A Wonderful Thing...

This week, I found out how you send hugs by mail several thousand miles. Take one amazing, loving friend. Add hours upon hours of painstaking hard work and creativity. Personalize to make this just exactly right. Assemble into the softest blanket ever - add notes and encouragement. Mail box from Nebraska all the way to England, and sit back and wait for the recipient to open package and be bowled over with love and comfort. Here are SusieJ's hugs, sitting on a bench in the garden my mom loved so well.





Y'all, I cannot express how wonderful SusieJ is - we've been friends for over 5 years now and it feels like I have known her so much longer. I'm lucky to know her in the best of times, and even more so now. She knew exactly how to touch my heart, and how to make me feel better in a dark, dark time.






This blanket is the opposite of darkness - beautiful soft yarn in colors of lilacs and lavender and all my favorite flowers. The embroidered squares are the best part - one is my mom's name and the dates she lived, and the other is this verse. Just perfect...

I love this picture of the crocheted squares in detail. Can you feel how soft it is? I've wrapped this blanket around me every evening since it came, and I feel better every time I do. Thank you, Susie. Thanks for being my friend.

Answer to a Great Question

Everwhelming Liz left such an intriguing question in the comments that I must answer it in a post!

Q: Nice socks. I have a little question for ya. If you were actually going to make a pair of socks into a horcrux, which pair would you choose? Ignoring for a moment the really evil nature of horcruxes, of course.

A: Of the socks I've already made? The Vanilla Blue socks were my first "wing-it without an exact pattern" pair, so those might be a good choice. Otherwise, maybe something really tough and lacey, or perhaps a sock-within-a-sock project. Did one of those aeons ago when the KnitList was young, in the early 1990s, but my gauge was so off I ended up with two Christmas stockings, pretty much...


(Complete aside - you must go see Liz's veil right now. There's going to be a spectacularly beautiful wedding with such amazing handiwork gracing the bride...)

Socks and Updates

So....here's how the socks came out. Not bad, and the Horcrux socks (blue pair) are adorning my feet as I type this. As always, the hardest part of making socks is the grafting at the toe., but even that went well enough.

In other news, MS3 theme has been revealed, and it's a nifty one. I won't say here, in case a few of the MS3 knitter/readers are trying to wait until they reach Clue 5. I have put aside my charcoal grey stole for the nonce - it really is almost impossible to see the yarn to knit for me right now. I am working my way into Clue 4 of the natural wool one, and have decided to do the shortening option as my knitting's always bigger and the haphazardly stretched stole through Clue 3 seems really large.

I spent a couple of quality hours in the knitting house with it yesterday - I had been knitting on it in the house, with people around, but my concentration just wasn't there. Being all by my lonesome with some mellow jazz on the radio is a much better system. I decided my house-knitting had best be socks. Cast on another sock in a German microfiber yarn in variegated neutrals. My own recipe, all ribbing ankle-length, which I am writing down as I go, the better to replicate. I'm not thrilled with the heel, but the rest looks pretty good. Picture will follow when they're done.

Check out the Family blog (link at left) for a couple of cute summer kiddo pics, as well.

Mood Art

Yep, that actually reflects today's mood pretty accurately. Thanks to Wannietta's blog for that link - I just found her site through the MS3 board, and she's really interesting. Lots of yummy yarn pictures lately.
Click here to create your own painting.

Project monogamy is a difficult thing...

I want to be knitting on the MS3. Honestly, I do. It's just that the dark version isn't quite through Clue 2, and it's murder on my eyes. The sensible thing would be to drop it for a while, and go back to work on Clue 4 of the natural wool version. Do I do the sensible thing? Noooooo. I start a pair of socks instead.

I must be crazy. They're awfully nice socks, though. I am using the Broadripple socks pattern from Knitty, because I love the garter ripple tops. However, I am not using the the ripple lace throughout, just regular stockinette. Made these last summer and they were lovely; I gave them to mom, and I have them in my drawer now.

I'm using Hot Socks German sock yarn for this pair, and size 1 US needles. Here's what I did today. I'll keep working on them tonight, since DH has Blazing Saddles on and I don't think that's conducive to complex knitting. Tomorrow, I rededicate to MS3, although I think it'll have to be the lighter-colored one.

Since I have no knitting to show off...

Check out David's post here for some really keen knit-creativity.

I did finish the Horcruxes and could not stop myself from casting on another one in sport weight for small D. Faced withe a shortage of that yarn, however, I found another complementary ball to use for the feet.

