sherriknits

When we went to Bainbridge Island the other day, I ran into Churchmouse Yarn and Tea and grabbed some Karabella  Aurora 8 yarn and their shop pattern.  I’ve been needing some fingerless mitts but just haven’t been able to get started on Fetching or something like that.  These were a very quick knit and have enough stretch to them that my fingers don’t feel claustrophobic.  I really like them.  I couldn’t get a good picture of them on, but here they are.

Instead of the suggested 48 stitches to cast on, I did 40 and they are fine.   I needed something quick to knit because our cold snaps never last all that long!

Last night we had quite the entertainment.  The silly little imp went to work with Dad one afternoon.  He needs to be kept track of because you never know what he might get into.  He didn’t want to go with Dad to his office, so Dad set him up in a studio with cameras aimed at him and clipped a mic to his shirt and left him to entertain himself.  (don’t worry, same building and within earshot) 

Evidently, the little imp was promoting his latest movie.  He jabbered about this and that after he introduced himself.  I think this may be a tool to help him realize he should use real words *all* the time and not just when he feels like it.  Much of the video was silliness, but at one point he started sharing how every person in our family as well as the cat and dog sneezes!  It was hilarious.  Everyone of them was different but actually quite accurate.  Towards the end, however, he evidently was getting tired of this long drawn out live show…so he started saying something about his new movie and “thank you very much” for listening.  Over and over.  Then he’d sigh and continue on with jabber. Again he’d thank his audience and comment about Dad starting the music.  I think we heard him say “thank you very much” 15 times at least.  Finally, in frustration he covered the mic with his hand and said “Daaaaaaaaaaaaaaaadddddd….. my music!”  Dad didn’t come and in to the jabber he’d go again.  Finally, he was leaning on one elbow, yawning dramatically, sighing and thanking everyone for viewing.  At last, Dad must have poked his head in the door and he again covered the mic and said “Daaad, music please” and it finally faded to black.  Dad didn’t realize he was asking for the theme song at the end to end the show, but it didn’t matter, we were all hysterical and he was really quite tickled with himself.  I’m sure we’ll have repeat programs to come. 

Next up on the knitting front, I am going to make my mother some cuffs.  She refuses to wear fingerless gloves but her hands are always frozen so I’m going to make her some cuffs and see if she’ll wear those. 

Technorati Tags: FO!, Imp

Yesterday was a bit eventful.  We woke up to cold weather.  Hubby says that when he was leaving for worship practice, I asked him if it was icy out…he said no…I said be careful, the moon is out.  ( have no memory of the moon part)  He had to go to his office first and all was fine.  When he came out about 20 minutes later, everything was icy and he took a few steps and landed on his backside, knocking his noggin on the ground.  When I got out to church, he had a bandaid on the back of his head and on his wrist but he was ok.  Over the past week he has experienced a fat lip from the bowling imp…his toenail nearly ripped off by the dog and now this.  He was checked out by someone at church who knew how to look for problems, but I suggested he not take his regular nap so in the late afternoon we went for a drive to the beach.  We stopped at one of the old beach approaches to see if we could see the ship that had wrecked this past week but evidently it got cleaned up in the afternoon.  I didn’t get out and this is all I saw.

Today we got up to a dusting of snow.  Schools were 2 hours late because of the outlying areas and busses.  The little imp’s therapist called and canceled his appointment because she said it just wasn’t showing any signs of melting.  She’s in the outlying area of Olympia and that road is bad even when nothing else is. 

It’s starting to get a little stressful with wedding plans because the bride and I have been needing to make a trip to Bainbridge Island and the Mondays keep getting taken up with other things.  We debated much and decided to give it a try.  There was only 1 mile that was scary and not that much.  I’m so glad we went.  We took the long way and got up there at 2:15.  We got what we needed and I quickly visited the yarn store there and we headed back home.  All the way, I was telling the bride about the beach cabin my grandparents had on the sound.  We veered off the road so I could show her.

