In sock progress, I am halfway through the cuff and this time around, the pattern just ‘clicked’ and I don’t have to give it much thought any more.  I can’t really knit it without the chart in front of me, but it makes sense now.  I am not going to post a picture here because the progress isn’t enough to really waste the space.  I am enjoying it, though…but I’d really like to see this pattern in a solid color because I think it’s too pretty to be lost in the multi-colored yarn.  I am convinced, though, that I won’t knit Tofutsies in anything bigger than a 0.

Yesterday afternoon, I had the surprise opportunity to knit for awhile with a friend.  We didn’t have too much time, but I really enjoyed it.  That’s one nice thing about my ‘job’, I get to sit and knit with people.  Then today, 2 more friends came and spent the afternoon with me.  I am not sure I even knit one row even though I started to.  I think we were trying to solve the yarn problems of the world, not sure if we did or not.  All of us were so tired that I’m sure we made sense to each other.  lol  I like being able to just ‘be’ with people.

I don’t have much to share today but last night, I tried to snap a picture of the sunset through the car window.  It doesn’t really do the sunset justice.  I was knitting on the way home in the car (an hour ride) and I started noticing how beautiful the sunset was.  I told hubby that I see life so differently since I got my new camera.  Maybe some day I will learn to take better pictures.  This one doesn’t qualify but you can still tell how pretty it was.

And now, hours after I started this post, I am trying to wind down for the night but I just got off from a 3 hour phone conversation and then about an hour of talking to hubby.  Right now, I feel like my life is such a journey.  We are healing for a very difficult time in our lives and because of the wedding, I got a phone call from a dear friend needing to find a ride so she can attend.  In talking to her, I was able to see the tremendous healing that has happened in my life over the past 6 months.  God is good and He knows what we need.  The journey that I am seeing is so positive because I can actually measure growth in myself and see that a sense of value is returning and a peace is settling over my life once again.  I know I have a long way to go and so many people I know also are walking that road, but healing is coming and I love the idea of walking forward together.   Isn’t that what life is about, though?  Always walking along the road of life, ever seeking to be better than we were before?

So, in life, I also have to tink and sometimes frog…but I can still move forward, enjoying the journey and coming out with a finished product, persevering until I get it right.  Will the parallels between my knitting life and my life in general never cease?  I love that. 

Tonight was knit night and I finished my first Tofutsie Limited Edition sock!  They are short, but that’s what I like in a summer sock.  It was a fairly easy pattern, just enough to be interesting.  The chart was easy to follow, though.

I always enjoy visiting with friends and tonight was a smaller group.  I thought we got pretty philosophical.  My conclusion is that we are pretty complicated beings. 

When I got home, I was looking at some blogs and when I visited Mary’s blog, I got so intrigued with her strawberry trick.  I was wishing I’d have stopped at the strawberry stand when I drove by and thought about it.  Get this, about 10 minutes later, my daughter said, “Mom, did you know we have strawberries in the refrigerator?”  So, I found a straw and played with them myself!

How cute are these?

Mary ate hers with chocolate ice cream, but whoever was so kind to buy strawberries also bought chocolate dipping sauce!

I’m still loving my new dishes!

Other than that, I got my replacement iPod today and guess what?  I cannot get the computer to recognize it, it was on the charger all day and towards evening it went dead.  It had this sad little face on it and when I went to their website today, it said that is almost always an indication of a hardware problem.  I tried calling the help line and got all these options that did not apply.  Then the recording said, if none of these things apply, call this number.  I called that number and got almost the same options…and then it said, if none of these options apply, call this number…and it was the first number they gave me!  I emailed them today and have not heard back.  I am kind of not happy about this!

Her brother and his girlfriend made the board and it was sooo cool.  They really managed to capture some of the funny, unique things of her growing up years.

That’s him with the camera around his neck.  The groom-to-be is on the left side of the futon facing.

I totally forgot to take pictures when the biggest crowds were there, but I’m sure those pictures would be boring on here anyway.  The ones I do have, I’m sure I’d be in trouble with someone if I tried to put them on here because you know how it is on those candid shots…someone is always doing something funny.  I’m often that one.

One of my friends gave her this beautiful little tea set.

When everything was over, look what I found.

Her boyfriend…doing the dishes!  He’s a keeper, but I already knew that.

What was she doing?

I think she deserved it.  Her cheeks hurt from smiling so much.

And the other kids?

