Pearly Girl

Another year for the Pearly girl. She's 11 now, loves music (piano, flute, and recently violin).


She's also enjoying playing volleyball for the first time this year.

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Infant Socks

Here's a pair of infant socks just completed using Blue Moon Soft Rock 100% Superwash Merino, colorway: Marbles. It will be fine for either sex. I'm hoping to make another infant hat to match, if there's enough yarn. Used Size 1 needles, gauge = 8 sts p/inch.

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Completed Infant Hat

Finished the new infant hat for our baby. I love it. I am going to make socks to match.

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Music to My Ears

Our son (15 yrs) has been playing the guitar for a couple years. He had a teacher for about a year and has been progressing on his own since. H (18 yrs) didn't want to miss out on the action, so she's been trying to keep up with little brother. Here they are playing duets together. They sound great, but of course, I'm a little unbiased.

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I realized that I hadn't started anything for our new baby. We don't know the sex, so white is the perfect color. It will be a rolled rim with i-cord top. I think this one will fit our new baby. There has not been one hat from hospital that has fit my big babies - they stay on for about 10 seconds and slip off!

I'm using Ann Budd's hat pattern from her Handy Book of Patterns. It's such a great book!

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Baby Poncho - more progress

Baby poncho - it's been a while since I have updated on the baby poncho. Frankly, it's taken a lot longer than I had hoped, but I'm getting closer to completion - just about 5 more inches. I am sure hoping that when I block it, it will be be wider. The cables seem to shrink up the width.

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Visitors in our yard this morning . . .

We had visitors in our yard this morning.



Mommy


and her baby!

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Getting ready to celebrate a birthday

Big brother waiting with little brother to get his birthday cake.


I'm three now! Bunny picked carrot cake for his birthday and put his own candles on the cake.

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Made a bunch of new pillow cases for the kids. This little guy loves horses.

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Oversized Booga Bag

Oversized Booga Bag

Okay, a knitting entry has been long overdue, but here is the 2nd Booga Bag I have knit. I made it quite a bit larger than the pattern and added a pocket in the front. The measurements before felting are 17 x 20-inches. I will post the "after" pictures and felted measurements soon. The coloring is correct in the top picture. Something was funky about the lighting in the other picture.

Made with Galway yarn: The bottom is 60 stitches across for 20 rows. Bottom and top wide navy stripe = 13 rows, green stripes are all 17 rows, thin navy stripes = 3 rows. I-cord is 7 feet long.

Pocket is 30 stitches across, 46 rows. After finding center, I picked up one leg of each stitch for 30 stitches, then joined new yarn.

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Pure Sweetness

Recent picture of our baby boy who is almost 3!! The expression says it all :)

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Berry, Berry Good!!

Oregon is known for its wonderful berries. We picked 24 pounds of raspberries.



My 10-yr old daughter helped me make pies. We ended up making 4 raspberry pies, 2 raspberry/blueberry pies, and 2 blueberry pies. Oh, did I mention we picked 110 pounds of blueberries? The berries literally fell into our hands as we tickled them from underneath a cluster. We only spent 2 hours of picking and our freezer is loaded with them! We will use them for muffins, smoothies. coffee cakes, pancakes during the year.

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4th of July Camping Trip (dh & 5 kids)

Mt. Bachelor

Dh took the kids (except the baby) to Sparks Lake, near Mt. Bachelor in Oregon over the 4th of July weekend. The first couple nights were very cold - down to 32 degrees. (so glad I didn't go!). Here are some pictures of their trip.


South Sister - one of many volcanoes in the Pacific Northwest.


The girls in front of the South Sister.


The boys in front of Broken Top.


Big brother so happy to greet baby brother upon return!

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Family Trip to Seaside, Oregon

A normal dreary day at the Oregon Coast.


Doesn't get cuter than this!


Trip to Seaside, Oregon.

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Happy Birthday to me! I turned 41 on yesterday. Here's my daughter working on fresh boysenberry pie for my birthday dessert! It was delicious.



"Must you?"

My 15-yr old son, made fried chicken, mashed potatoes, and gravy for dinner. It was such a wonderful dinner.



The kid responsible for my wonderful fried chicken dinner.


Here was my big present - no, not the echinacea, the camera that took the picture of the echinacea! It's a Canon D20 - it ROCKS!! I'm thrilled with it. No more wasting film for me.

