sherriknits

The little imp is having a birthday and he’s just so excited!  He got up this morning ready to go.  Moooommmmm.

Everyone but the new groom got to come for breakfast.

He got a new camera.

I can’t get the youtube to work so maybe later.

He’s having a great day. 

And then it was my turn!!!!!

I got a great surprise today….my first sp12 package.  I have to say, I have a great pal.  She’s had a lot going on in her life and she still took time to make this a perfect gift for me!  She said in her card that it was a little bit “her” and hopefully a lot “me”.  She nailed it!

She had the packages numbered and she explained a little bit, but then said everything got a little loopy.  She was right.

My very own Loopy Ewe!  I thought he was a great addition to my sheep collection!

I got a Loopy Ewe needle felting kit, Loopy himself, the all important chocolate, some note cards and the premier issue of Verena…a European knitting magazine.  I love it all!

Thank you so much, Think Pink Pal….it really means a lot, especially when I know your life has felt so topsy-turvy.  I look forward to getting to know you even more after the swap is over!

I hope you are having a great holiday today.  We’re just having a quiet day, hubby came down with a cold and the weather is gray, threatening to rain.  It’s actually a welcomed thing to me to have a nothing kind of day after the last few busy days.

We went carseat shopping but I forgot to post a picture.

In a few short months, that kickin’, dancin’ little sweet pea will be hanging out here!  After daddy-to-be got the seat installed in the car, he took it to work the next day to show it off.  Yep, he’s excited and so was everyone at the church to see it. 

We also had a fun lunch.

Wednesday was my birthday.  One little imp loves when my birthday comes because that means he is next.  He is more than eager for this day to be over so he becomes the next birthday person.

We were actually discussing that in this picture.  He’s been awake for about 2 minutes.  It was a great day.  The kids all came minus the newlywed groom, he had to work, but the rest of us had a great breakfast of dutchbabies and tons of fresh fruit. 

I went to work and was greeted with these…

I couldn’t get a good picture but you get the idea.  I love the green flowers.

I had nice visits from friends (and lunch from one…)

Here are a few things that made my day bright

I don’t know if you can read the frame but it says, “Children are born, traditions are passed, the love continues on”  Love it!  The soy candle has a sheep on the lid, which makes it a double gift because when the candle is gone, the jar will be very useful!

My sister gave me a grandma gift

When she became a grandma, I bought her a cup and saucer that says “When a child is born, so is a grandmother” and she wanted to get me one.  They don’t make the cup any more but I already had it.  She cried when she gave me the pillow because she remembered that cup and wanted to do something for me the same.  :) 

Even though I wasn’t a grandma when I got the cup, it’s been one of my favorites and now I will think of her gesture when I use it.  I have never used this one myself because it hasn’t applied, but I’ve let those qualified use it.

I have a lot of trouble drinking water so I got this.

It’s kind of a joke with my family and friends that I am always on the quest to find the perfect water bottle in hopes it will help.  I would have bought this one for sure!

Moving along, yesterday morning I got to go out of town with a friend to a yarn store that carries yarns we don’t have here.  We had so much fun.  I loved the good company as much as I did yarn shopping.

When we got back to town, I had a surprise waiting for me. 

A gift for sweet pea from Hasbu!  I called mama-to-be and asked her to come see me as soon as she could.

She was very blessed!

Everything about the package was fun.

And I am way more than excited about this:

A book of Finnish mitten patterns!!!!   I am Finnish and since I met Hasbu and her sister I have had so much fun getting to know them and asking them questions about the customs and ways in Finland. I joined the Ravelry KAL for this book and after baby is born, I plan to knit some!

This morning, we were invited to breakfast at the newlyweds’ home.

We had crepes and they were great!  Of course, the picky eater didn’t get the full enjoyement of it but he was happy.

He squirt the whipping cream himself.

Have a happy 4th!  I know my little imp and daddy are enjoying their treats!

I had a great last few days. Knitting is going well and I got a great gift in the mail today.

It was also a sad day, today, though….papa-to-be lost his grandma today and it was pretty unexpected.  I heard he was handling it ok, but he was probably a little bit in shock.  They were not able to revive her when the paramedics were called to her house and when the family gathered at the hospital there was a social worker there to meet them.  The kids are getting away for their first anniversary over the next few days, so the family said they should just go and enjoy themselves.  They can’t do anything here and there won’t be a service for a few days so they need the chance to celebrate.  As mama said to me, they were concerned she might hang on for a few days and they would never have left if that was the case.  Our kids are very sensitive and it’s nice that the family said they should go with their blessing because they need the opportunity to honor  their anniversary.  They have to cook for a chili feed fundraiser tonight so it will be ready after church tomorrow so he has things to keep himself busy.  It makes me realize the depth of love I have for my new kids and I’ve been concerned for him all day but they’ve had a lot going on so I haven’t been able to talk to him.

