A Card for Genny

I couldn’t blog this the other night when I made it, but Lookie!!

I really enjoyed making this! I got the idea for the flowers from this hat pattern, and went into my button stash and a jar of confetti for the rest. I printed the saying on my computer first, directly onto the card paper. I found the saying on the internet (thought it was appropriate for the person I made it for) and set it using my greeting card maker software.

Several people have asked me about the card stock I use. It’s this one by Avery (the label people). Their plainer cards come in boxes of 30, and with these, you only get 20 in a box, but the paper is really quite lovely and worth it.

I find that making cute little cards is the perfect antidote to the problem of big project monotony. Often I find that I can’t focus on a large project very well. This happens to me during times of stress, or when there’s a lot going on at work or something. With small projects like these i can feel like I’ve made something cute and it does usually involve yarn and it offers a sense of accomplishment–and the all-important break from the project that I can’t seem to concentrate on anyway.

Tonight we had a family pool party with my Mom and Tony, aunt and uncle, and cousins. It’s an almost annual event that includes a ton of wonderful picnic foods. I supplied the steak and hot dogs. Yes I said steak. We eat GOOD in my family. There was only a scrap small enough to give my cat a good snack later. It was a beautiful day, too… hot, but not humid at all, and breezy. This is rare for a Maryland summer and I’ve learned to take full advantage of days like this when they happen.

I did bring some knitting along but only knit about 8 stitches in total. The company was just too good.

it was a great day. Too bad it has to be over… sigh.

Listen to this article

McMorial Day Weekend

Not a Bloggable Kind of Week

It’s been a bit of a weird week.

I haven’t gotten a lot of knitting done at all. Just a couple more little hearts for my Valentine’s goody bags for my co-workers. I’m glad it’s a three-day weekend and I’ll have time to get more done.

My cable access was very intermittent until Wednesday evening of this week, when I think they finally tightened it up enough to hold for a while. (I think there was a loose connection outside. It usually went out with bad weather, wind, cold, you name it.) Yesterday we managed to maintain our cable and internet service through a pretty serious windstorm. I guess I’m supposed to feel lucky.

My great-aunt Evelyn died on Wednesday evening, probably just as I was rejoicing over the return of the interwebs. Uncle Bob, her former husband, had passed away on December 30, and I just saw her at his memorial service. She looked great. Was getting around with a walker, but to be expected at her age… but walking well and being her usual self. Age had not clouded her mind at the least and she talked about how she still drives and goes and visits with her girlfriends every week.

Two weeks later, it was discovered that she had advanced bone cancer. I’m not sure how this happened so suddenly. I guess she probably fell… I don’t even know. And then two nights ago she just slipped away. At least, I guess, she wasn’t sick for long and could not have suffered much. I am, I suppose, grateful for that. But at the same time I am sad. It feels like I am losing lots of my older relatives now. My Christmas card list gets shorter every year. I love my extended family. We’re a big bunch. Chaotic, and sometimes dramatic, but usually fun. But nowadays it is starting to feel like the circle is smaller, and people are missing. Sigh.

Wednesday was also a good day. My little man’s first grade class had a performance for the school’s weekly chapel. The theme honored Black History Month, and the students each played an important character from history. My son played Henry “Box” Brown, a slave who climbed into a box and shipped himself to freedom.

In the days and weeks leading up to the performance, Little Man was very anxious about the whole thing, and would not even practice his lines with us. He eventually confided that he was nervous and worried that people would laugh at him. And yet, we could not ever get him to practice. So I wasn’t sure how it would go that morning, but he did know all of his lines, and he said them perfectly. I was so proud! I would post pictures but I don’t want to inadvertently share photos here of other people’s children, or give clues as to the location from the surrounding imagery. I know I post pics of my kids a lot, but there are certain things I won’t post. So sorry! But suffice it to say that he did great and I was SO proud of him, and that yes, there will be a video for private family viewing only.

But, I can’t leave you with nothing to look at for this post, so here’s Tegan. As you can see, she’s really thrilled to be video’d:

Ok, she’s probably just wishing that I hadn’t disturbed her nap.

Thanks for reading this update. I’ll have knitting content sometime this weekend.

Listen to this article

Knit Valentine and a Birthday

Yay! I figured it out!

Actually, I feel pretty stupid. Elizabeth Zimmermann is always right, and I should just trust her, that even though her patterns aren’t always the most specific, hand-holding things in the world, I should just trust that they’re right.

It’s all about the short rows. Most of the time, a pattern will specifically say when you are short rowing and turning before the end of the row, and then they specifically say when you will begin picking the unknit stitches back up and knitting them again. This pattern didn’t specifically include those little notes, so it was hard for me to figure out where in the directions to begin picking the unknit stitches back up again. Ok, the pattern didn’t specifically point it out, but if I had just had faith and followed along just as written without second-guessing, then I would be doing it anyway. It all worked beautifully of course. It was Elizabeth Zimmermann, after all.

To see the pattern, it’s on page 155 of Elizabeth Zimmermann’s Knitting Workshop. I’m definitely going to make a bunch of smaller hearts starting tomorrow.

Birthday Boy

Today is Steven’s 7th birthday! I am so proud of my little boy, who is growing up so fast. His big party is still a week or so away, but my mom and Tony came for dinner tonight and brought an ice cream cake. Here are a few photos from the evening:

Happy Birthday, Steven! I am so proud of you.

Love,
Mommy.

Listen to this article

Knitting the Ribbing!

Were it not for a slight accident this morning with the needle slipping out of the stitches and quite a few more than I would have wanted being dropped, I might be writing the Finished Object Report instead of just a run of the mill progress report. But, such is life when we’re knitting, eh? I’m not sure if I’ve ever knit a project that didn’t have at least some major mishap involved.

When I originally envisioned this hat I thought it might make a nice Christmas present for my daughter. Then I started it so early that I thought she’d get to wear it some this fall. And now? Well it looks like it’s regained it’s Christmas present status again. Oh well, at least I feel like I’m on track for something now!

Last night, we went around the kitchen table and each of us said what we liked best about the holidays. I asked the kids to ignore the obvious (presents!) and to pick their other favorite thing. Here’s what everybody said:

Diana: The Food
Steven: Making Christmas Cookies
John: Looking at All the Lights
Trish: Christmas Music

WordPress Upgrade And Other Site Stuff

Yesterday I upgraded this site to WordPress 2.7. So far, I love it! If you’re thinking of upgrading, there are a couple of things to consider. At least there are a couple of basics that I did that helped make things go smoothly. First, I made sure that the theme I’m using is 2.7-compatible (it is). I grabbed the latest version of my theme, installed the upgrade, then disabled all my plugins, and let my hosting company do the automatic upgrade. Then I went in and reactivated my plugins. That’s all there was to it!

I’m finding that it’s hard to maintain three separate blogs, so I’m going to do some more general type blogging here from time to time. I’ll still keep my family blog, but even that needs a serious update. But I’m going to add a page for my writings and stuff that I had intended to develop at my long-neglected personal blog.

This blog will still be a knitting blog, but you might notice a couple of other sections in the menu over time. I’m just finding it harder and harder to even think about keeping up with three blogs. Let me know if you have any feedback on this issue! For now, I’ve uploaded an article I wrote for my college newspaper, more than 20 years ago. Even though my life is in a completely different place now, this article captures how I’m feeling right now:

Doing Yesterday’s Work Tomorrow

Enjoy!

Listen to this article

Next Page »