But I have to admit, the gift that touched my heart the most was a card from my 15-yr old son. Here's what the card read inside:

Dear Mommie:
I hope you had a great birthday. It was a great compliment when you asked me to make fried chicken. I'm glad I was able to help make your birthday dinner a good one. My gift to you is Spitz Sunflower seeds. Whenever you want some sunflower seeds, just ask me and I'll get them. I'll buy 10 bags of them total. Keep this card and put a check for each bag I buy you. Thanks for being a great Mom. Love, J

Some restrictions apply. See supplier for details. Valid coupons only!

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Summer, finally!

Summer has finally come. We've had a very wet June and I still haven't laid out the soaker hoses! The rains have been coming every few days, so I will procrastinate for as long as I can (especially after last years' $300 water bill!). Here is part of my garden with lavender (now pretty much done blooming), herbs, and some vegetables. I love mixing flowers and vegetables.


I just had to post a picture of this hanging basket. This picture does not do it justice. I love the way it greets me at the front door along with the hydrangeas!


These grapevines are on the side of our house and all the way down our long driveway. The fence they are "hanging" on is so old and ready to fall. Dh is wanting to remove this particular row so that he can back his truck into the backyard. He's not fond of concord grapes like the rest of us are!

As far as knitting - haven't done much. This pregnancy is wiping me out. I'm okay in the morning and do as much as I can then and then just before noon, it's all downhill. Hopefully things will improve as I get into the 2nd trimester. I'm now 11 wks pregnant.

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My daughter and I are still moving along on our knitting sampler (mine is on the left and my daughter's is on the right). I really enjoyed the two-color knitting using different color in each hand. The duplicate stitch is so easy and added a lot. You can see the navy in mine. We are about 90% done. This has been a great project and I highly recommend it.

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Wow - it's been a while. I think things are finally settling down around here. A few wks ago my whole family got the stomach bug. My 2 little guys were vomitting for almost a week. I am rarely sick, but felt awful. Then it dawned on me . . . . could I be preg*&@#$?





Yup - Pregnant! My dh was away on business and I didn't want to tell him over the phone, so I put this Altoid box in his pillow when he returned. Of course he noticed the box right away, but thought one of the kids were playing a joke on him and started to put it on his dresser. I told him to open it up - maybe there was a note or something. He opened and found the pregnancy test. He was thrilled with the news.

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Boys will be boys. This is my brother showing off his car to my 4 boys. He had his stereo jamming and the boys think their uncle is soooo cool.

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Completed Booga Bag

Here's the felted Booga Bag I made for my mom. She loved it and was very intrigued by the felting process. It was a great first felt project and the Galway felted in 1-1/2 washings.

The lady I am giving knitting lessons to is off to a good start on her Booga bag. I was able to show her this completed one and she seemed to like it. She's already done the bottom, learned how to do the Magic Loop and just changed yarn colors as she is heading up the sides. This is the perfect project for new knitters!

By the way, her husband was able to spend some time at home on the weekend. He still has a ways to go, but the improvement was obvious to me the 2 times I saw him. Please continue to pray for Larry.

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Booga Bag

On Wednesday, the thought occurred to me that Mother's Day was Sunday and I didn't have anything for my mother. All other knitting projects came to a screeching halt.

I decided to knit a Booga bag for her. Here it is unfelted. It's in the washing machine as I type. The pattern is very easy. It will be good to have the experience of knitting/felting this before I begin teaching my friend on Monday. The "gray" color is really a very light shade green.

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Dreamy Saturday

The eBay seller who sold me the Bernina mentioned a neat yarn store nearby - Woodland Woolworks http://www.woodlandwoolworks.com/

The scenery on the way was spectacular. (Click the above link to get a peek.) Out in the middle of this beautiful countryside was a warehouse with all the yarn, spinning wheels, and supplies one could ever need. What a great place. They also have a room with markdowns and I scored above on the Galway yarn.

The Galway yarn will be used for Booga bags. http://www.blacksheepbags.com/booga_bag.html

I have a friend whose dh fell out of a 2nd story window and suffered brain damage recently. She will probably be spending hours and hours as he is going through rehab, so I'm going to help her knit a Booga Bag and we'll both learn how to felt together.

booga bag

She's going to use the lighter blues and grey. My daughters and I will be making the bag using a combination of some of the other colors. If you think about it, please say a prayer for Larry. Larry was in a coma for a couple days, but has since regained consciousness and says a few words. He is recovering physically (eating, starting to walk), but he has quite a ways to go mentally.