This is the road we’d walk up on Friday nights when my grandpa would be coming for the weekend.  It has barely changed.

I bet all that has changed on this little stretch is the road signs.

I tell you, the memories I have from this place feel like a fairytale but it’s funny how much smaller everything is now.  Here we are driving up to it.

This is the side and here’s what’s funny.  There was a very squeaky screen door on the back.  That thing opened and closed all day long as we ran in and out.  We had a hammock in the back yard that we all fought over getting to lay down in or we all lined up like peas in a pod.  It seemed like there was so much space that we all ran around.  We used to climb up where the hedge is to the neighbor’s yard (Mrs Sawyer) and salt her slugs.  I swear it was a long way to the back of our yard.  Where did it go?

Here is the front of the cabin.  We didn’t have that porch on it.

But do you see the garage doors on the side?  My grandpa spent a lot of time there and we hung out with him a lot playing there while he worked.  The front windows on the left of the frond door was a porch turned in to a sleeping area.  It was cold but we had lots of heavy blankets to keep us warm.  Dividing the porch area and the kitchen nook which is on the right side of the front door were the same kind of small pained windows that swung open.  The nook had a build in table and bench and we spent hours and hours playing board games there.  I remember hanging through the window from the bed watching my grandparents and parents playing cards.  We were always told to lie down, but we probably never did.  The memories abound from this  place.  My grandpa and great grandpa built the nook long before I was born and used no real nails.  It was beautiful.  I remember getting baths in the kitchen sink and I remember my grandma teaching me to dust mop the dust bunnies by sprinkling water on the floor.  In the war years (before I was born), the place was rented to the military (not voluntary) and they closed in the loft that was upstairs.  The little road that leads to the blue garage led us to our waterfront lot and to get to the water, we walked on a trail that we had blueberry and raspberry bushes.  I remember my grandpa and I tying grapes to the grapevines across the fence that was there where that blue car is to tease my grandma.  Of course, I could not stand the idea of her being embarrassed at being fooled so I secretly told her what we did.  I understand my grandparents got quite a laugh over that.  (did I really think she’d think those grapes really did just grow there?)

On the little beach we had a cement dock that went waaaaaaaaaayyyy out there (probably 15 feet) and when the tide was in, the “deep” water surrounded it.  I bet it was 4 feet  max. 

And do you remember the fish pole I showed you a few days ago?  Well, that shark was buried on that beach.  And this is where I caught it.

Sorry, there was no way to stop and the bride was trying to snap the pic as I drove. 

It was great fun to see it all again.  It was amazing that I was able to find my way to that cabin the first time we went there…all from memories a zillion years ago.  What confused me was the “steep” hill next to the cabin where we’d hear the milk truck come.  It is barely an incline but I kept telling hubby it was really steep.  lol

Anyway, thanks for sharing my memory-filled day with me.  I’ll show you my latest knitting adventures soon.

Technorati Tags: Memories, Wedding

I didn’t get to do much knitting the last few days.  One of the joys of owning a business is the paperwork, especially this time of year.

I did pick up a pair of hubby’s socks that I started a year ago November.  I kind of remembered there was a problem but it wasn’t until I worked on them for awhile that I remembered what it was and I think I’ll have to start over.  I wonder if they’ll ever make it to his feet.

But look what came in the mail today!

Stitch markers!  I love them even more in person than when I saw them on Etsy!  It wasn’t until after I left feedback that I found this little cutie in the bag on a little thank you card.  Just adorable!

Technorati Tags: Markers, NoKnitting

Haha. Well, to most knitters, this would not seem like a big deal, but for one who has been stuck in this land of inability to produce many FO’s, I have 2 completed on the same day. Super easy knits, but they are DONE.

Hubby had yesterday off, so we did a day date. Let me tell you about Sunday night first.