One of her gifts was a Dr. Seuss book, to remind her to keep life simple.  The friends who gave it to her are always so clever, she also got oreos and one of those tree fresheners for the car.  Why?  So when she smells it, she will remember that they are praying for her.    Anyway, the little guy read all 62 pages to big sis.

I can’t leave without showing what he was up to Saturday night.

And the poor dog had to get into it, too…

Sock progress:

I was almost ready to close the toe on the sock today until I noticed I had done extra decreases on one side and was off 4 stitches after I started the next decrease.  I decided to do it right and tink back to the mistake and so far I have gone back at least 3 rows and the mistake is still there.  I have to be close because I remember counting previously and being on.  No big deal, I’ll finish it tomorrow when I’m not so tired.

I think there were about 10 of us off and on today hanging out together and knitting in a little coffee and popcorn shop.  Celia, the shop owner, was so gracious and really enjoyed having us because we were ‘well-behaved’.   She even stood on a chair to take our picture.

What I love about knitters is that they are so willing to help each other.  Here is Linda helping Patty figure out her gauge.  We all know who to ask for help because Linda is never without her calculator and ruler.  Amber and Bunni are just enjoying visiting with each other.

I loved seeing all the fellowship, too.  I posed the question that I wondered if there is any other kind of community out there that will draw together the way knitters do.  I am so amazed that people like Claudia can raise so much for MS and Stephanie for Tricoteuses Sans Frontières (Knitters Without Borders) which supports Doctors Without Borders.  We decided there must be other kinds of groups out there but we don’t know about them and they probably don’t know about us.  I’m proud to be part of something so big and caring, though.

Shanda, Julie, me, Pam and Amber towards the end of the day.

It was just so cozy.

I had fun learning to do a short-row heel…needs practice!  I was steered to a website by a new friend in Wisconsin and showed it to Julie who mastered it and is now teaching me.  Thanks, Julie and Sandy!   I need to be careful and not yank the needle out of the stitches, though.

All in all, a fun day. I left my phone on the counter at my shop with a note to call my cell phone.  I only had to leave once for that purpose and what was cool about that was I had several things happen when I was there so I took care of all my business at once and then got to go back and knit.  I may try that again later in the summer if we decide to sit outside when the weather is nice.

I even made progress on my Tofutsie sock.

I hope you got a chance to KIP at least for a little bit today!

Oops, I almost forgot….here is Saturday sky, and you can see why we sat inside today.

Hubby picked me up from that and we went on our ‘mini-date’.  (yes, we actually have 2 date nights but this one isn’t quite as official as the Friday night for-real date).  I think we just needed a peaceful evening and we got it.  This is where we have gone for several years when life was so, so tough for us.  We have shed many tears here and shared many very special pleasant times, too.  You know what’s cool?  Those incredibly painful times did not ruin this place for us.  There are some things in life that the deep, painful feelings make it a place we don’t want to re-visit  when it’s over because all of the bad feelings are attached to that place.  (just ask anyone who knew me when the little imp was born…Skippers restaurant was the recipient of all of my frustration during those days….lol….I guess it was a safe place for me to aim it all and I couldn’t go there for years afterwards. {I did forgive them, though!} It all stemmed from one really bad dinner and everything that could go wrong did).

Anyway…here is where we have hurt and have spent healing time too:

One evening, here we sat in tears and the sweetest older lady was trimming the roses and since we had our windows down, she chatted with us and it was just so comforting. 

Can you just imagine how wonderful the smells are here?

Often there are kayaks galore out on the water, but tonight was cold and windy and probably early in the season anyway.  We can sit for hours and watch them, or sometimes we’ll walk on the little dock.

And, here is something I have always wanted to do:

Hey, that is not easy to do.  I guess I should have adjusted the setting on the camera because the sock is a little blurred.  I also felt a bit silly doing it, especially since the yarn was still in my purse in the car behind me and I had it stretched pretty tight to take the sock’s picture. 

What is the yarn, you might be asking?  It is the new limited edition Tofutsie yarn from the SWTC Sock Club!  I got it today and am starting on the exclusive sock pattern that comes with it.  I got the yarn in my little yarn shop today and of the 10, there are 4 left! 