Anyway, back to Woodland Woolworks - there are swatches knit up of most of the yarns sold. I've been thinking of making something with very fine lace in an earthy tone, but have no clue what is what on online catalogs. It was great to be able to actually touch the yarns and swatches. Melda (pretty sure that is the owner's name) has knit gorgeous lace swatches in various patterns. My hands never felt such luxury! I found this yarn:


merinosilk

Grignasco Merinosilk with 1,400 yards for $11 in the markdown room. The color is exactly what I was looking for. Oh, and fyi, the yarn is in my lap and I can't stop petting it. Is there something wrong with me?

Anyway, check out Woodland Woolworks, I don't think you will be disappointed. The owner and staff were so personable and friendly. I heard them talking to customers on the phone very professionally.

What a day, score at the rummage sale, got my dream Bernina, and then Woodland Woolworks. Was I dreaming all this? Someone pinch me!

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Rummage Sale Find: Fiskars paper trimmer with 5 different blades = $4.00

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Dh has spoiled me rotten. About 18 years ago, I bought a serger. I settled for my 2nd choice (Elna) because of logistic reasons (and free childcare by grandma close to the Elna store). The Elna has been put to good use, but is tempermental. I’'ve been tired of the skipping stitches, changing needle plates, etc. My #1 choice was a Bernina. I saw an old Bernina serger on eBay and talked to dh about it and he gave me the green light to bid on it. The bidding war got pretty intense at the end, but my bid won. WOOHOO!!! Can you say HAPPY CAMPER!! Here'’s my new baby. She was skipping stitches, but after a needle change, everything seems to be running smoothly. This is one well-built machine. I paid a little over $200 for it and my local Bernina store said they sell this used for $399 (can you imagine for a machine that is 15 years old?!).

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New Fashion Statement?

New Fashion Statement?

Returning from my morning walk, I stumbled upon my daughters dressed like THIS!!! WHAT IS THIS????? One was sweeping the floor, the other was washing off the counter. They acted as if everything was just hunky-dory. Perhaps they were both wearing jeans and then changed their minds and forgot to remove the skirts. Or maybe they were so excited about their latest sewing accomplishment that they decided to wear the new skirts over jeans. Maybe they are wearing 2 bottoms in case either the skirt or jeans get dirty.

This morning's dialogue:

Mom: "Do you realize you are wearing jeans under your skirt?"

18-yr old: "Yeah, isn't it cool?" face beaming with excitement.

Mom: "No, it's not cool, it's ugly", trying to keep a straight face.

18-yr old: "But Mom, everybody at college is wearing skirts with pants underneath like this."

Mom wanted to say, "Yeah, everyone but you," but refrained.

Now she says she and her sister are going to wear these outfits to the co-op tomorrow. I need to don sunglasses, hat, and somehow disguise my very tall body.

Is this really the new fashion statement? Puh-lease!!!

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Sew Sisters

Last week my two daughters had the idea to go to JoAnn's to get a pattern and fabric for matching skirts. For years I have wanted my 18-yr old to try to make clothes to no avail. The 10-yr old has taken a sewing class and made pajama bottoms and a bag, but that was 2 years ago. However, something got into their heads and they were determined to do this. We went to the store on Wednesday and their goal was to have them done by Friday evening. The only day they had to sew was Friday, so they got up early and started cutting the pattern and these are their finished skirts completed in plenty of time for their Friday outing.

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Baby booties

Here's the beginning of a pair of baby booties. The cuff and eyelets for the tie are done - the foot part is next. The pattern was free at LYS with the purchase of yarn. Unfortunately, the yarn is discontinued - a gorgeous cotton self-striping yarn. I may have to go back and buy the green-striping yarn before they sell out.

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Lovely Lilac. This is growing in my back yard. There's no fence between our yard and the vacant house next door and this lilac bush is on our boundary line. I will be very sad to see this go should a fence go up someday. My house is probably 50 feet from the bush, but if I open the window, I can smell the fragrance of lilacs in my house. Hello spring!

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Homemade Circular Needle Holder

My circular needles have been so cluttered and I didn't want to spend the $$ for the Circular Solution, so I borrowed the idea and added a pocket at the top to hold my stitch gauge tool and it's perfect! The canvas and the velcro were from my box of scraps and were just the right amount needed. I marked the various sizes using a Sharpie. Feels great to be more organized!

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