phillies

11 years have made DH and I think too much alike. This morning, i was gifted for our wedding anniversary with a Phillies cap and sweatshirt, Polanco t-shirt and tickets for us for tonights game!

Part of his gift, a Phillies hat and t-shirt... I contemplated tickets for tonights game, but didn't have the time to get it all together with a sitter....

What a guy!

My last concert for school was last night... 3 concerts in 9 days... WHEW.. I'm so glad it's over even though they're fun while they're happening... it's a TON of preparation work that has nothing to do with music. The music preparation is enough in and of itself.

Now to finish out the year... and wouldn't it be nice if I knew what was happening with me and work next year???

maybe I can resume knitting now!

happy mother's day

wish I had more to say. I am totally SWAMPED with work.. no time to blog, knit or sleep.

hearty wishes

will be given to the happy couple at the shower, April 24th.

Pattern: 2 Heats as 1 by Cathy Waldie
Yarn: Sugar and Cream
Color: White
Needle: US3
Recipient: Heather

We were shopping with the kids yesterday and I saw this sign at Sears. Do you see the problem with it??? Needless to say, I didn't take advantage of the sale.


Picked up 3 silk ties at the thrift store to try the egg dyeing again. DH claimed the one from the MOMA so it's hanging in his closet now.

love, love, love

all you need is love

Pattern: Love by Rachel van Schie
Yarn: Circulo Yarns
Color: red
Needle: US3
Recipient: Heather

I used small needles so the design would pop. This will go along with the red and white ball bands. I'd love to do a checkerboard one.. I wonder fi I could figure that out.. maybe double knit potholder.. hmmmmmm

PSSAs started today at school. Had 19 knitters to teach... ouch... and it was over 90 degrees today with no A/C at the school or in my van either for that matter.

Sitting watching the Phils; love those boys!

a different celebration

for us this year. Kids up before 6AM.... got baskets... piled in car....off to church. 90 minutes later,....drop DH off..... take kids to starbucks for breakfast....go to mom's...visit....pick her up .....all pile back to car.... church....rehearse... service.... Easter dinner at Carlucci's with kids, DH, mother, brother, nephew and brother's MIL....head back home..... chill for 30 min... hide eggs in yard... kids hunt (takes all of 5 min)..... make dinner....watch newsies... sleep!

Oh and I got to knit while in the car. Finished this:

Baby Hoodie by Hannah Garcia
Yarn: Grace by Paton's
Color: Spearmint
Needle: US6 (kind of...)
Recipient: baby William Bott
Mods: left off front pocket, changed construction of hood.

Now to pack it up and mail it off... so he can wear it at least once before he outgrows it!

Must. do. school. grades.

happy easter

The bunny was a very busy girl today. Went shopping for baskets... not candy, but some last minute goodies, like bike helmets a movie, etc. Stopped at the thrift shop to donate a large bag and went in and came out with a large bag... hahaha cashmere sweaters, wool sweaters to felt for a Christmas gift project, a pizza stone, pants for DS2, a movie for DS1 and a silk tie.

I wanted to try my hand at literally tie dyeing eggs... It wasn't too successful... I'm not giving up though!

Speaking of dyeing... this week I dyed some handspun in colors that remind me of tulips...The green is the leaves and stems and well the rest is the flower itself.

My SIL was admitted to the hospital today with double pneumonia. We usually have Easter at their house, but I knew she wasn't feeling well so had thought we'd stay home and I'd do the dinner thing here for the family. My other SIL is sick as well, so I wanted to make sure that mom had someone to celebrate with. We're all heading down very early in the AM and bringing her to church with us then going out for lunch. Fortunately, I was able to get reservations for us at a favorite Italian restaurant between church and her 'village' and not far from the hospital that my SIL is in. So I convinced my brother and nephew to join us, since they still need to eat! DS1 will be just as happy not to see his dog cousin!

