Good Bye Doris

The other day I got the news that a fellow knitter had passed away. Doris Strong. I met Doris through karate. I've known her son Bill, since 1982 and he is my kids Sensei and a dear friend.

Doris was born and raise in Germany, married an American soldier and supported him in everything he did. They were stationed back and forth between the US and Germany many, many times. Ed (her husband) is retired military and highly decorated. They have two children Cathy and of course Bill. The things I will always remember about Doris, her complete devotion to her family, her cooking, her love of St. Bernards and of course her knitting. Every time I seen her she had those needles going. At the time I was still a "throwing my yarn and of course she was doing German, and I loved watching her stitch by stitch. The few times I had a chance to talk to her about knitting she was so encouraging. Sharing stories with me of things she knitted for her family in Germany when she was young. In fact she was my encouragement to start knitting socks. She told me "Oh they are so easy you can do it." That's all it took and I've been knitting stocks non stop ever since. But there is one thing she did with her knitting that I will always remember, she made slippers. She made tons of slippers for men, women and children. Then she gave them away. I don't even know if her family knows how many slippers she gave away, but it had to be a lot.

Yesterday, draped over her coffin was a beautiful afghan she had made, it was so appropriate for a knitter. Today everyone will say their final good byes to her. She will be taken in the near future to Arlington Cemetery in DC for her final resting place.

Good bye Doris

What Knitters Talk About

Are you wondering what my favorite Spring/Summer coffee cup has to do with knitting? Absolutely nothing except for the fact that I think it's a little strange some times what we knitters talk about when we're together. Last week at one of my classes, the topic of coffee mugs/tea cups came up. We were all chiming away at the detailed reasons why we each prefer the cup that we use. It was hilarious. (and we were all so serious about it, lol) Now if you noticed I mentioned that the cup above is my favorite Spring/Summer cup which would lead you to assume that there is a Fall/Winter cup. You are right, there WAS a Fall/Winter cup which is now deceased thanks to the cat who threw up months ago in my purse. (check out the archives for that little story). I am now on the hunt for my Fall/Winter mug and I'll be sure to let you all know when I get it. (grin).

So, let's expand the knitter's coffee mug/tea cup/or favorite beverage glass conversation into a tag. Diana, Wendy, Erleca, Mia, Melissa and Minka get those cups out and lets see what your cup says about you. ROTFL.

Here's the proof, lol.

Now to make a little hat to match the blanket and booties and the project will be totally complete. 

IT'S FINISHED

As I write the baby blanket is in the wash, being gently agitated to a happy clean for Laura's baby. Pictures will come while it's blocking. I just couldn't wait to tell the world that it was done. LOL. Now I'm pulling all the other projects on needles out and plan on knitting a little on everything. (grin)

Yesterday was a super busy and today may turn out to be the same. We had Gunther's first Rally Obedience class, came home dropped him off, picked up the kids took them to a karate demonstration, that lasted several hours, then came home dropped off workout bags, checked email and then headed back out to grocery shop. We ended up getting home about 8:45pm. I left the house yesterday morning at 7am. Today may end up just as busy, I have a couple of commitments that have to be taken care of, plus, Betty invited me to a Southern Boil, which I would really like to go to, but not sure if I'll be able to make it. We'll see. So I'll pack some knitting to take with me and we'll play the day by ear.

I hope everyone has a good day.

Booties finished

I finished the booties that go with the baby blanket last night. It's a great pattern. I used size 1 needles and TLC Baby yarn. The baby blanket is coming a long. I bet ( I hope) that I will have the blanket done some time this week. It's been a lot of work but I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. (grin)

Mother's day. I had a wonderful time. The kids and I went to the Renaissance Festival. They bought me a beautiful Celtic Cross that I had been wanting. We also had lunch there, and had a great time watching everyone in costume. They also fixed me a wonderful Italian dinner when we got home. It was a perfect day. The weather was great, the kids and I had a great time, so that made me a Happy Mom.

Mother's Day Weekend

My kids decided that this year Mother's Day would be celebrated from Friday night at 5pm till midnight Sunday night. So yesterday I went out to work in my garden and seen the first bloom on my Magnolia tree for the season. It smells wonderful and was a great way to start the day.


Then when I picked Sara up from work she had a surprise in a big white bakery box. An Expresso cake. It's a multi layered cake made with expresso. It may be the best cake I have ever tasted. I thought that it would be surper rich, oh no, it's perfect. Very light, you can taste the chocolate, the expresso it's perfect. Then there are the little expresso beans that are on the icing. Soooo good, and that is chocolate and ground expresso around the side. I'm in heaven. (as soon as this cake is gone, the diet starts). LOL


To back track a little on Thursday my cell phone died. It was unexpected and so I had to get a new one and get it fast. My cell is my main phone, so I needed it for busienss bigtime! We use the Virgin Mobile, pay as you go service, so I went looking at the new Virgin phones and found this one. It does all kinds of stuff. I all ready have downloaded new ringtones and a Texas Hold Em game. (which I find myself playing stead of knitting, shame on me.) The cool thing about this phone is the picture below. It opens up to a real keyboard where I can email and text message. So now, I can get online, check my email and answer them while out and about.


So now, knitting news. I'm am proud to say that I'm making some progress on the baby blanket. Finally I actually believe that I will have it done by June 3rd. There are several things I want to start but I'm holding myself in check until I finish this blanket. I'll have some pictures of the progess in the next day or so.

I heard from Lion Brand's Instructor program. It's pretty well orgainized and set up so that even the business end of it runs smooth. We'll see how it goes. I told my knitting students about it, and since they all are familar with Lion Brands yarn they thought it was a good idea.