I saw the mama today.  I had the cutest book to give her.  

She was pretty tickled.

Ok…I wanted to show you what I won!

Frieda was asking for donations for her cancer walk in Canada.  She was walking in memory of her mother and mother-in-law and she was offering the shawl as a prize.  I won!  I didn’t donate because of the prize, but I am sure thrilled to be the winner. However, she was so incredibly generous because that isn’t all she sent me!

I had a really hard time capturing how beautiful this yarn is.  The amazing thing is I have been looking at this very yarn in this very colorway online. I could not be more thrilled.  She did such a beautiful job of knitting on the shawl, too, and I will really enjoy it.

I’m making good progress on my BYOB. 

I was only going to make this 3 colors but last night as I was knitting on the way to Olympia on our date, I decided it needed some more pop so I got the light blue.  What’s weird is, that color of blue may be my least favorite color, but it really seemed to make a difference in the whole thing.  I hope to get lots farther tonight on my knitting but I wanted to make sure to get pictures while it is still light out.  It’s on the needles and I couldn’t get it to lay flat (and of course about 10 stitches popped off the needles) but I’ll be working on it tonight and hope to have better pictures to show you soon.

Yesterday was the first day of summer and we had about our 3rd nice day of the year.  It was warm and beautiful but by the time I got off work, the fog was rolling in.  We were pleasantly surprised when we got out of town that it was actually very warm.  We love to eat at i.talia and never knew until last night that they have outdoor seating across the way from the restaurant so we ate outside.  I haven’t used my phone much for taking pictures but I thought it did a decent job.

And my knitting came with me:

The waitress was really interested in the bag. 

And now, back to knitting!

I am really wanting to work on my Francie sock, but I’ve kind of got the baby bug now.  Maybe I’ll get the current little hat done and then jump back and forth.

Here’s my progress…

It’s so soft and fuzzy.  I’ll try to get better pictures next time to show the back.  A friend suggested not binding off the 2 edges so the end result is a t-shape that is then seamed together…instead to knit those center stitches and on each side to purl 2 together joining the sides at the same time.  It worked great.  Right now it is back on the needles as I add the bottom edging.  There are little curlicues that go on the top of the hat at each side where the joins are.  If I can’t get that right, I’ll leave them off, but really would like to have them there.  The whole concept of the Itty Bitty Hat book is that for the first year, babies are seen from the top of the head down so the hats are designed to make the top of the hat cute.

We’re seeing baby move all the time.  Mama is looking so cute and Daddy is pretty thrilled to talk about baby.  Gotta love that.

I have one more picture I want to post of the first hat just so I have it without the shadows.

I got a fun present today but never got a chance to take a picture in the daylight so that will have to wait…but I have to say I have the best of friends.

The SP12 questionnaire was posted the other day and mine is now at the top of my page on a tab of it’s own so if you’re here for that, look up there.

I’ve been buried in bookwork and got no opportunity to knit today.  Right after I finished reconciling a bank statement this afternoon (that was refusing to be balanced), I got a chance to visit with 3 good friends, though and that was a great reward for sticking to my job.  I had a potluck to go to with hubby right after work and that was fun, too.  Mama and Papa-to-be were there and before we started our meeting, we had to make a guess as to what we all thought baby would be….evenly divided.  It’s fun that so many people are excited about it.

We’re going through some adjustment pangs with the little imp now that big sis just got married.  It will all work out but it’s very different.  We’ve always appreciated the help that our kids have been.  Today when I got to work, the new bride’s father-in-law happened to be there.  He was asking how it was going and I told him it’s been an adjustment.  I told him about a few of the incidents we’ve had but that it’s been good and the kids are all a big help even still.  He said it is nice to see a family functioning as you’d hope it would, that many families probably really don’t have what we have.  He said he knew his son (my new son-in-law) loves the imp as if he was his own brother.  We see it every day with all 3 of the kids and their chosen ones.  I cannot say enough how grateful I am.

Sunday a friend emailed this picture of hubby playing his new bass. That’s our new son-in-law on the drums. 

or why blogging has changed my life 

First the knitting….

I am really enjoying the Francie socks.  This is halfway through the pattern.  The increase rows can be a little awkward but not impossible.  I’m using size 0s and slipping 2 then passing those 2 over a purl stitch gets a little tricky.  Also left and right purl lifts…but it looks right so no worries.