The little imp was bowling with Wii. He has to listen to everything so loud. He hates loud noises unless he is the one making them. Well, hubby went in the room to ask him to turn down the tv. He ignored him as is common. Hubby told him again to please turn it down. He honestly thought the imp was reaching to turn it down but he continued to bowl so hubby leaned down to turn off the tv and the very instant this little fellow swung his arm to roll the ball. You would have to see it to understand how odd his method is, but he sits and swings and ends up with his bowling arm flying over his shoulder. Right as hubby leaned down, he released the “ball” and up swung his arm and connected with hubby’s mouth.

The new bride and I were in the other room and we heard this sickening groan. As we got up to run in to see what was wrong, here he comes…doubled over, glasses askew and hands covering his mouth. We kept asking if he was ok, did it knock out a tooth and every other thing you ask and do at a time like that but he kept saying he didn’t know and he clearly wanted some space. The result? A major swollen upper lip but no loose teeth. Now, back to the boy…he never lost a beat but was continuing to bowl.

After things settled down a little, I told the imp that he needed to go see what happened when he chose not to listen to daddy. He said, “I’m gone. I’m moving.” Where in the world did he get that from? He was a little scared (but not enough to take a break from throwing that ball!) but we assured him he was not in trouble but that he needed to go see. You’d have thought I was moving a ton of bricks as I helped him walk in to see dad.

Ok…yesterday we were heading out of town and hubby said he wished he’d stopped to get more ibuprofen so I suggested we stop at a little variety store on the way to get some. I wish I could share my experience there but it wouldn’t be kind. However a friend just happened to make the trip to the same little store yesterday, too, and she had an extension of my funny experience…and why in the world either of us would happen to go there on the same day is nothing short of amazing.

Anyway, I did pick up some Paton’s Classic Wool because I got an urge to make a baby hat. I didn’t feel like doing the thumb on hubby’s Dashing. I can see I am going to go on a little quest to find the perfect baby earflap hat but I’m not unhappy with this one at all (except I hate when the colors pool like they did). The new mommy was tickled when she stopped to see me today when I gave it to her.

The other FO is hubby’s Dashing. I made one and started the next right away. I had to put it away when I got to the first cable row and then got sidetracked with Fuzzy Feet. What’s kind of weird is that the 2nd was a little bigger than the 1st, but when I finished the 2nd, I was a bit irritated and knit like a crazed knitter in order to keep from saying something I shouldn’t…you’d think that one would be the tighter one but oh well. The difference is minimal.

I didn’t have good light when I took the pic but you get the idea.

I’ve been poking along on the fair isle socks. I still haven’t decided if this is what I want to do with the yarn but have been having a very relaxing time knitting the fair isle. I feel like I’m getting pretty comfortable with the process and isn’t it funny how when you don’t have any expectation it’s so fast and easy to do? Here’s my progress:

The other day the little imp once again put on his wedding tuxedo but this time he had big plans for his day. He had a book, the church bulletins, some printed Hgh School Musical pages and paper and pen and was busy doing his “work”. He diligently copied things and checked it against the book. He loves this book and reads it on his own, but he’d write something from the bulletin, then look at the book and read the page and say “yep! that’s right!” lol

He has been copying pages and pages of the most interesting things from internet. He will sit there and fill both sides of a page with fairly small writing…lists of whatever he’s interested in at the moment. It reminds me of a few years ago when hubby and I used to go to Boston Market restaurant to eat on our date. There was a lady with Down Syndrome who came in with her sandwich from the Safeway deli down the street and she’d get her big cup out of her backpack and go fill it with pop. In one way I thought it was cute, in another I wasn’t sure how wise it was or what kind of deal they had with her. I know I shed tears there one night just because people were so kind to her. But what she’d do was get out a spiral notebook and a book of word search puzzles and she’d copy the word lists. Occasionally she’d look up and say, “don’t bother me! I’m doing my homework!” Isn’t that interesting that he does the same thing? (but don’t ask him to do penmanship, that’s a whole ‘nother story!)

