Too Cute For Words

I finished this last night and it is so cute! I love it!



The details are:
Baby Shrug from Simply Baby by Debbie Bliss
Cabin Fever Cotton Tweed about 2/3 skein
Size 4 needles, Size 3 for the ribbing
3 evenings watching TV




I wasn't too sure about the yarn at first, some acrylic involved, but it is very nice, DK weight and perfect for the baby for the spring and summer. I forgot how much I love making baby clothes. Instant gratification!

Do Your Socks Match?

This is what I worked on this weekend. They're so comfy. But they don't exactly match. None of my socks do. I've heard of knitters that actually make their socks match but I've never met one. It may be a myth. I can't imagine bothering. They're just socks and it's pretty silly to knit socks anyway.



There are always leftovers with sock yarn so I made more party shoes for Reese. I think she needs a lot of party shoes. But these are made from a new pattern. The ones I usually make are from a very old knitting magazine and I think copyright stuff still applies. So I went a googling and found these Mary Janes that are almost exactly the same as the ones I usually make. So Reese & I will match. Or almost match, like my socks.

H is for Honey

and honeybees. This is the last of our honey from our bees and I've been reluctant to use it all up. There won't be any more since we've lost the hive to Colony Collapse Disease. It made us so sad to lose our girls and we're not going to get any more until there is some sort of resolution for the bees. It's odd to see the hive empty after all these years. If you want to know more about the plight of honey bees, you can read about it here

G Is for Green Truck

I'd like to introduce Mr. Truck's truck. (You didn't think I called him that for nothing, did you?) It's a 1954 Chevy, fully restored to better than new. When it came home on the back of a wrecker, after sitting in a field for 17 years, I asked the wrong question. Instead of how much did you pay for that, I should have asked how much are you going to pay to fix that? But Mr. Truck loves it, maybe more than he loves me and it is the reason he will never, never, ever complain about my knitting or my stash.

Forgetting, Exercise and Knitting

When you become (ahem) a lady of a certain age things begin to happen.
One of these things is that you forget. A lot. In my house, there are
stairs. Stairs going up to the bedrooms and stairs going down to the
cellar. My forgetting always involves these stairs. The thing I've
forgotten is always on a different floor than I am. I get almost all
my exercise through forgetting. It's very good for the thighs and
it's good cardio, too. Our nighttime dance always involves me going
up and down the stairs a few times before I can actually stay in the
bed. Mr. Truck finds this amusing. It goes something like this. Turn
off the TV, turn off the lights, go upstairs, take a shower, get in bed,
realize I've forgotten my drink, get up, go downstairs, go upstairs, get
in bed, realize I've forgotten my knitting,get up, go downstairs, go upstairs,
get in bed, realize I've forgotten the pattern, and so on. This happens
every night. The other night I hit an all-time high, or maybe it's an
all-time low. Here's what happened:
Brought the knitting to bed.Something is obviously wrong, where is the yarn going?
Across the bed,



out the door, across the hall,



down the stairs,




more stairs,



accross the foyer,



oh, caught under the coffee table.



Back up the stairs, again.
Does anyone know if Gingko biloba will help?

Look What's Up and a Meme

Well it's really my neighbor's magnolia tree but it's what we see out the kitchen window so I own the view.

My friend Aim tagged me for a meme. It's my first!

Here are the meme rules:
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 5 facts about yourself.
3. Tag 5 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. I am terrified of bridges, for no reason at all.
2. I own a 1963 Mini Cooper that Mr. Truck is restoring. I used to drive it on the road, with the kids in it.
3. I had no idea what a meme was until very recently.
4. Scary movies give me nightmares.
5. I have a degree in Horticulture, completely useless in real life.
6. This linking is really hard.

Now watch out
Becki
Margie
Diane
Stacie
Carolyn
I'm on my way to tag you.

What Did You Make This Weekend?

I made these:




Two pairs of party shoes for Reese. But I don't have two buttons the same that will fit. Off to the button store!

A Picture's Worth a Thousand Words

At least that's how many words I've used to try to explain to Mr. Truck what kind of a picture I want him to take. Not my head, stitch detail, not my bottom...he's just not getting it. But I've found a someone who understands: Cherry Pie. (Reese's mommy and our DD #1). She did a pretty good job with my last cardigan picture and she immediately understood what I wanted. So, without further ado, here is the work of my new photographer:

Look What's Up

Grape hyacinth



the PJM rhododendrons, as they promised last week



and even more daffodils

For the Love of Ravelry

For so much of my knitting life, I've been knitting alone. No one I know "in real life" knits or wants to talk about my knitting. My family is sort of tolerant of me although Mr. Truck does brag a bit now and then. And then Jess & Casey started Ravelry and gave me 105,000 new friends to knit with. Now they need my help and yours, too, if you're in Rav. Did you know that Ravelry is in the red? That they need a new server? That we can win prizes by donating? If you go to this thread you can read all about it. Then you can get a new Ravatar, maybe one of these:

Dancing with Mr. Truck

Well, it's not really dancing, straight, white guy, no rhythm you know.
But,if you've been with someone long enough, there's a dance you do together. Maybe you have one of your own. Ours is not very well choreographed but it is well rehearsed. I dust, he vacuums. I make the shopping list and pick things out, he pushes the cart and bags. I get the garbage ready, he drags it out to the curb. He does the lawn, I do the flowers. I lose things, he's the "finder of all lost things." (Except for my glasses, but that's a whole 'nother story.) I have no idea how things work, he can make anything work. I push all the buttons, he reads the manuals. He is actually "the keeper of all the manuals." We have manuals for everything, even things we have long since thrown out. They are in Mr. Truck's special file that no one is allowed to touch.



So it goes like this: "Mr. Truck, how do I turn off the flash on my camera?" "Why?" "For my knitting pictures. See, they look like this,



the red is all faded." (big sigh) "Did you read the manual?" "Manual?" (even bigger sigh) "I'll get it for you." Two days go by. "Mr. Truck, what are you doing?" "Still looking for your camera manual, you must have thrown it out." Another day goes by."I found it!" "What? Where?" "Your camera manual, in the mumble mumble mumble."



"Oh, in the manual file? What does it say?" "It says push that button!" So I pushed that button and look! Much better now.

For Love or Money

Recently on the knitlist, the topic of what to charge for your knitting came up. This happens pretty often and I usually breeze through those posts. But I started thinking about it this time. How much would I charge? I hate it when people who, well-meaningly I'm sure, compliment your knitting by telling you "you should sell that." It takes a really long time to knit something and how much would you get? So, I decided to do an experiment, a knitting experiment. I was half way through a pair of socks, I would time my knitting. How long does it take to knit a sock?




One hour knitting in the car.




Two more hours knitting on the couch.




Three hours knitting while watching a movie on TV.




An hour and a half and it's done including the grafting. That's a total of, ummmmmm, 7 1/2 hours. Now the yarn cost $16.00. My time is worth how much? A pair of socks takes 15 hours. No way would I sell these for less than, I don't know, what do you think? I think I'll only knit for love. The money isn't worth it.

Look What's Up!

Vinca minor, you might call it myrtle,




Pansies (I bought these),




Harry Lauder's Walking Stick, the little purple one is the girl flower and the big funny looking ones are the boy flowers,



Rhubarb, for pies,




and the PJM Rhododendrons will open any minute now.
All these flowers make me smile.