But I think I'm putting that pair on hold to get back to the MS3 knitting. David brought down the tilting laptop desk, so I can display the pattern better. Looking forward to knitting on it, and snuggling up with my sweetie, in a very few minutes once the kids are off to bed.

Harry Potter - party, knitting, book, film, and no spoilers

Hello, everybodeee! We've had a total Harry weekend here.


Friday evening we went down to the base for the big ole party at the bookstore. Lily's "His-mione" costume was first place for her age group, and David's Stan Shunpike won him first place for his as well! Lily had an advantage as she was the ONLY 0-6 year-old in costume. As you can see from the pictures, late night parties aren't really her thing, although she did appreciate the highly frosted cupcakes.













David enjoyed everything from the cupcakes to butterbeer punch to wandmaking, rune reading, crystal ball fortunes, and tarot card readers. He was quite the showman, wandering around saying "Tickets, please" and showing off his moakskin farebox (moakskin contracts and only the owner can open a bag made from it, for all you Muggles out there...). The bookstore went all out, and they did a super job putting together a fun event.




The kids' prizes were free copies of the book. As we didn't need two copies, we decided to give one away to a deserving person. The girl who was wandering around playing Harry's theme on her recorder was our choice - I had a nice chat with her mom, who had been planning to buy three copies of the book to accommodate all the HP fans in their house. So, our extra free copy went to a good home. Besides, Lily thought her little bag of sweets WAS her prize. No harm, no foul...



Friday afternoon I started the Horcrux socks to keep me busy while DH got first dibs on the book. Finished sock number 1 before the party even started. Started sock 2 after we picked up the book, knit on during the waiting/previews at the movie next day, and I finished sock 2 as DH finished the book - perfect timing! Loved, loved this pattern.. Easy, interesting, and fast. Thank you to Susan Pierce Lawrence, who wrote it up. Here's my sweetie with the book, and sock, in hand at 12:30 that night.


Saturday, while he was reading away, I took David to see Order of the Phoenix. We both enjoyed it very much; as the movies go, it's right up there with the best. However, we hope that nothing they left out for time constraints will be too difficult to explain away in the last two movies. I'm just saying...

Am I the only one wondering whether the movie actors have all grabbed a copy of the Deathly Hallows to read, to find out their characters' fates?

David, David and I have now finished the book; small D. wrote a fan letter to Ms. Rowling already. Now, it's back to normal life, including all the laundry I ignored, a little vacuuming, a little grocery shopping...and the MS3 of course!!

Whooo. Barely made it.

Wow. Just in time for the release of Clue 4, I've finished Clue 3 on the first MS3. I decided to finish Clue 1 on my "can't stand the waiting" second MS3 before starting Clue 3 on the first one, so that took a little time. Actually, I must admit that I took more time to re-read Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince.

So. Here we have Stole 1 through Clue 3. Not stretched out at all, and very ramen-esque. I'm still loving it, despite its untidy look right now.















And here's a shot of Stole 2 through Clue 1. If you click on this one, the sparkle of the yarn shows quite a bit better than it did the other day.














Now, to get in the mood for the book release party tomorrow evening. There seem to be no in-store parties where we are in the UK, just queue parties where you are entertained in the street waiting for a midnight opening. Therefore, we are going to the in-store party down at the base where David works. Small David decided last week that he wanted to dress as Stan Shunpike (the Knight Bus conductor). I rounded up some various items, and his costume is going to knock 'em dead! My mom would be proud. Lily wants to be "His-mione" as she calls Hermione, so we've got school skirt, her Gryffindor sweater, and the black velvet cloak Mom made for David when he was 4. He won a costume contest as young one in that one.

Stay tuned for pictures of the costumed ones after tomorrow's festivities.

In honor of Mr. Potter and the final chapter in the tale, I plan to work on some Horcrux socks. I fell in love with these when I saw a striped version on
Tabitha Knits' blog. She can knit an awesome sock, that lady!

Crazy-tastic Waiting Fun

Waiting for MS3 clue number 3. Still waiting.....Must. Keep. Knitting. MS3.

I know - so many people seem to be making two stoles...why not cast on a darker version? Call me crazy but I'm flowing with it. Stash-diving produced a charcoal grey fingering weight yarn in the right amounts. This is a Mystery Yarn itself, from a charity shop. All acrylic, charcoal grey with silvery flash in it that the camera does not capture. The actual color is somewhere between the two shots below, and the shimmer is very groovy. Needles - US size 4 (3.5 mm). I'm knitting this one with no beads because they'd be lost in the shine of the yarn, unless I used fluorescent yellow or something. I think not.