The boy at work:

Notice his bowl of birthday cake there, too. The cake disappeared from the pan and when asked what happened to it, he said “nothing”….with a chocolate covered face.

I have really enjoyed getting to know Hannah  from Finland.  Today, she really blessed me.

Gratefully, I accept it and I’m passing it on.  It works this way:

“Give the award to 10 people whose blogs bring you happiness and inspiration and make you feel happy about blogland. Let them know by posting a comment on their blog so they can pass it on. Beware you may get the award several times.” 

It’s really hard to pick 10, but here are some of the people who make my day:

Carol 

Heidi 

Lauri 

Liz 

Mary 

Patty 

Ragan 

Shanda 

Susan 

Theresa 

There are so many huge blogs out there, but when you take the time to visit some of the lesser known ones, it’s amazing the treasures you find.  I read all of these blogs faithfully (and many, many more) and have had such fun getting to know each of these ladies.  Take time to visit them and say hi! 

Last week there was not one day that there wasn’t something going on.  It was fun, but I am sure enjoying my day off after I got some paperwork done for the little imp.

#1 son had his 21st birthday last week.  It seems like just yesterday he was a babe in arms.  This young man is my sensitive one, he loves tradition and he’s been a joy to my heart.  He’s kind and loving, creative and funny.  He’s talented in so many ways.  He was the child God promised me when it didn’t look like there would be another child and he’s been all I could have wanted.  We’ve often thought of him as the entertainer in this family with his quiet sense of humor.  When we had a Japanese student many years ago, her parents wrote me saying they heard he was very mischevious…but our student loved him and he was the one who broke the ice when we were all so nervous. 

This year we got him a Baskin & Robbins ice cream cake, yummm!

Then we had the first shower yesterday for the little bride. 

Since this was for family and the big sis now sells Sensaria, we did a little foot spa at the same time. 

My sister decided to do the shower this way since it was mostly just our family and January has double hostess credits so she gave most of them to the bride.  She is well set-up now to pamper herself before the wedding.  What a blessing for her!  Beautiful gifts and lots of new Sensaria!

The other day I got to work and found this sitting on my desk…

I could barely contain my joy!  This was my grandma’s fishing pole and many, many years ago I caught my very first fish with it…a shark! 

My grandparents had taken my sister and I fishing and there was no way they could convince us that the shark was not going to eat us alive (it was probably 18 inches long but I remember it as HUGE) so we hid behind my grandma while my grandpa puttered us around in the little boat we were in.  We had to help him bury it so we could be assured it was not going to come get us. lol  I am thinking we didn’t hear much about catch and release in those days.

Anyway, my grandma had always told me the pole would be mine some day.  It got lost years ago, but my brother found it several years ago in the garage of our beach cabin and rescued it.  He had always intended to paint it for me.  I am secretly glad he didn’t because this is the way it was.  It is a huge treasure to me now!

And yes, I have some knitting to show.  I finished hubby’s Fuzzy Feet.  We’ll see if he actually wears them, but at least he finally gets an FO. 

I’m not sure I’d use tweed to felt with again, but they felted just fine.  I think the extra money for the tweed gets lost in the felting. 

yarn: Cascade 220 tweed

pattern: Fuzzy Feet from Knitty.com

I followed the pattern as written and just knit them longer and they came out just fine.

All day today, I thought I’d get to have some sit down and knit time, but I had an eligibility review to complete for the little imp.  Every year I sit on hold for half an hour to ask how I am supposed to fill the form out because it is so unclear.  This year, the girl told me to fill it out as if it was me.  She told me she was sick and wasn’t familiar with the form but when I asked if I should just call back, she said no, no one else really knew either.  lol…yikes!   I could not believe all the things they asked for…and I waded through it but just felt like it wasn’t right so I called again this morning, sat for at least 40 min. on hold to finally get someone who I felt knew what he was talking about.  He said no, fill it out as if it was him and just carry it in to their office. It had 2 layers of white-out on it but he said no big deal.  What’s weird is, even though I have to fill out the paperwork, he is on a waiver and won’t lose services anyway.  I am always so confused.  And yea!  That’s done for another year!