The suggested yarn is a more solid color to show off the pattern but when I found this yarn in my stash, I actually thought this out.  The green in the sock represents the tree, the brown the bark and the bleakness of the neighborhood.  The blue is the sky that Francie would see through the leaves when she laid on her balcony under the tree.  That was one of my favorite parts of the book, she was so able to find beauty in the midst of such need.  I need to re-read the book, as I said, so I can refresh my memory…but the book so affected me in her ability to see what so many people would miss.  Poor hubby had to listen to hours of my interpretation of her insight. 

And now to the mom part.

Since I have started blogging, it’s funny how I can look at things differently.  Instead of getting frustrated and angry over a situation, I begin to see the humor of relaying it to others.  I’ve commented to friends a few times, “my life is a blog!”  haha.    Funny how that will change an attitude, but it does.  I’ve always tried not to fall into the pit in my thinking, but sometimes it does happen.

I wanted to share the little snippet of therapy yesterday.

I can do this from Sherri Knits on Vimeo

Last night, I looked at my Mother’s Day cards again.  I think it’s so funny how when you read things when everyone is watching, you miss what things say.  This is my card from mama-to-be:

This is what I missed originally

Thanks, sweetie, I needed that.

Technorati Tags: blessings, family, littleimp

I hope all the mothers out there have had a great day.  At the same time, I do hope those of you that find this day painful found a way to be blessed.  It is definitely a day that is charged with emotion for many of us… both positive and negative.

It was a very nice day here in our home.  The kids were all able to come for a barbecue after church and then we just spent the day hanging out.  It is always so much fun for me to hear the kids having a good time together.

The little imp was just himself.  He talks to you if he feels like it and doesn’t talk if he doesn’t feel like it.  I don’t know how many hours into the day we got before I got a word from him.  Actually, that is typical.  He is usually bugged on the Sundays Dad does worship because he leaves before any of us get up.  Then he just has no words and he makes a point of sitting just enough by himself to make it clear that he is a little bugged.  We’re just used to it.  Once in awhile, though, he does shock me by being silly and talkative early on.

Friday I got the idea that I need to do some kind of project that I could finish quickly to get me jump started knitting for baby, it has just been so busy that I haven’t been able to put any time into baby knitting.  So, I made the Baby Bolero from the One Skein book.

The new mama was thrilled, it was her little mother’s day gift from me.  I went down to a size 7 even though the pattern suggested 9 because it was too loose.  I used Cascade Sierra and it feels so nice and soft.  The pattern said 2 rows of ribbing around the edge but I did 3 because I went down to a 6 on the last row and it is perfect.  I had a hard time getting a good picture so use your imagination. 

I read on all kinds of blogs that Spring has sprung everywhere.  I guess the Pacific Northwest is getting left out of that.  It continues to be nippy although they do say we are getting a few warm days sometime in the next week.  I try not to get too excited because near the coast we can be 20 degrees cooler when Seattle finally starts getting summer. 

Don’t let this picture fool you because it looks nice and springy but it’s just my reminder that it is trying to arrive.

Today after church, I got the rare opportunity (for lack of a better word) to leave church alone.  The imp stayed with his brother-in-law so he could go to kids church…as of this Sunday we only have it 2nd service now.

I drove through Starbucks and treated myself to a Java Chip frappacino which I am trying to stay away from but since I have weaned myself from Pepsi I decided to grab a small one.  When I pulled into the drive-through, we got the worst rain fall all week…whirling wind and heavy, heavy rain.  I got wet just ordering!  But yummmm, it was worth it.

It’s sometimes nice to grab a few minutes in the house alone, it is a rare day that happens.

Tomorrow starts therapy again after about a 2 month break for the wedding.  We’ll leave early enough to have lunch together so that we break the monotony of the ride in the car.  If we don’t take that break, he does not do well with the handwriting part of the hour.  She’s really good, though, to break up the time with fun play, work, fun play.

I am so tired I don’t know if I even make sense.  It was a long week going back to work after 2 weeks off.

Tomorrow I am going to figure out how to spend some of the fun gift cards I got today…one to the kitchen store (do you now how hard it is to watch your kids get all this fun stuff as wedding gifts and then see all the old worn out stuff that I have?  no complaints here, but it will be fun to get something fun and new!) and the other one I got is to the Bare Escentuals store….my girls and I love the make-up.  I also got an iTunes gift card and it is loaded on to my account so I’m going to see if there is a book or something fun like that.

Hope you all had a great day!

Technorati Tags: knitting, family