I think I am becoming Lace Literate because Chart A (first 50 rows of the stole) took me only 1.5 hours. I am using several of the tricks I have seen on the message boards, including covering the rows above where I am in the chart and "reading" the knitting. With the bigger 2-part charts, I have found that it goes faster if I look at each chart alone, without taping them together. In other words, I knit the right half chart, then pick up the left chart and do that. My eyes don't boggle quite as much this way.

Noodles, Anyone?

Someone on the MS3 message board on Yahoo referred to unblocked lace as looking like ramen noodles. Sure does look like ramen to me. Fuzzy, beaded ramen, but ramen no less for all that.

Pleased to have finished Clue 2 before the release of Clue 3 tomorrow. It's keeping my brain occupied, which is always a good thing.

Mystery Stole 3

Well, I was away from the blog for a while. We traveled home to see family and have my mother's memorial. We've been back in England a week now - it was a wonderful visit to home, and a really great memorial for my mom, but I really can't talk about it coherently. Perhaps I can in time. Just know, my family and friends reading this, I am so grateful you're in my life. It was so healing to spend time with all of you, and I am so very thankful to Sheila for opening her home and heart for us.

Trying now to fill my mind with things that don't make me sad, and this Mystery Stole 3 project fits that bill. The should-be-famous (is she?) Melanie (see Pink Lemon Twist) has designed and hosted a mystery knit-along for 3 years now, releasing one clue at a time with the end result being a fabulous, themed lace stole.

Here's a shot of my materials before starting. I am using the handspun Swaledale wool from my stash (same stuff I used for the Snowdrop shawl; what a great charity shop score that was) and 6/0 (4 mm) gold glass beads, and knitting on old size 4 (US) Susan Bates needles.


I knitted Snowdrop on size 5s and decided to drop down one size for this, as the Snowdrop is really, really airy after blocking. The wool is a little hairy, but I like it.








Here you can see the texture of the yarn, and also have a better look at the beads. I like the gold color against the natural wool. I tried some greens, blues, lavender and clear beads, but the warmer color just clicked for me.

















Here's a shot of the first clue, knitted up and stretched out a tiny bit. Still looks like spaghetti, but it's going to be glorious when it's blocked. I think the stole width will be more than 20 inches for me, but I'm OK with that...

Back from Germany; Life and Knitting Update

We are back from Germany. Having David back is sanity-saving, and also makes me very happy. It's also very nice to be back home. We had a nice time in Germany, although the rain made it a little stir-crazy the first week when David had his surgery and we all were trapped in our rooms for a few days.

I posted a picture of me in Germany on KnitFarmHealthSpa (check link at the left) and I may put up some more touristy pictures on our family blog page. Or I may not. I'm doing OK mentally - except when I let myself think about things for any period of time. Denial is fine as a grief coping mechanism for the short term, but I think I need to talk with someone in the long term.

Here's what I did in Germany - I ended up ripping the mohair version of Branching Out after the first repeat and going with this wool that I brought along. I call the finished scarf Landstuhl Leaves after the military base where the hospital is located. The color is totally wrong but you can see the detail. This was a stash wool - two 50-gram skeins of Irish tweed in a deep greeny turquoise. Not blocked at all yet.

The unfinished scarf is my Argosy, which I love more with every repeat. This picture is blurry as all get out, but the color is true. When it is stretched to blocking size, it is absolutely lovely.

Snowdrop and Suitcases

These are the pictures of Snowdrop, blocked, that we took way back. It is truly, truly lovely. I wrapped it around my mom when we went to see her, so it is the last thing to touch her. That comforts me when I have the shawl around my own shoulders now. I'm so very sad she didn't see it; I think she would have been quite impressed, since the last time she saw the shawl it was only about 5 repeats along.


I have been working, when I do feel like knitting, on Argosy, which is another intriguing pattern from Vyvyan . I'm using a German sockweight yarn in soft seablues and gray/brown. When I get in the rhythm, I can do several repeats pretty quickly, but it's getting down to it that is the problem.


I also started fiddling with Branching Out, another lace scarf pattern, in some cream mohair, but I am only a short way in, and I think the mohair might be TOO hairy for this one. We'll see.

Now I'm making a packing list to get ready for our Germany expedition. Don't want to forget the passports and all that. Or the knitting. Or the kids!

Berit 1936-2007

I don't know where to start. I don't know how to go on.