The hoodie is almost finished.. making the hood now... I think I realized a kind of major error, but it looks ok... so I'll let it slide. IF I ever make this pattern again, I'll be using the yarn it calls for... just didn't have it in boy colors and I want to knit from stash this year only (if at all possible)

At any rate, enjoy your holiday... It's my favorite one of all (actually my favorite church service was Friday... something about that tenebrae service really hits me.)

yikes

I think it's been 10 months since I've been sick... I remember now I hate it. I broke down and took the day off from work today. Slept in and have been dozing off and on the rest of the time. The low-grade fever is finally gone after 5 days and now it feels like a croupy cold..blech.

On the knitting front, I finished a second cloth for my exchange on Saturday
Pattern: Springing up Flowers by Kris
I think you can find it on ravelry too
Yarn: Peaches and Cream
Color: mint green
Needle: US3
Recipient: it's a secret

My 1st cousin once removed just had a baby boy.. what should I make??

Still working on wedding shower gifts too. Saturday, I'm actually singing! Helping with a Good Friday recording. Hope the voice is back to 100% by then.

wearin' the green

Pattern: A little Lace kitchen cloth by Carol Bristol
Yarn: Peaches and Cream
Color: lemon/lime
Needle: US7
Recipient: a secret

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

searching

for photos from the zoo for DD's Pennsylvania alphabet book on my external hard drive, and I came across these photos.














I remember taking this series. DS2 woke up very early one morning and to prevent him from waking everyone, we went down to the beach to watch the sun rise.



Such a peaceful start to the day. Makes me long for summer and the beach.

tulips

are a girl's best friend...
Thought I'd show you mine. I really love the color. Perfect pick me up from a sweetheart











Including a couple of better pictures of the cloths... these are taken with a real camera.

shower time

and I'm not referring to the weather... although that would be true as well.
I have 2 cloths finished for a bridal shower I'm attending in April



Ball Band warshcloths from the Mason Dixon Knitting book
Yarn: Lily's sugar and Cream
Colors: Red and White
Recipient: Heather H
Needle: US7 They're old metal one I bought at a flea mkt.. I love them, they're perfect for making cloths!
More to come


sorry about the lousy pictures.. when I finish all that I'm planning on making for her I'll take some pretty pics. No energy for that right now.

This week at school was one of the worst I can remember and NOT from the students. DH brought me lovely orange tulips on Friday to cheer me up a bit. And we watched a flick together Friday night and took the kids to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D.. I'm not sure the 3D was worth the extra $4/ticket. In fact, I know it wasn't. The best part was the blue morph butterfly att eh end... that was the kin of 3D you can get used to... and the rest... well I won't be buying a 3D version of it when it comes out.. but I will get the blu-ray cuz the movie itelf was really wonderful.

It's late, I'm tired... happy new time!

last block

complete

color 164E

Now to block and sew... (my least favorite part!)
and search the stash for the edging :)

time

is $ so this hat is winding up to be an expense

I frogged it down to the band... decided to put in the blue as duplicate stitch (no I had never done that before)
Reworked the top into 6 sections instead of 4
Started duplicate stitch... takes me longer than intarsia.
So far.....



guess it'll be ok when the other trees and reindeer are complete but wow.. talk about eating up time!

Finished another lizard ridge block. Sorry it's sideways. And made from scraps of leftovers from other blocks

I have to count but I think this is 30 which would make the blanket 6'x 5'. Time to block and sew me thinks!

eta: nope #29... so I'm knitting #30 now

didn't finish

this hat in time
But it's on it's way. I'm reworking the top to be in 6 sections rather than 4... I'm kind of bummed that the blue carry shows through the white... I think I prefer the ones that people duplicate stitched the reindeer on. (next hat)

This is my first foray into intarsia...and I'm pretty happy.

ta-dum

it's finished... well it needs blocking but it's warm and cozy and complete and I LOVE IT!