My friend Betty that was going to move away, told me that they are staying in Georgia. They decided that they like it here and so I'm pretty excited about it. She will be moving to the other side of Atlanta, but we'll still be able to visit, IM and meet up to knit.

So that' been my couple of days. I hope everyone has a wonderful Mother's Day and gets to knit a lot.

Blessed Be 

She won't wear them but...

On top of the dozen other things I'm sending my mother for Mother's day. I just couldn't resist making her a pair of fuzzy flip flops. Will she wear then? Oh hell no. Will she like them and show everyone, Oh hell yes. LOL. I bet out of everything the kids and I are sending she will talk more about these. I'll keep you posted. ;-)

The deadline list is getting a little smaller. Today I have 3 meetings one of them will be enjoyable. It's the Great Dane of the Mid South's meeting tonight. The other two are computer work related and I'm really trying hard to get out of that business and get to where my art and needle work can pay these bills. (grin)

Everything with my knitting is about the same. The baby blanket now has one more pattern repeat on it so that's good, but I still have about another 18" to go on it. What is sad is that doesn't sound like much, but with this pattern it will probably be June 2nd when I finish it. LOL. Just in time for the shower.

I hope everyone has a great Wednesday and finds a lot of time to knit today. 

The Backpack

Sorry for the lack of info on the backpack. Here's the scoop.

The pattern was ordered from Yarnmarket. It's called Paint Box Colors Backpack by Knit One Crochet Too. The yarn is from JoAnn's. Its called Bellezza Collection Cosetta. It's a wool blend 68% wool, 32% nylon. I am hoping for the same or nearly same effect that I got on the Extra Large Altered Booga Bag I did with the Lion Brands Landscape yarn. The JoAnn's yarn has a metallic thread through it. So it will be interesting to see how this yarn felts.

So far the pattern is wonderful. It's easy to read, very clear and looks like it will work up quickly.

Sorry again.

The Good, The Bad

This morning I finally got to sleep in. I won't tell you what time I got up, but it's been years since I slept in this late. LOL. Maybe it was the dark, storms that came through GA. this morning or just the fact that I needed it. Life right now is a little out of control. Nothing major, just enough to lay on your mind all the time, no matter what you are doing it's haunting your thoughts. (ok, I'm not on medication yet. LOL) This month is full of deadlines for me. That's always a fun pressure to have, especially when you have set them yourself. I had no idea that everything would come to a point in the month of May. Great timing. But, it will be good to start marking things off the "list". So far I have not set one deadline for the month of June, and I plan on keeping it that way.

Now for pictures. This month I really have to finish the baby blanket for Laura. Her shower is June 3rd and I want to get as much done for her as possible. This pattern is taking a long time to do. I've worked on it everyday for about a week now and it's just one of those patterns that is slowly coming a long.

This is one of my other projects I have on needles. A felted backpack. I'm not really progressing on it since the baby blanket is my focus. But, I wanted everyone to see it.

I still have to take pictures of the lace for the Penelope Blouse. I haven't worked on it in a few days either. (the pressure, the pressure) Don't you just love what we do to ourselves. LOL.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

Evening Update: I just received the weekly newsletter from Lion Brand Yarns. They are starting a program for those who teach or want to teach others how to knit. Here is the link http://www.lionknittingclub.com/index.html . I believe there is a limited amount of people they are signing up at first. But, if you are interested check it out.

Finally all done

Finally they are off the needles. I changed from the circular needles I was using to Addi Turbo's and finished these socks that I've had going since before Thanksgiving 2005. LOL. It feels so good to get a project done and off the needles. Next.

On a side note: Gunther is 115 pounds and is now 9 months. 

What have I been up to?

It seems like I haven't had a moments rest in days. So I was thinking that maybe if I sat down with a latte and blogged a little I'd feel better. So here we go. I'll let you know if this helps. LOL.

The newsletter got out, but it's not quiet what I was wanting for the first one. I had contacted 5 different ladies who have wonderful patterns that I needed their permission to put their patterns in the newsletter. NO RESPONSE. Not even a screw you get lost. So I changed that to opening it up for submissions of patterns. I am hoping that by the next one I'll have several patterns to publish. But, the newsletter is ok. I've all ready started working on the next one. LOL.

Speaking of getting started. There are some knitting deadlines I have now. The baby blanket that I started awhile back and have gotten interested in again, is going to be given as a gift at a June 3rd baby shower. I have about 12" or so done. I'm also making matching booties to go a long with it. (cross your fingers that I get it done). The Penelope Blouse, well, I'm concerned about it. I am working on the bottom lace edge and if I do as many repeats as the pattern calls for it will be huge on me. The yarn is beautiful but a little on the heavy side so I don't want it to be not only too big around but go from a blouse to a tunic. LOL. On top of all that I started another bag, this one is a backpack (go figure) and of course I still have to start my Ohhh Bag Me, bag for the month of May. Am I crazy or what? I guess somewhere in my head I must be thinking that if I keep starting these projects I'll find one that kind of gets me out of the knitting blah (or funk as Diana puts it).

Monday night was my first combined class where I have knitting and crochet going on at the same time. It was a lot of fun. Two of my knitting students cracked me up, by sitting on one side of the class and working on their knitting then about half way through they put hats on and ran over to the side where I had the crochet going on and acted like totally new students that I had never met. We laughed ourselves silly.

So, there we are. I'm pretty much updated and will have pictures soon of all this. Do I feel better. Sort of, through the writing I realize just how crazy I am. LOL.