I'm back, but leaving again

And then leaving AGAIN!

This next week is going to be a BLAST! Tomorrow morning I am leaving for an abbreviated version of our late summer Girls' Weekend at the Lake. Everyone else will get a full version, but I can only stay until early Saturday afternoon.

We'll have our usual fun. We'll eat too much,
Drink too much play LOTS of poker and just be downright silly. It's going to be hard to tear myself away after only being there little more than 24 hours. But I really want to go even though it's for a short time.

I'll drive back home and finish getting myself and the family ready for our early morning flight on Sunday. We are jetting off to the beach for one last hurrah before school starts.


We fly into Myrtle Beach on Sunday morning. We'll be staying at the Caravelle Resort. This is where we stayed the one and only other time we were in Myrtle Beach. We got a "School Daze" special so decided to splurge for the oceanfront executive suite. Why the heck not?

Jake was just a little tyke when we were there before...he doesn't even remember it. But I remember ....he LOVED chasing the waves. I wonder if he'll still love it as much. Kaitlyn, on the other hand, remembers it quite well, and says Myrtle Beach is her favorite place on earth. One of the reasons we chose to go back there. Instead of camping. Which is what Mike wanted to do. Hello? Camping? NOT a vacation, especially for the mom. No. Camping is WORK. I want to PLAY! And rest, and relax....
like this or this or this

So while I'm at the coast, I will mosey on down to Pawley's Island and check out the 2 yarn stores there( Island Knits and Elegant Stitch), and there is one that I found in Myrtle Beach too (Knitting up a Storm). Does anyone know of any others in the vicinity that I can visit if we happen to get rain (which it looks like we are going to...according to the forecast, but then...what do they know?) I'm hoping for sun, really I am, but I wouldn't mind a couple hours of rain to give me a guilt-free excuse to go yarn shopping!


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The garden is still exploding, though some things have slowed down. I am no longer picking 6 zucchini a day, or a dozen cucumbers, or 2 dozen pickles. However, the tomatoes are now going bonkers and no matter how many I pick there are still hundreds left out there for the wildlife to chew on. I have given away (this is NOT an exaggeration....) HUNDREDS of pounds of produce from my garden this year, not to mention using a LOT myself. Besides having friends, family or coworkers to pawn it off on, we ended up taking about 8 grocery bags full to the local food pantry (and still, the next day, every flat surface in my kitchen was covered in produce)

I have made enough pickles to last all winter long, even though I've taken countless jars to every family function we've been to all summer. I have made enough zucchini muffins, brownies, cookies, stir fries to make me not care if I ever see another zucchini (until next summer) My freezer is filling up with tomato soup (ask me in February how good it tastes, and if I remember how much I complained about the exploding garden). I've made lots of salsa, and have convinced my brain that the Sun Gold cherry tomatoes are candy, since there is a bottomless bowl of them on the counter. No matter how many I eat, there is just as many in the bowl. (Jake picks them when I'm not looking) I mean, when you can go out to your garden with a Tupperware "That's a Bowl" bowl and almost fill it, just with cherry tomatoes, you've got a good crop! The Snow White cherry tomatoes are yummy too....I don't have quite as many of those as the Sun Gold.

I feel like I am taking a vacation from my garden, if nothing else. It sure has monopolized a lot of my time this summer. I wonder what it will look like when I get home.....

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On the knitting front:
I finished knitting another version of my new felted bag pattern, and will hopefully get the pattern to the printer shortly after getting home from vacation. I also knit another moebius scarf for the shop. This one is done in stripes of black Bamboo and black/tan/brown Fur Real, both by South West Trading Company. It's very cute. I have several students signed up for the moebius class already. Classes start after Labor Day. We've had kind of a hiatus from classes, due to lack of interest, over the summer, but things are picking up again!

I am debating what I want to take with me to knit while gone. I have been itching to start another pair of socks, and since that is a portable project, I'm sure that will be one thing I take. I have also fallen in love with several of the lace projects that Jane has knit recently so may take along some skinny yarn and skinny needles and try to create something lovely.

When I get back I'm going to cut the sleeves off my denim jacket and knit some new ones. Here's Diane's jacket (we both got denim jackets at thrift stores when I visited her at Easter...she got her project done WAY before me...isn't it cute?)

Anyway, I won't be around for a while...I don't even think I'll be taking the laptop with me, so unless I can squeeze in another post on Saturday evening, I'll say adios for now!

Miss me? Well, here's the story....

Several weeks ago I went to post an entry and found I couldn't gain access to my blogger account. After about 10 days of emails back and forth with no results, Miri told me that when she went to my blog she noticed that my posts now said they were written by "Jake". WELL! That was my AHA! moment. My little 8 year old sweetie hacked my blogger account! That was last Thursday that we figured this out, and I have still been trying since then to get it all straightened out. All this time I was fuming at blogger when he had gone in and tried to create an account, but my account was signed on, so when he typed his info, it changed everything here. So....I thought I'd pop on real quick to let you know why I haven't posted in a while.