I got a kick out of a friend of mine.  She knew the yarn was going to come in this morning and wanted to run to the shop on her lunch hour.  One of her co-workers just didn’t ‘get it’ even when she tried to explain…this is a limited edition and when it’s gone, it’s gone!  I get it, what’s wrong with that lady?  Well, tonight we were on our way out of town and I realized I didn’t bring my pattern with me, so I called her and asked her to read the ribbing to me…a 33 stitch repeat!  I laughed and said I bet her friend wouldn’t get that either!  lol

I have to close with an attempt to show my most favorite little sight every night.  It’s nearly impossible to get a normal look on that sweet face when the flash blinds him before the real flash goes off but it’s close.  He can be such a pill sometimes, but when he comes to tell me goodnight and smiles at me without his glasses on, I just love it!

Then we have to have the road going by so we can check out the image stabilization

and then through the front dirty window

As you can see, it was a beautiful day.

But, you may be asking, why can we let summer officially begin?  Because I had the pleasure of having my first “porch knitting” with a good friend.  I had 30 minutes to vacuum the cushions before she came and it was great.  I actually think we missed all of last year, so this was an awesome way to start the season.  After my camera charged, I played with it a bit.  This is a favorite little table that used to be bright white.  I kind of think it shows a lot of character these days, but I may repaint if I get ambitious.  It used to be a phone stand I guess.

(and guess what!  I love my cups with my new Fiestaware!)  I love how clear the pictures are, too.

Here are the friend socks hanging out together.  The white one was pre-frogging.  The pattern made the cables look a little odd because of the direction they went.  The sock is now back to this size and she was right, it was the ‘right thing to do’.  She didn’t take my advice and I’m glad.

Before my friend showed up, I measured my sock against the first sock and had an inch to go.  I don’t know how long we sat and knit, at least an hour, and when I measured again, I had an inch to go.  What’s that all about?  I actually did get to the heel flap tonight.  (after twice measuring and having two rows to go, measure again, still two rows!  lol)

We came inside to eat barbecued hot dogs and watch “Benny and Joon”.  What an odd, humorous movie! 

i will leave you with two questions…..

do you think it’s amusing when some people show their childhood fear of jack-in-the-boxes?  lol  it seemed to be great cause for giggling in this house tonight by two certain people.

and would you refuse to be walked home by someone who looked like this?

I’m not sure where this week went, but it was busy! 

Since I did not have my camera with me yesterday, I didn’t get a picture of Saturday’s sky, but here is today’s

Don’t let that blue mislead you, it’s raining. 

Hubby and I had a retreat Friday and Saturday at the most beautiful camp…and I forgot my camera!  I was more than a little upset over that.  This was a working retreat, but we had a great time.  If you’ve read this blog for any amount of time, you know we’ve gone through a very difficult time.  This weekend brought much healing … lots of tears, lots of affirmation, it was good.  During part of it, we had someone leading us in an exercise in active listening.  It was pretty funny.  As couples, one of us was supposed to bring up a subject to talk about and the other was to practice the listening steps.  It was really cool because I was able to look around the room and see active participation and it was pretty interesting.  That’s not what the retreat was about really, just a little section of it and I think it was my favorite part.  I think we do pretty well in our relationship at listening and communicating but we learned a lot about dealing with others.  I love spending time with people I love and respect and who aren’t afraid to show that they care and to laugh and cry together.  That’s not really what it was all about either, but it was significant to me personally. 

When we arrived at camp, we had cards taped on the door to our rooms.  When we read ours, the tears just flowed.  They were thank you notes from the staff at our church.  We haven’t had difficulty with any of these people, but they all wrote what they have seen in our lives as a result of what we’ve been through and I was so touched.  It’s funny how you don’t see it yourself. 

I guess all I can really say is God is so good and so faithful and when I look back, I can see so much good coming out of adversity.  I’m so thankful we are moving on and relationships have been so strengthened.

And now, I DID get a chance to knit a little.  I needed something that was mindless so hubby was more than a little happy that the socks I started for him back when life felt so tough came back out of the bag they were stuffed in and I managed to add a few inches to the 2nd sock.  It was so relaxing riding and talking and knitting.  I love practicing knitting without looking (you never know when you might need to do that!).  I only got ‘off’ a few times.

When we got home, the dear boy had gotten a hair cut from big brother’s girlfriend.  I convinced him to hold the socks-in-progress for me on the wet deck because the light was a little better out there but he kept complaining that it was soooooo cold out there.  Not cold at all, a bit wet but I was only asking him to stand on a dry spot.  lol  The payback is that he loves seeing his picture on here. 

