happy windy friday ;o)

Well, I know I said that I would have pictures of things and everything today, but alas and alack (sp?) I do not. We finally got everything together for the Home and Garden Show (happening in Hutchinson this weekend by the way) yesterday and then we went and set up our booth earlier today. Guess what-the camera that is holding the myrtle leaf shawl (2 repeats done) pic's is at the show and I am not. (my dad is currently manning the booth while I man the shop. I'll be going over later after the shop closes to help at the booth.) Go ahead-call me a bad blogger-I've only been doing this for a little over a month and already I don't post very regularly and I don't have any knitting pic's to show you-bad, bad blogger. To distract you from the nonknitting material, I will show you a picture of a crazy kitty in the sink!

So, anyway, I thought that I would tell you about the trip to Israel in March-I bet you are excited. My husband has always wanted to go to Israel (I traveled a fair amount before we got married, so I've been to a lot of places that I really wanted to visit), so when his boss gave him a huuuuuuge bonus for being at his job for 10 years we decided that we would go there. (we probably could have used the money to pay bills with or to buy flooring for our upstairs, but his boss really wanted to give us the money for a trip that we would never be able to afford on our own and we were happy to do that) We're going on a tour with Pilgrim Tours that does Holy Land tours and gears them toward Christian people.

The thing that is so funny/ironic is that before Christmas Dan had been saying he would really like a picture book of Israel, so I ended getting him an Israel guidebook that had all sorts of pictures in it before we even knew that we would be able to even go on this trip. It has been really helpful to look at (especially when we were trying to figure out which tours we wanted to go on to make sure we got to see things that we would really like to see) and Dan looks at this book like every night before we go to bed. He's really excited about the trip (I'm a little more nervous because I'm a worrier-I'll be excited when we get there, but I always get nervous about all of the arrangements working out and everything beforehand)

Well, have a great weekend and I wish you the "very best in all your endeavors" (as I recall, that's something like what my friend, Sid, wrote in my yearbook senior year-funny what you remember).

p.s.-random "I'm-not-very-smart-question" for you all-how do I save buttons and all other such stuff to my server?-I'm not an internet savvy person-I'm great at photoshop, but not so good with other stuff that deals with html info.

Hi there

I'm just leaving a quick note. We're getting ready to be in a home and garden show this weekend at the shop, so I haven't had much time to write-but I have pictures and all sorts of things to say. Hopefully I will be able to post tomorrow or Friday. Thanks all!

I'm Still Here!

I've had a busy and sleep inducing week. I've seen a lot of people have been having icy and snowy weather-we've been coooold and sunny with no snow. I'm getting a bit worried for our farmers (which, I guess, includes me and my husband). We had a droughtish thing here last fall and then it rained for a while in September and October, but then we haven't had much moisture since then. I would say that we have only had about 7-9 total inches of snow so far this year. (I might be wrong by a few inches) We normally have at least 3 times that amount-I think. I have an idea our ground is going to look really dry come spring. I don't know what farmers around here will do because almost no one has any irrigation equipment because we usually have plenty of rain and snow to get us by. Well, I guess we will just have to hope for some fairly large amounts of rain this spring. Okay, so there was my local weather report for all of you-wasn't it exciting?

On the knitting end of things-I got my yarn in the mail and have been working on the Myrtle Leaf Shawl!!!! I have only finished a couple of repeats, but I am pretty excited about it. (38 repeats and a border to go!) I am a bit of a slow knitter. Especially because I am knitting it on bamboo needles. Now I am normally a metal lover and I would like to be knitting with metal with lace, but since Dan and I will be going to Israel at the end of March and I am not positive if I will be done before we go on the plane, I figure that I should be sure that on an overseas trip, I don't get my needles taken away. I could just switch to the bamboo needles when we go over there, but I am afraid that my gauge will be way off.

I'm sorry that I don't have any pictures of the shawl yet, but my dad has his digital camera with him right now, so I will leave you with a pretty picture I took last fall. Have a good weekend!

Happy Friday, Again

Well, it's Friday and I have nothing finished to show you-I also have nothing in progress to show you, but I thought I would still write you a little note just cuz you all love me soooooo much and hang on my every word ;o)
I have one piece of news that I have been waiting to share with you-I just got a new book!!!! I already have my first project in mind and have ordered the yarn-I bet you would like a little sneak peek wouldn't you? he, he, he . . . here it comes . . . . . . . . . . .
This is a little section of the photo of what I am going to make. Can you guess what it is? (I'll let you know in a second, just scroll down a little more. shhhhhh)


It is soooo purty . . . . .

and Victorian . . . . .

and nicely lacy . . . . .

and all of that . . . . . . .

and a bag a of chips!