My mother died 29 March - she was coming to stay for a visit and had a massive heart attack in the car bringing her here from Heathrow. It happened while she was still near the airport. I take some small comfort in the fact that the coroner said she died very very quickly. I take no comfort in the fact that she is gone, that we weren't there, and that she was alone. I still can't process it.

We traveled to London to see her, so I could say goodbye, and to make some arrangements. David handled absolutely everything and I am so very grateful. I can't really talk about it or think about it.

My sister and her family had also been planning to visit while mom was here. Anne was able to come quicker than planned and arrived with Harriss (their younger daughter) on Easter. I was so glad to see her, and to be together with her here when mom's ashes arrived. Sometime I will write about that day, and how it was really wonderful instead of the horror I dreaded.

Steve and Clarke came as scheduled on the 19th. David had to leave for Germany for 6 weeks the week after Anne arrived. Having the family here kept me going and kept me from drowning, and even made me laugh fairly often. We kept very busy while they were all here. Now that they are back home I am really floundering.

We leave to join David in Germany for a couple of weeks this Wednesday. Then we are home for a week or so before heading to the states for mom's memorial and to sort through things there, etc. Anne and family took mom's ashes home when they left, for the memorial.

The memorial will be a wonderful thing, I know. It will be in Pennsylvania, at our beloved Sheila's. Sheila and mom have been friends since the 50s, and she is like another mother to us. Mom stayed with Sheila in this past year and a half when she wasn't in England with us.

I don't believe that she's not here, and I'm not dealing with it so very well. Everything I see and do reminds me of her, and that hurts so much right now. When my family was here I felt rather overwhelmed by all the touring and things we were doing, although I know this may be the only trip to England they make. But keeping busy as we did kept me from feeling awful - and I am sure it did the same thing for them.

I wish I could take a magic pill and feel better, but I can't bring her back, and I can't imagine feeling better. I get through the days OK, although I would rather just sleep. It seems like it's been raining here for the past month, too. The house is a tip, relatively speaking. The laundry is piled up. Sometimes the kids don't get a real meal for dinner but they will survive on string cheese and cherry tomatoes and pretzels for a time.

Mom

My mother died very suddenly last week. I can't blog right now. When I'm better I will be back.

The Last Gasp of the Camera...

With its dying breath, my 4-year-old digital camera took this oddly blurry picture just for you, Gentle Reader. Of course, it ate six other pictures that it was showing had been taken, so I'm not TERRIBLY grateful. Will have David look at it, but I sense it's time for a new camera...

Blurry, and uncontrasted against off-white carpet, I present....Snowdrop Blocking! The dresser behind it is shown for scale. I promise an outdoors picture with human wearer once it's dry.

Hmmm...What could this be?

Anyone know what this picture could be? Anyone? Could it be a Snowdrop Shawl (unblocked) wrapped around two little girls?

Why, yes. Yes, it could be. And it is! Having our friends visit this week, I had some nice sit-and-knit time, and I bound off the top edge of the shawl on Friday. Slightly stretched on the floor, I can tell that it is going to be HUGE, so I am definitely taking the easy out and not adding the edging. Should I do the shawl again, I'll use smaller needles if I want to add the edging.

Sometime this week, I should get some pins so I can do a spot of blocking. Stay tuned for that!After Snowdrop is finished, I'll be back to the Ivy for a while, methinks...

Hello from a Nice Weekend

Greetings, everyone! David and I attended the squadron's Dining Out on Friday. A formal affair (with elements of The Crazy as well), and occasion for the Sunday best...I like this picture. Thanks to picture-taker Samantha for making us so photogenic!

Check out www.honsinger.net and www.knitfarmhealthspa.blogspot.com for even more picturey goodness...

Checking In

Sorry no scintillating posts, or even progress on Ivy, to report.

Sick kids, depressed me, Life Happening. Sometimes it's not even worth posting about. Kids still sick, me not so down, weather getting better. If only we can finish with the horrendous coughing and the albuterol, things should get back to normal.

Yellow Submarine

I had forgotten how VERY surreal this cartoon is. Lily and I are watching it as I type, and it's terrific, but makes me feel like I should be taking some mind-altering substance. Or be 3 years old. I'll go with the 3 years old, and a diet Dr. Pepper.

Got to hang out with some friends and knit a little yesterday - thanks so much, Jeanna! I admired their scrapbooking efforts, and got a bit more inspiration to get mine going again. Amazing, creative pages - I love looking at scrapbooks. We had a little Chinese food for dinner, and I made it home in time to see the lunar eclipse with the Davids (Lily had long since been put to bed).