Pattern: Every Way Wrap Interweave Knits Fall 2009 by Okmin Park
Yarn: from MIL from Argentina... 2 ply heavy worsted with plenty of veg matter
Color: natural
Needle: US10
recipient: ME! (it's my new year's resolution to knit for myself)
Modifications: knit 17 cable repeats in place of 16
Buttons: wooden from stash


I really love this so much.. and the fact that it's reversible cable rocks.
This was the first time I made something from a chart and was not bad.. considering there was errata in the chart that I didn't get when I started. It took me 2 weeks... almost to the hour.. I started at opening ceremonies when they were aired ET and ended at 6:05 PM 2 weeks later. Sometimes I knit without the cable needle, (well in my case a dpn), and sometimes with .. and honestly to me it seems much faster to knit with. There's no fiddling and it's so simple to just knit off the end.. why bother the risk of dropping stitches.. don't get it!


I've started the olympic reindeer hat and it's my mission to finish before the closing ceremonies today... Had to dye yarn red in order to do it.. but I WILL win the gold. (IT's my first at doing colorwork for this hat!) Quite the olympics of firsts for me and it feels GREAT!

so warm and squishy...

and so it goes

Here are some shots of the wrap and it's progress. I'm on the 13th repeat of the cable. The pattern calls for 16 repeats.. but I think I'll need a couple more. It's going ok now that I've just about got the pattern memorized. DD and her girl scout troop went to see the Lehigh women's bball team play Saturday. Lehigh won and she had a blast! I think she wants to go more often.











We still have a pile of Girl Scout cookies to sell :-\....DS1 went to the movies with one of his school pals. So that left the baby home alone with mom and dad, and boy did he LOVE that!







OK.. I leave you with one last reversible cable picture.. I need to get back to knitting. BTW I took these with my iPhone, don't they rock?

no brain have i.....

i forgot to post this in the beginning of Jan....
DS1's teacher had a baby boy so before she left for her leave I made this

Pattern: cocoon baby stork sack
Yarn: Pisgah Yarn & Dyeing Co., Inc Peaches & Creme Solids
Color: Royal Blue, tierra firma
Needle: US 15
Rcipient: Baby Simmers

I held the 2 yarns together to make a bulky yarn. It's cotton so it's a nice covering for a new baby that wants to be swaddled. Hope she uses it ;-)

I'm working on my 9th cable repeat for the every way wrap.... not much else to say. The new principal started on Tuesday.. juries out on that yet.

skating

I feel like the russian skaters with my olympic knitting project. Today I spent almost as much time ripping as I did knitting. But now I have 4 repeats of the cable pattern finished... so I am hoping to make it!

I was thinking that we'd have another snow day earlier on... but it has stopped snowing and may result in only a delay at best.

better get crackin!

let the games begin

the Olympics that is......

and the knitting olympics as well :-D

This is my challenge. The Every Way Wrap from Interweave Knits Fall 2009 issue. I frogged my endless cable poncho after I discovered there wouldn't be enough yarn.... well honestly, I frogged it last night. My first intention was to knit the wrap with a merino cashmere blend of recycled wool but there wasn't enough of that either. So I'm using the yarn from the endless poncho and pulling out the little country additions (barby things) as I go.

I knit the ribbing tonight during the opening... did the first row of the chart and am now stuck on the cable row.. which way to read the chart... so I want back to the original page and several closer photos and think I have it figured out now.

More sledding today... although I only went down 2 times.. yesterday's tumbles have taken their toll on me. I'm not as young as I once was... Then DH came over with the car so I could run DS2 to gymnastics.. his thought was that he'd bring DD later... until I got there and realized that I had both sets of car keys... so she missed her class... I should have just taken her with me which was my original thought.. but oh well.....

off to knit another row.. i've been spending much of the time during these days spinning..... rambo that is so fluffy I can barely stand it!

let it snow

no school today or tomorrow.....
6 day weekend here we come.... (there goes Easter break :-( )

this picture was taken about 3 hours ago and it's STILL snowing