of mine said it best when I explained we would not be able to go on the planned cruise. "You will get many hours of enjoyment for years out of the spinning wheel versus the fleeting (but wonderful) time spent on the cruise." The girls and I will go on a cruise someday but just not now. That works for me

still winter

So I'm farther along on the grey, black, cream socks. In fact there are hints of a blue grey in there as well. I altered the pattern, started out doing one of the lovely vintage sock patterns, a broken rib pattern that gives it a thermal underwear look which I like, but I didn't want to do the calf shaping or other "vintage" additions, so I just morphed it into a simple cuff pattern, my regular heel flap, and will do a stockinette foot. I'm just past the gussets and working on the foot section, so a bit farther than this picture. While I like the yarn a lot (Cherry Tree Hill) I'm struggling with the colors. In Minnesota in March it can just be depressing. We had (hopefully) the last winter storm yesterday/last night. It is -3 with a windchill of probably -15 at the moment. It gets old, everything is monochromatic. The ground is still snow covered, trees black and barren, lakes and pounds still frozen over, even if it is turning into rotten ice. But everything is white, grey, or black with many shades in between. But it is just in the hard phase of life here right now. So last night after getting home with the girls from piano lessons, driving on slick ice covered roads, sidewalk buried again in snow from the wind, I looked through my yarn and pulled out a red and pink Claudia's Handpainted skein called lipstick and wound it and am searching for just the right pattern to begin another pair of socks. Because I just can't look at more black, white, and grey yarn, no matter how nice it is nor how nice it is working up.

So just maybe the next picture will be of some lipstick colored, snow melting yarn flying into tootsie warming socks....

March Knitting Madness

So February was not a great blogging month, nor knitting month. However, I did finish a pair of socks, Harry Potter yarn in the Tonks colorway. They are on their way even as I type to my sister in the wild north woods of Wisconsin for her birthday on Thursday. It will be the first pair of hand knit socks for my sister. And it was hard for me to let them go. The colors are so bright and cheery for our end of the winter grayness that threatens to envelope a person.

These socks also are pair 2 in my yearly quest to knit 12 pairs of socks this year, so I'm on target. I started the next pair, may use a pattern out of the Vintage socks book, but it is looking a bit small at the moment. I will keep working and see what I think once I get onto the patterned section...It is Cherry Tree Hill sock yarn which I really like in shades of gray, black, and white...hmmmm just what I'm seeing outside, may not have been the best choice to get past the monochromatic world I'm living in at the moment.

Lack of Knitting Mojo

Actually it isn't lack of mojo, it has been that the last two weeks it has been just the girls and me. Mom is on vacation in Arizona, and between working full time and doing house stuff, homework, church activities, and music lessons and being sick on top of it, there just hasn't been much knitting accomplished. But the tide is turning, I can feel it. It isn't spring, since we just got hammered with our worst winter storm of the year, so it must be the return of knitting all the time fever! Throw in a little spinning and I'm getting excited!

So while I have no new knitting pictures (however, Tonks socks are done except for toe kitchnering) I will throw in this lovely shot of Gadget. Taken by Emily. Gadget you will notice is wearing the latest style in headgear. Coffee filter with ear holes cut out. I just love his expression.....he is one patient dog.

Blink and a week goes by

Mom left for Arizona last week, arrived safely and is having a fun relaxing warm time with family and friends. The girls and I hibernated for most of the weekend. I was able to sleep for long stretches of time and feel the tide has turned on the cold that lasted for a month. So not right.

Even though it was Knit Out at MOA last weekend, instead we travled to Lakeville and went to Knitter's Pallette. It was a lovely store, light and bright, I could drool over the wheels and dream of the day I will have one. Someday. I picked up some fiber Emily fell in love with, looks like Neopolitan ice cream...pinks...creams...browns...spins up nicely.

I also started Ellen's hat. She picked out yarn before Christmas as her birthday present and left up the pattern to me. I found a nice beret pattern, simple cables. Yarn matched well but it just ate up the yarn. So 2 months after buying the yarn I went back to Amazing Threads and picked up another skein. A different dye lot, but even looking in the weak daylight that is February in Minnesota, I can't see much if any difference. I'm decreasing at the crown, so hopefully will be finished tomorrow.

And since I have no yarn shots, a snap of Emily while we were at church waiting for Anna to finish piano lessons. I'm a blessed momma.