So what happens when a quilter crosses over to become a knitter....ALOT OF UNFINISHED PROJECTS. These beautiful things get stuffed in trunks, in drawers, anywhere really, never to be heard from again, until one day you think...hummm, where is that applique quilt I started 10 years ago, and you go looking for it. And you find it, and you pull it out and you think "wow, this is really beautiful, why did I stop working on it?" You mull over the fact that quite possibly you have adult A.D.D. You admire the unfinished project, you take pictures of it to post on your blog...anxiously awaiting any cyber-validation you may receive..."oh you should finish" or "look at beautiful". And then what do you do? Well, you stuff it all back into the trunk, the drawers, etc. until the next time you decide to take a trip down unfinished business memory lane. Its all very Zen I tell you.
I remember the teacher (this was done in a Baltimore applique class) criticizing my choice of purple and green as a color combination...I loved it then, and I love it now. So there!


The next few are from an Anniversary quilt of the month I did...it is all done by hand and I love the colors. I really should finish this one.




A kaleidescope quilt...all paper piecing. Each block has about 96-100 individual pieces in it...yeah, I know. I got this at a wonderful quilt shop in Hays, Kansas while on a cross country trip back in 1998!


Anyway, I got a great email from Kay of Mason Dixon knitting (love them!) and it prompted me to go on this little treasure hunt. Wonder what tomorrow will bring.

Some finished objects:
An angora and cashmere baby bonnet. Knit "old school" style...for my sister's neighbor. I didn't even know her, but took advantage of an opportunity to try my hand at this hat. It is just gorgeous. The pink accents are crochet chains formed into flower petals.
Another pic:
Our school insignia is the fleur de lis. I knit this on the Florida trip. I kinda made it up as I went along. The fleur de lis was knit separate in one piece then appliqued on. This was knit with Misti Aplaca.

A trip to Florida after Christmas:
Well, what do you do on a log car ride?
January First...and I had a sunburn!
A little birdie told me that I haven't posted for a while...I know, wow, 7 months. That is like eternity in the blog world. I have been busy and got sucked into the wonderful world that is Ravelry!

10 updates:

1. started a knitting group with some neat ladies (all have kids that go to school together)
2. have actually finished several knitted items
3. "inherited" a ton of yarn stash and needles...incredible stuff
4. sent my second child off to college!
5. my third child started high school
6. have stopped opening my 401K statements
7. had a birthday...January 1st
8. am enjoying a snow/ice day right now
9. wondering why I can't just open my own yarn shop
10. always wishing I was knitting

Summer 2008, and welcome to the new porch. We love it out here and as opposed to the back porch, we are able to visit with our neighbors much more than before! All of the wicker you see here comes to me second hand. Much of it quite literally from the side of the road...people throwing it out. I would stop the car, much to my kids chagrin and take it home. A coat of paint and some new cushions and viola...

And on the knitting front:

A dress for niece Shannon, from Debbie Bliss's book.

Some really new yarn...100% organic cotton...So good, I bought it in two colors. Well, can you really say "colors" if its natural???

Some kettle dyed Aracunia...gorgeous I tell ya. Oh, yeah, AND I'm knitting two socks at once on 1 circular needle...the yarn is Lang, I think, and the colorway is Beach. Perfect for this time of year.

The pattern is from this book....a great book if you ask me. It really shows you how to do this.One of my sisters' FO's. I had to repair a small hole for her. It is beautiful cotton. Just perfect for the summer.

So, a quick update on the family: We had PROM


Mothers of the 13 year kids (our school goes from Kindergarten through 12th) Luncheon Graduation....YES, our speaker was Tim Russert. This was just a few short weeks before his tragic passing. He gave a tremendous address and we all felt so sad upon hearing of his death...we all, the class of 2008 and families, felt we knew him. God Bless him.

Then it was onto 8th grade graduation...here is the beautiful girl with her dad and I.
And then our oldest turned 20!! How did that happen.
Then we had a visit from our nephew, his wife and their kids. Here is the baby, Natalie Rose, outside on my back porch...a total fluke shot, but it turned out great.
Graduation parties!

All this, whew...I'm tired. Here's to you all...have a great summer. I will post again soon, I promise.

Cool fair isle hat I made for my daughter...how many hats is this? I think five for her. I used Debbie Bliss Cashmerino...what a great yarn.
The new front porch:


The front porch completely finished....new window. Old wicker..ready to sit and knit a spell?
Long time, no hear....busy busy busy. Some photos for you.

