The Best of 2007 or at least the biggest

Last winter I bought the magazine Knitting because of the poncho by Nicky Epstein. I loved it! So I started. A year later it was finished. I picked this one because it is the biggest ^%$#@ thing I have ever knit. I knit all those little triangles, ran out of yarn, bought more, knit a bazillion yards of icord and then I couldn't for the life of me figure out how to put the thing together. Mr. Truck to the rescue. Then it was hours of seaming the things up (mattress stitch is my friend, mattress stitch is my friend...) then the hopeless task of making the *&^% knot out of the icord. Abandoned that, even Mr. Truck couldn't figure it out. (Sorry Nicky but you're obviously smarter than we are). Then it was hot out so I stuffed the thing in the closet in the hopes all those little ends would just disappear or maybe there would be a darning in the ends fairy somewhere. No luck. So I took it out of the closet and darned in all the ends myself. Now I actually wear it. I must say I've gotten a lot of compliments. We were in the little grocery store buying candy for the gingerbread house and a lady behind me kept saying "excuse me." Trying to be polite, I kept moving, she kept saying "excuse me." Finally, she said "I'm trying to look at your poncho." Oops. So this poncho qualifies as my best or at least biggest and longest project ever. And I have learned a lesson: never anything like this again!

Family Traditions

How do you know when something will become a family tradition?

Would you do it differently if you had known? A long time ago, I thought making a ginger bread house would be a fun thing for us to do at Christmas. After many crazy houses, we had perfected ours. No longer did we need pins, rubber bands, hot glue, calk, and luck to hold it together. (yes, all those things were actually used, not all at once, though) We knew which candy made perfect wreaths, how to shingle the roof with frosted mini wheats, the best recipe for the royal icing and how to tie twizzlers into perfect bows. Our candy lights were on the house in perfect (read non-duplicated) order, our snow in the yard was just right. Then we had grandchildren and here is what happened to our house. Actually, this year is quite a bit better than last year. Opa says it doesn't matter what the house looks like, they will remember this tradition and tell their children, maybe even make one themselves. And maybe their children will have snowmen jumping off the roof, too!

P.S. really think twice about a 5 year old boy and a pastry bag full of royal icing.

Merry Christmas

Every year for the past who knows how many years I make an ornament for family and friends. Why I do this is a mystery but it gets harder every year to come up with a new idea. Presenting the 2007 model. I made these

out of 2 skeins of Patons Brilliant in red and a little leftover in gold, and a very little leftover in Dale Baby Ull in dark red. 24 made and ready to give and it's only December 13!!!! Hope your Christmas knitting is going well.

Guilt, cell phones, and the obligatory pet pictures.

Olivia & Evan got new winter coats and Olivia would like Grammy to make her a scarf & hat to match. Evan doesn't want any. OK Olivia, how's this:








Olivia's mommy sends me this on the cell phone: Isn't she cute!

This the next picture: Evan wants one too! Doesn't he look cold? Such Grandma guilt!

This is much better!

Aren't cell phone pictures fun? This is George, our grand-dog. Olivia dressed him up in the sweater I knit for her a couple of years ago. Her mommy was worried I would be mad but her daddy sent me the picture.

And now for the obligatory pet pictures: This is Phantom cleaning Dunkin. He always ends up biting the poor dog, but Dunkin loves the attention. (They are both on a diet.)

Something to ponder

Now, I've been knitting up a storm with the baby things for Miss Willy Nilly and DSIL asked DD had I always knitted. And she said yes but sometimes more than others. And then she asked me why did it seem that I'd been knitting more lately, besides the obvious baby frenzied knitting, and I've been thinking about that quite a bit. So, I've come to some conclusions, at least for me. First, there's just the two of us now, and we like to be home on the weeknights, so there's more time. Next, there's just the two of us now and we have more money. Third, the internet, whether it be blogs, the knitlist, ezines, or now Ravelry has given me much more access to a lot of knitting. And last, I think, is that there are more and more yarns, fibers, and patterns available. When I was pregnant with this DD, there was Grant's down the street and that's where I bought the pattern books and the acrylic yarn. If they didn't carry it, not only didn't I buy it but I didn't even know about it. I don't even remember a proper LYS anywhere or at least anywhere I went. So my question is, what makes everyone else knit?

It's a Girl!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

It's official, we found out yesterday at the shower and here she is! Now all the things I knit that don't have buttons yet can get finished. I am so happy but I think I would be just as happy with a boy.

I think I'm honored

This is one of 9 ruffled purses I made for DD's wedding last year. I have to say I really hated them by the end, why I did this I can only claim some sort of generosity insanity. Anyway, I entered this as one of my projects in Ravelry yesterday and today I got mail. Someone named KHM (am I the only one without some sort of crafty name) who is a volunteer editor asking my permission to use my picture on the page for the ruffled purse by Nicky Epstein. Of course they may, so when you go to Ravelry look for my purse!
PS KHM said my work would be famous!

I figured it out!

I finally figured out what Ravelry is all about. It is a time warp! You could just lose yourself in time looking at people, patterns, FO's, ughs, whatever. But so fun. Someone left a comment on one of my FO's, I could have friends, I can find whatever. But I'm supposed to be working. Uh oh!

(The picture is a baby blanket out of Cottonease, alternating squares of stocinette & reverse stockinette w/ a garter stitch border. )

From the ridiculous to the sublime

The last post was about the Cartman hat. This one is all about what I like. The set is for DD's baby, grandchild #3, who is due in January. For the firstborn of my firstborn I picked something beautiful and soft but washable for it's mother who would felt all things knitted. Yarn: Dale Baby Ull, the romper from the Dale book, the boy's hat I just knit, the booties I've been knitting forever but I have seen the same ones on the internet. The girl's bonnet is a fiddling with the bonnet in the same Dale book to add the cables and the "party shoes" (as our family calls them) are from an old Pengouin book that probably dates back to the '80's. (And no I didn't take this picture on 1/1/02 I just don't know to fix that on the camera!) I hope DD will bring the baby home in this, that's what I made it for but I at least want a picture of the baby wearing it. Size one needles, very thin wool, this takes time. I want that picture. I actually deserve that picture and I think it should be a professional one!

For this they're impressed?

DD wants to be a Southpark kid or maybe some of her friends do (they're all around 30 would you believe?) and can I knit this hat? So I knit the hat out of really cheap acrylic and they can't believe it. All the beautiful things I've made and this cheezy hat makes them so happy.