Believe me, I've had a lot to say and it's been very frustrating to not be able to post! Finally today I got a link to reset my password, etc, so I am in the process of getting everything back to where it was before. I will write a real post later tonight.

(heavy sigh of relief to have the blog back under my control!)

Take me (and my knitting) out to the ball game....

Wow, isn't this a cool idea??? I would have liked to have been sitting among the knitters at that ball game. What a fun experience, I'm sure!

This 'N That

On the knitting front:
The new felted bag pattern I am working on has been knit and felted, and has told me what revisions need to be made. Starting it over tomorrow when I get more yarn. It's pretty cute!

It is knit with the new Karaoke yarn from South West Trading Company. It's 50% wool and 50% soy silk. It's great to knit with, and felts up nicely. Gives off a fair amount of fuzz in the process, but produces a nice felted fabric. It's a bit on the soft side, like Noro Kureyon, so I wouldn't use it for something that is going to get a lot of wear and tear, but for a small bag I think it will work out just fine.

Of course the pattern can be knit with 100% wool also. I need to knit up a sample in wool so I can see what the difference in size/shape might be. Look for the pattern soon on my sidebar.


I thought my favorite yarn was Noro Blossom, but now I'm thinking alpaca is neck and neck with the Blossom....I knit with alpaca for the first time when I did a moebious scarf from Cat Bordhi's A Second Treasury of Magical Knitting. I picked up the book at Threadbear when I was there and finally decided it was time to do more than drool over the awesome projects in this book. I taught myself the moebious cast on (first time, thanks to great instructions and photos...thanks Cat!) and found that yes, it is truly magical. The first hour or so I just kept commenting to myself "This is SOOO cool!" If you haven't yet experienced the magical moebious knitting, you really should do so. It's mind bending!

Anyway, the alpaca moebious is lovely...needs blocking before a photo, and will be the store sample. I will be teaching the moebious cast on in a class in the fall.
I think Mike will be getting a lovely moebious scarf for ice fishing this winter. I love how it can cover your neck and head with no ends flapping around.



Nature News:
The fountain that Mike gave me for Mother's Day is now home to a bunch of tadpoles. I am surprised that a frog could get in my fountain to lay eggs, but I guess she did. I won't be turning it on any time soon....don't want to send the little swimmers for a ride through the pump!

My garden is going positively bonkers. The zucchini is growing on average of 6" overnight. We are on a twice-daily picking schedule so as to not grow any baseball bat (or bigger) zucchinis. I have been making pickles every single day. Between Sunday morning and Monday afternoon I made 12 qts. 38 pickles were picked in that time. Sunday we picked our first cucumber. Yesterday? 10 more. I am giving produce away by the bagful. I gave 2 bags to the lady who delivered my flowers yesterday, another bag to my SIL when she picked up her kids an hour later, and another bag to Jake's friend's mom this morning. It's craziness! From 4 plants each! Heaven help me when the hundreds of tomatoes that are weighing down the vines start ripening ALL AT ONCE! (I did overplant the tomatoes....but how can you turn down 30 heirloom tomato plants in lots of different varieties, for free? You can't. You put them in the ground and are happy for whatever delicious, delightful tasty treats are bestowed upon you.) The extra hot/humid weather this summer is really doing wonders for these plants, I tell you. The corn that is growing in the farmer's field behind our house is bigger than I've EVER seen it grow.

Off to watch Big Brother.....I really like Kaysar...can't wait to see how his nominations affect the house. And I really liked Eric, for the first show. After that, more and more I thought he was a jerk with WAY too much testosterone shooting through his veins. WHOA! Take it easy, guy!

TTFN!

Exciting news!

Tonight I got the email I've been hoping for....the pattern I submitted for Knitty's fall issue has been accepted! WOO HOO! I am having a hard time believing it....I didn't want to get my hopes up too high, but on the other hand I thought it had a good chance of at least catching Amy's eye, if nothing else. I suppose it's not written in stone yet, but the email said:
"You're in! Congratulations!" so I'm taking that as a YES!

I'm not giving away any details ahead of time, but look for "Bloom" in the next issue of Knitty. (OMG!)

UPDATE: My loving, thoughtful hubby had a beautiful bouquet of flowers sent to me today. When I told him the news last night, I didn't think he "got" how much this meant to me, but he must've been down-playing it so the flowers today would be more of a surprise. What a sweetie....

Pinky the Bear

On Tuesday I knit this bear from a Fiber Trends pattern. It was a pretty quick knit, and I was just crossing my fingers that it would felt nicely. I am planning on teaching this class for beginners, as a way for them to learn to read a pattern, learn 2 different ways of increasing and 2 different decreases. Also short row shaping with wrap & turn.

Felting is so amazing. This 'not so cute' garter stitch bear leaves a little to be desired, huh? But look how cute Pinky Bear is now!
I did needle-felting to put her face on tonight at the BeeGees meeting.