What did I want for Christmas??  A NEW BATHROOM!  Before:

After:  the room was completely gutted. We left all the plumbing the same...tried to save some money that way.  I designed it myself..colors, tiles, etc.  I am rather pleased with the results.
Before:  (I must tell you that it is embarrassing looking at these photos and realizing how long we lived with the bathroom looking like this....yuck!)
After:  do you think that in 30 years someone will look at this and go: "what were they thinking?!"
Christmas was wonderful.  I got an Iphone!!  Thank goodness my daughter is home from college so that she can show me how to use it.  I also have a new mac book which is very user friendly and much better and quicker than my old laptop.  I hope you all are wonderful and are enjoying these slower paced post-Christmas days!

We now interrupt your regularly scheduled blog for some home repair.  Ok, so two important things have happened recently:  our upstairs bathroom is FINALLY being re-done and my purse was stolen from my kitchen countertop early yesterday morning...yep...thief cut right through the screen...took it.  Of course it had everything in it...my wallet, my cell phone, my ipod, my palm pilot....everything! I called the police and they came but they really didn't help at all....other than taking the report and giving me the phone number to call the local pawn shops.  So today is busy with the business of re-loading everything...trip to MVA, trip to the Social security admin., bank, etc.  UGH....

I will post some pictures of the before and after bathroom...soon, I promise. 

Question of the day:

If a blogger doesn't post for a few weeks, is it still a blog?

That's your meditation for the day. Think on it, and it will give me time to come up with a good enough excuse as to why I have not been posting for awhile. Anyway, I finally was invited to join Ravelry. It is wonderful but it really is a black hole where you get sucked into for hours and a typical day goes from "I am going to sit here with my coffee and check out what others are doing with this Cascade 220" to "dinner!?, what dinner?!..fend for yourself....I'm on a roll here".
You get it. The creators of this website have done something extraordinary...its a huge cyber-knitting circle. You can share your WIP's, your finished projects...questions...they have groups set up so you can find other knitters in your area...and so on and so on. Be patient when you sign up as it took a couple of months for me to get my invite to officially join.

I have been knitting...alot. I have finished two additional pairs of socks. A ski hat for a friend of my daughter's, other Christmas gifts which I cannot mention as I don't want to spoil the surprise.

Is it me, or have the Christmas ads started even earlier this year. Wow, I couldn't believe it....but I have to be honest...I LOVE Christmas....I love the music, the shopping, the baking, the stupid Christmas romantic movies...I love it all. So, looking on the bright side, I get to spend more time doing stuff that I enjoy...baking, etc.

Also, I have decided that my new favorite show on tv (and trust me, I watch ALOT of tv--what did I do without DVR), is Paula Deen on HD. My husband and family love it as well and we typically watch it together deciding which of her dishes we want to make. I just found out that she will be in DC later this month....wouldn't it be fun to meet her.

Ok...I will post pictures as asap. Kisses everyone.

Ok, so I just finished re-reading my own post, and I cannot tell you how distressed I am about the number of spelling errors. Its bad, I tell ya. Sr. Eileen would be very upset with me....she always told me to watch out for those "typewriter gremlins". So, please forgive me, and know that I am much smarter than that post would have you realize. Peace.

Again, I apologize for the delay in posting....but much has been happenning.
First things first....I finished the POMATOMUS socks!! Here they are in all their glory.....Like another blogger friend, they are not exactly the same size...but nothing that a little blocking can't fix.









They really are quite beautiful and will look great peeking out from under my jeans. I did the first sock entirely with two circs, but I did the second sock with my Lantern Moon sox stixs--something about not having all that dangling stuff...just felt better.



Went to New York City with my sisters. Here we are at Tavern on the Green having brunch. That place is gorgeous. We were all a little tired, after staying up VERY late the past two nights. (and I mean seriously late...try 4:30am)...yep.



Dinner at the Tribeca Grill on Saturday. I have to say that I think I order the best dinner...lamb chops..they were perfect. Didn't see Bobby DeNiro, but did sot Jon Stewart walking down the street earlier in the day....didn't get a pic though...we were trying to be cool man. Also, didn't go to any yarn shops while we were there...even though Erin and I both would have liked to. Other than where we had reservations, we pretty much "flew by the seat of our pants" the monkey socks...knit with Lorna's Laces
Rain Forest..a special dye lot that was created for Jimmy Beans Wools. Only 50 skeins were produced. I am using the Lantern Moon Ebony sox stix in a size two. I love this needles..even though they are outrageously expensive. Check out the Jimmy Beans Wool website. They are awesome and their customer service is incredible. They are doing gift bags for the celebs at the Emmys...oh to be a star.
We have another teenager in the house....yep, Delia turned 13! That makes three of them. They are all wonderful though...most of the time...We ate crabs, crabs, crabs. Mary and Craig must of sat there for hours as evidenced by the pile of detritus in front of them...which was probably the second pile as we had an intermission of sorts to clean up prior to the "second shift'. It was a beautiful day...