We had company all weekend, the grandparents from Oregon.  They left this morning and now the little imp and I are the only ones home for a few hours and just enjoying some down time.   Maybe now I can get out my knitting!

Well, back to routine.  We had our first therapy session since November, I think.  The little imp actually did very well.  He hates to be corrected and when the therapist showed him that even though he had the right numbers there, his sister was not 81.  Oh my how he grumbled when she requested he write it again. 

Hubby went with us today because it was snowing this morning and part of the road on the way to therapy is known to be bad even if everywhere else is fine.   We knew  the snow wasn’t supposed to last but who knew how long it would keep on until it realized it wasn’t really supposed to be serious.   Crazy weather these days.

This was after about 10 minutes of snow.  In another 10 minutes, it was all gone.  I think this is supposed to go on much of the week.  The road was just fine and we got the treat of having Daddy go to therapy with us.  We then went birthday shopping for big brother.

On the way up and back, I played a little with my new sock yarn.

I think I am going to frog at least part of it but I wanted to experiment a little and see what I came up with. 

Hubby’s Fuzzy Feet are calling me from the bottom of the knitting bag, though, so I can’t play too long with the new yarn.  I owe him some kind of FO, it’s been a long time since he’s been the recipient of anything.  (who has?  I’ve been on the longest streak of UFOs ever!  but that will change)

The  new little bride and I got to get away for the weekend so we could attend the Seattle Wedding Show.  We were only going to spend one night away, but due to my horrible sleep problems the past week, we decided to go up Friday night so I could not have to drive and do a grueling day all in one.  There was also a windstorm predicted (which we did get) and I didn’t want to drive in that.  We got there right ahead of the storm, literally…we outran it and stayed ahead.

We got to borrow the fiance’s new TomTom gps navigating system. Wow!  When I can afford one of those, we’re getting one.  It took all the stress of trying to figure out where we were.  (except when it takes us off the freeway and says, “you have reached your destination” and we had no idea where the convention center was!  Thankfully the way was well-marked, Mr. Tom!

The kids are much braver than I am and talked me into canceling the reservation I had at the safe 2-star place I have stayed many times and happen to like and try Priceline instead.  We got a room at the Hilton for the same price because even though we asked for 3-star at $50 a night, and had it accepted, we had to pay $18 a night for parking.  The fun thing is we got 2 king-size beds with featherbeds, down comforters and a zillion down pillows each.  The bad thing was we got no breakfast and we forgot our toothpaste and discovered we could buy some at the gift shop … trial size for $4.99!  No thanks, we used the mouthwash to brush with and drove to Target.

Isn’t this entrance to the convention center beautiful?

Heading to check in…

We must have walked 80 miles.   We mostly wanted to get ideas for cakes and invitations (oh my gosh, I must have eaten a whole cake all by myself for all the samples we tried!)  We weren’t interested in any of the venues, dj’s, or florists since they were mostly from the Seattle area.  The other big thing was just to have a girl weekend together, probably our last one before the wedding.  When we first got there, the reality of it all hit me and I went into the restroom and had a little cry (a good cry, but I got overwhelmed with emotion…a ‘mom thing’. )  I got caught, she knew right away and we just had to walk awhile before I was ready to talk about what we were seeing.

I’m not going to post pictures of some of the ideas we got, but we did take a breather to watch the fashion show.

There were some beautiful things to see and some ridiculous.

It was a little hard to see what they wanted us to see when these guys paraded around but we did get a good laugh.