The color in the "before" photo is more accurate. I just took the "after" photo tonight in low light. I used Plymouth Galway and it took just about 1 skein. I had a very tiny little ball left after sewing up the seams.

I'm playing around with the new feature on Blogger that lets you add photos and trying to get the hang of it. I am going to love this feature....going through Hello was always somewhat of a pain. I'm glad to be able to just insert the pix right into the blogger post, and have a choice of size and position. Yeah!

Knitting Matters

My friend Kim has recently created a new website that is dedicated to providing knitters with lots of information in one place. She is continually working on this new site and I thought you might like to check it out. Let her know how she's doing! Here's the link: Knitting Matters.

Kim also has recently self-published a couple of really cute knitting patterns. Check them out while you're there!

Something Blue

I wish I had a closeup shot of the lace garter I knit for Kim for the wedding. However, I finished it only the day before and gave it to her in a rush. I can still get a picture at some point (they didn't do the garter toss, so this can become an heirloom, and I'm hoping at some point a grandchild of mine will wear it too) I knit it using this pattern .

However, I ended up using a size 1 needle because it took me about 20 minutes to do 2 rows using the 000 needles that I had, and I knew I could never get it done in time that way! I couldn't get the darned needles through those tiny little stitches! And knitting with cotton thread was not my favorite thing in the world, let me tell you. I did my best not to curse, and tried to remember to knit each stitch with love love love.

I ended up not doing the seam binding casing on the back....I just doubled some elastic thread and wove it through the middle and adjusted it to the tightness she wanted, then wove the blue ribbons through the eyelets and tied a bow.

She still needed "something old" so into the bow I tied a gold charm of mine that I've had since high school that says "Live, Love, Laugh".

p.s. that's my niece Melissa, and my mom, checking it out

Karaoke

Ooooh La La! Today while I was working, the man in brown brought a box from South West Trading Company bearing their new yarn, Karaoke. We got 5 colors of this wonderful, self-striping, soy silk/wool blend. I can't wait to do something with it! It's loverly. You can see some write-ups and samples of it knit up here (Black Dog) and here (My Threaded Bliss). It's so soft....

yummmmmmmy...............

Pink Shrug

Today's FO is this pink shrug that I started a few weeks ago. It's a pattern I found online that I tweaked a bit (don't I always?) It was supposed to be knit cuff to cuff (but that would make the cuffs different...it's feather and fan pattern and one cuff would be backwards) It was also supposed to be knit flat and then seamed up from the wrists. I don't THINK so....in the round, if you please! (but flat in the middle, of course)

Anyway, here it is, being modeled by the lovely Kaitlyn (middle child) after being grafted together up the middle. I don't know if I am going to give it to Kim as planned, or keep it for myself. I think it may be a bit big for her (but just right for me ...tee hee...)

UPDATE: I have finally found the link for this pattern again. You can get it (and 2 other vintage Mary Maxim Patterns) here. This shrug is Style B.

My changes:
Knit cuff and sleeve in the round for a total of about 12 or 13" then knit flat until piece is 24". Repeat for other side, and use Kitchener stitch to graft together in the middle. This makes a 3/4 length sleeve....just knit each piece longer if you want longer sleeves.

Married!

Yup, my little girl got married. She sure did.

What a beautiful day it was....everything went smoothly. She was gorgeous. Breathtakingly beautiful. The ceremony and surroundings were lovely. I think if it hadn't been close to 100 degrees I could say it was positively perfect!

I'm an emotional wreck. It went by WAY too fast and I am so sad that it's over. I can't stop crying. Mostly it comes from reminiscing about her childhood and little things that come to mind just set me off.

It's not like she hasn't been gone from the house for almost 4 years already....but this is reality now....she's not just my girl anymore, she's Drew's wife. Sniff.

I'm going to be gathering pictures from everyone's digital cameras and will load them all onto a photo website one day soon so if you want to see more you can click the link. I could put about a million of them right here, but some of you might not want to see.

Diane was sitting behind Mike and I and took this picture. The shoulders you see in the photo are ours. I thought it was a cool shot.

What the heck?

Ok, where did the last 9 months go? I swear it was just a few days ago when my little Kimmie got engaged! How can it be less than TEN DAYS until the wedding? Oh my, I am frazzled. And still somewhat in denial, I think. It all seems so surreal. Unreal. Really.

Yes, next Friday my firstborn becomes a wife, and I become a mother-in-law. Huh? I'm sorry but I'm just not feeling it! I don't want to be old enough to be a mother-in-law. What's next, GRANDMA???? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Say it isn't soooooooooooooo!!!!!

For goodness sake, I have a child who just finished 2nd grade.

I am so ready for this wedding to be here so I can stop fretting, worrying, thinking about it so much and just enjoy the day. Of course then there will be the big let down when it's over, I'm sure. But won't it be nice to breathe a sigh of relief, put my feet up, grab my knitting and not have to think "shouldn't I be doing _________ for the wedding?"