Which brings me to the Gryffindor hat. This is the "Oh My" yarn which is incredibly soft. I was in my LYS and happened to notice these two colors which quite frankly you don't see often. I quickly grabbed both skeins (one of red, the other of mustard) and knit this hat very quickly one day. She was so excited despite the fact that she says she really is more Ravenclaw than Gryffindor (sorry all you non-HP people out there...if this is boring you). She cannot wait to wear it...but the downside to that is there is about 100 midshipmen who now want a hat........better get started.



Ok, more to come. I hope all is well. To my knitting group...miss you all...Jane are in your house yet??

I cannot believe that is has been almost a month since I posted. I am very sorry to you all. I wish I could say that I have been busy...and probably I have been, but really its just the kids, the house, you name it. We went on vacation...a beautiful beach vacation and I had all my babies with me--finally! I think Mary has crossed over into official "adultdom" as she would rather sit on the beach reading, than playing in the water or going out to the boardwalk. In the meantime, my sons don't really like the beach and therefore played about hundred rounds of mini putt-putt. Delia was sort of in between---she just turned thirteen and is so much fun to be around (most of the time). So, until next June, I now have THREE teenagers! Yikes.

I have been helping my sister with her knitting. She is really into it....and the funny thing is, she never sticks to a pattern. She calls me and says "I like the pattern in this book, but can we change the collar" or "I like this purse, but I don't want to do the cable" or my personal favorite, "I love this pattern, and I bought this yarn for it...I know its not what they recommended, but can you make it work?" And then she hands me a DK weight yarn for a super bulky pattern. AHHHH. I admire her bravery--I would have never been altering patterns as a novice knitter. But she just plows on through. She had her last chemo yesterday--YEE HAW. And we are going to NYC in a couple of weeks to celebrate. It will be just the 6 sisters...and we are pretty excited about it.

I was also going to put in some pictures, but I am at a different computer and I forgot to bring my camera thingy (that's a technical term for the thing you use to attach the camera to the computer). Anyway I have some wonderful photos of the beach, and of some new projects. Not the least of which is Ravenclaw socks for my 19 yr old Harry Potter fan, as well as a Gryffindor hat made with that fabulous Oh MY yarn. I am almost done those freaking pomatomus socks and when I do, you will hear the shouts of joy echoing down the Chesapeake Bay.

So, photos soon.

Can anyone tell me what the heck "Ravalry" is?

WOW,
Has it really been a month since I posted. I am so sorry. I hate to say that I have been busy...but there you have it. I have been busy. I direct a summer camp for the performing arts in addition to work, etc. AND, to top it off, we are going to the beach! Here are three generations in my family...me, my mom and my daughter, who just got back from a cruise with the NAVY to Sydney, Australia to Guam to Okinawa, Japan. She had some beautiful pictures and is slowly getting over her jet lag....because, like I said before, we are off to the beach...I love, love, love the beach. Its such a great vacation...reading, sunning...drinking...and let's not forget, KNITTING.
So, here is a bit of what I have been working on:

RED SOCKS!! For my boy!

A die-hard Boston Fan.

Dishcloths.....mindless, quick and oh so fun! The yarn is $1.49 a skein--seriously, and you can make about one and a half with one skein...hence the color variation in the blue...ran out of one variegated and so just started with another...love em.
A v-neck sweater for my beautiful baby nephew....just have to finish it off...got a wicked case of finishitis on this one.
Yep, I did buy MORE yarn...for baby booties and hats for the newest member of the extended family, due in December. You should feel this stuff--I touched it and went "oh my"--and laughed out loud when I saw the label! Better yet, it was on sale!

And my most exciting news: we have a NEW KNITTER! Here is my sister with her first completed project--a knitted bag to hold her knitting. She is an awesome knitter...check it out...

And also, a designer...since she pretty much followed a pattern and then completely changed it...like for example, putting it horizontally instead of vertically....using i-cord for handles...I mean it took me years to attempt to DESIGN anything or go outside the pattern...but she has no fear and is addicted....seriously....her are more photos of the bag-
I helped her line it....and added some pockets as well.
Her stitching is great....very even....

So there you have it...not much....but some. I promise to upload more frequently and to post pictures of our vacation. In the meantime...I hope all of you are enjoying the weather, the warmth, friendships and of course, great yarn!