The dog of course wandered by right then but what are you going to do…can’t ask that boy to freeze out there when it’s soooo cold!  lol

We got a text message when we were on our way home that sis and her boyfriend were taking the boy to see Pirates of the Caribbean because he was pretty upset at missing the midnight showing Thursday night.  lol  as if we’d have let him go.  I cannot even believe we let him ever see that movie, but I guess with older brothers and sisters, it was just inevitable when they buy the dvds and watch them at home.  I absolutely hate those kinds of movies, but that’s me, I guess.  But…bad news.  They were sold out, so they took him to see Shrek.  I guess they had an interesting time…our daughter is tiny and it’s hard when someone big sits in front of her.  Right before the movie started, you guessed it…a whole family of very tall people came in and sat down.  That wasn’t all, but it would be unkind to tell the rest of it so I’ll stop there.  However, the little boy commented the entire movie that big brother and girlfriend would take him to see Pirates today….the whole time! That was what he went to see and he let everyone know.

He got to do that this afternoon.  I am so thankful my older kids love taking him along whenever there is a new movie coming out.  Since he’s been home, he is talking about 3 dvds coming out so he can watch it at home.  (is it really going to be 3?) Once he’s seen it, he knows the next step is the dvds and as far as he’s concerned, they can do that now.

We found out something amazing that he’s figured out how to do.  He is incredibly smart when it comes to anything electronic.  He can find any trailer on internet when a new movie is coming out and will tell you constantly what date it is premiering.  (case in point:  High School Musical 2….coming soon to a theater near you!  He’s been telling us this for months and now apparently he knows the date but I can’t remember!)  Well, here is his new thing.  He figured out how to set reminders on the tv for one of his favorite shows and every time it comes on (at least three times today), it starts showing a reminder 2 minutes before and then it automatically switches to it!!!!!!!  Now how did he ever figure that one out!  He is also famous for putting the closed captioning on, he just loves that, and sometimes he changes the language on it.  I can never figure out how to get it off, and if he feels like being nice, he will do it for me.

Ok, I guess I have rambled enough.  I think I’ll consider knitting a bit for awhile.  Hope everyone is having a safe holiday weekend.

While his handwriting isn’t the best, it is better than this but he was writing on the soft couch.  He was drawing and drawing on the picture of me…flattering?  Not sure of the hair!

This morning, my friend Bunni left me a comment on yesterday’s post stating there isn’t any room under the counter for any more abandoned projects.  This might be what she meant:

This probably isn’t all of it, but we won’t talk about this any more.

I had fun hanging out with my good friend at my shop today and she was teaching me to use this new little toy.

Pay no attention to the ugly carpet…someday we’ll get to get rid of it!

I had just gotten a chance to sit down with my laptop and my feet up, and the high school marching band came by.  They are often in our neighborhood but this time they came right down our street.  The dear boy was out the door like a bullet. 

He’s the blue spot on the sidewalk.  I was desperately trying to find my camera as they went by so I didn’t get a close up shot.  He was marching up the street behind them.

I was running along behind barefoot and my feet still hurt from it!

After this, I tried to shoot some video but my camera ran out of memory.  He almost headed up the street with them after they turned on the corner and my yelling to come back was not doing much good … you could just see it in his eyes, a chance to march with the band?  Thankfully sis came along with shoes on and hauled him home. 

Next time mom will wear shoes and we can go a little farther.  It happens enough that he’ll get his chance.

On the knitting front, I won’t bore you with a picture of  2 more pattern repeats on the shawl, but it is coming along just fine…and the lifelines are in place.  It’s funny how pushing through made such a difference.  The pattern makes sense and I don’t have to look all that often to see what to do next.  It’s such an enjoyable knit. 

Finally I realized I needed to go back and move the markers because I had gone into the previous pattern repeat.  Suddenly it just all started working.  There were still 2 stitches that were wacked out…one was a dropped yarnover and one was just not there, so I made one.  Voila! We’re on the road again!  It took me over an hour to tink back and less than 10 minutes to knit back to where I was. 

You will notice that there is now a lifeline.  Thanks, Shelly!  I guess since the pattern is so easy, I was just too confident in myself to think I needed one or something.  I’ve used them before and needed them. 

This was a great sense of accomplishment to me because every time I push on through, I am getting victory over this thing that gripped me and I’m getting part of  ‘me’ back.  Woohoo!  I’m sure I wouldn’t have persevered without the encouragement from this blog.  Cool, eh?

ps  Thanks, too, to Lauri for the encouragement in person.  She sat there watching the struggle.  And how wild is this?  I published this and had 2 comments within a few minutes!  Yea for bloglines!