We slept in a little bit this morning, then went to Bellevue Square and found Bella Bands for the mama-to-be.  We were freezing and can you believe this?  I had to buy a scarf!  I have lost my reversible cable scarf and am hoping and praying it shows up one of these days.  I can’t stand any of the other scarves I have any more so didn’t have anything with me.

When we were leaving the show today after another quick run-through, we found a place that was doing complimentary hair and makeup so I got to sit down for half an hour while the girl got fixed up.

I wasn’t the only one who thought she looked adorable.  One lady stepped in front of me in the booth and took a whole bunch of pictures of her while her daughter was getting makeup done.

We left the show early and did get to make one yarn store run before we headed home.  I have long wanted to visit this store but was seriously disappointed in our time there.  True, they had tons of beautiful yarn and I could have stayed there for a long time, but the lady there was very rude.  I thought it was just me, but the bride commented on it when we left there.  I was sad and I doubt I will make the trek there again.   Love the yarn I got, though, and will show it later when I’m not so tired to take a picture.

We had calls this morning from both the fiance and my hubby that it was snowing here big time, but they called us a bit later to say it was all gone.  We were instructed to wait if we hit any snow and we would be rescued by our knights in shining armor but we didn’t have to oblige.  By the time we were an hour from home, I was wishing I’d asked them to meet us partway just because I missed my other half.  It’s always nice to get home when he isn’t with me. 

Tomorrow, we start therapy for the little imp again, so we have to hit the road in the morning and head back the same way.  I just loaded my iPod with more episodes of The Couple Next Door (check it out at Zoot Radio if you like old radio shows, I’m loving it!) and now I’m headed to bed.  I am totally sick of not sleeping, I felt like I was awake most of the night last night, I’m sure i dozed here and there but for the most part, I was conscious much of the night.  I’ve done this before and at some point, I have to sleep, right?

I didn’t knit a stitch all weekend even though I went totally prepared to finish hubby’s Fuzzy Feet and Dashing.  Poor guy, I guess maybe if the girl will go with me to therapy, I can knit on the way.

It’s hard to believe it’s a new year.  I’ve been thinking about those 2 degrees all day and I can’t believe how really encouraging it is to decide to take baby steps rather than come up with some big change I need to make!

Today has been one of those stop~start~stop~start kind of days.  I got to sleep in and that was nice.  I laid in bed for awhile after I woke up and listened to a few episodes of The Couple Next Door, my current favorite old-time radio show.  I know all of the episodes played last night, but I missed them because I fell asleep on the first one. 

I’m excited to get to hang up my new calendar.  I get these every year and have watched many of the kids grow up in them…if you ever see one of these calendars anywhere, take time to look.  They are done so beautifully.  They’re awfully hard to find, though.  I have made it a personal mission to buy them out at Barnes and Noble and give them to the grandparents.  I always have 2, one for home, one for work.  This year they made me special order them, but when mine came in, so did a bunch of them.

Speaking of beautiful faces…here is a treat I enjoyed today.  I couldn’t get him to stick with helping me put the tree up, but he stuck with me all the way through taking it down~without being asked!  When hubby and I were putting things in boxes, I turned and found this.

This kept him busy for a long time.  We can’t have a tree without a star.

How about ornaments?

(You know how kids want to hang everything on one branch?  Well no different on this “tree”!)

We also put all the snow globes away.  My mom treated us all (meaning sister, brothers, my girls…) and I do love them.

This is only 2 of them, I have about 8. 

And that’s that.  Most of the Christmas things are out of here and now I have a lot of work ahead getting it all together again but I have decided to think about what I bring back downstairs.  Just cuz I have it doesn’t mean I have to put it all out to collect dust.

And I have started hubby a pair of Fuzzy Feet.  I was going to alter the pattern and make them wider until I was looking at how much room I have around the ankles on mine…which was the reason I made mine first.  I frogged them and started over with the same stitch count and will just make them a lot longer.  I love wearing mine!!!

Hope you had a productive or at least fun day!