Yes, it is the myrtle leaf shawl with willow border from Victorian Lace Today! I have ordered some Misti Alpaca Lace in dark brown and am looking forward to getting this new project started-(I know, I know-I have some wool mittens to make yet, but I'm still trying to figure out some design elements for them-Plus, techniquely they are supposed to be made in May, according to the book)
Here are a couple of other photos from the book.
The end on a beautiful scarf- (called a scarf with a wide and handsome border)

And some really nice shoes warn by the model-I love shoes (I can only afford shoes from payless and target, but I still love them and I can usually find lots of cute ones)

One last thing-a little thank you to Isela for telling me I look like Katie Holmes-thanks!!!!!

Looky, Looky!

This has been going around on a couple blogs and it looked like a lot of fun. I tried to do my husbands picture, too, but for some reason it doesn't want to be added to my page.

The picture of me is from this picture of me and the Print o' the Wave.

By the By-that area behind me now has primer on it, so that it can be painted-We may have a real home one day! Sometime I need to scan in pictures of how these areas started out looking.

Baby-it's cold outside . . .

I am so a Minnesotan-I have spent at least three different posts talking about the weather. Now this isn't at all scientific and I 'm just saying it, but I'm pretty sure it is true :0)
Do you know what the most watched portion of the news is in Minnesota? Weather. Do you want to know what, I am betting, is being talked about at this very moment at the little cafe across the street from me? Weather. Do you want to know what people were talking about at church yesterday? It wasn't the Super Bowl-it was the weather- okay, maybe some people talked about the Super Bowl, but I didn't happen to talk to them.
So if it is sooooo cold outside why am I not knitting a giant woolly blanket? because that sounds like a lot of work. I am working on a little something for one of my nieces though. Now, probably none of you will approve of what I am making and I may even hear a few laughs and guffahs, but I am making her a poncho-yes, I said it- it is a poncho make out of an acrylic boulcé yarn that is going to have a fun fur border. I will not apologize for this. She is 8 years old. She is a girl. She is going to love it.
Well, anyway you guys-stay warm and have a good week!
I was going to finish this for Christmas, but I was very busy trying to finish the Print o' the Wave for my sister-in-law (which didn't get finished until a week after Christmas and got sent last week-she got it by the way and absolutely loved it. Thank you Eunny!!! for such a beautiful pattern.) Don't worry-I ended up getting my niece a beautiful book called The Flower Man that she really liked-such beautiful artwork. Anyway, I am just about finished with the poncho and I think I will be able to get it in the mail by the end of the week for a little Valentine's gift.

Happy Friday

Here are our cats Norman and Barney-they don't get caught doing this very often.

I've not been doing a whole lot today. Tomorrow I have a bunch of people coming over to the house for a little party, so I have to clean stuff when I get home.
As it has gotten quite cold here in Minnesota and around the rest of the country I thought you might enjoy a photo of summer weather. This was taken at a Father's Day picnic my husband and I had at our house for both of our dads.

Beauty with the nieces and nephews on the fence

Hello All!

I've been silent the past few days-and for that I am sorry. Monday-was a Monday, Tuesday-sick at home (no internet), Wednesday-bad blogger, Today-good blogger!!!!

I've had this fabulous post in mind that I should do for the past bunch of days and weeks. I wanted to tell you all how I started knitting. It does seem like something one should do when you first start a blog about knitting, so I'm gonna do it now.

The very first time I learned to knit, I learned from my grandmother. I was somewhere about in fourth or fifth grade.

This is my Grandma Dode.

She was a wonderful grandma that was always knitting things. She knitted booties for every little baby she heard about being born and knitted sweaters and Christmas stockings and everything under the sun (or so it seemed). She taught me how to knit and purl, so I made a scarf. The scarf was a bright magenta and black striped one. (If I ever find a picture of it, I will make sure to scan it so that you can all see it) It matched a bright magenta and black checked winter coat that she gave me for Christmas one year. It was great to learn to knit from her because she was left handed and I am as well and I wish that I would have kept on knitting all the time after that. Then I could say all of the techniques that I used were the same as my grandma's, but I didn't. I stopped knitting not too long after she taught me because she lived far away and I had a hard time figuring things out.

Then sometime when I was about twenty or so or something I started knitting again by looking at an old knitting book that was my mother's and grandmother's. I also asked my mom some questions when I was confused. She doesn't knit much, but she knows how to do it.

Here's the book!

The first thing I did was relearn how to cast-on and knit and purl and cast-off. Guess what . . . one of the first things I knit was a regular garter stitch scarf for a friend of mine that was going with the Peace Corps to Kyrgistan. Then I made a scarf for myself from one of the patterns in the book (look above). I also started some mittens that matched the scarf and made some mittens for a couple nieces and a couple hats all with patterns from this book. It took me a year or so to finally decide to finish the mittens for myself because the thumbs confused me, but I finished them and wear the scarf and mittens all the time.

Here they are!

Anyway, I have made a ton of patterns from this book that was published in 1947 and I love them. Someday, when my husband and I have children, I have an idea that they will be dressed a lot like little babies from the fifties. This book has a ton of patterns in it included knitted neckties and vests for men that go well with those 5 inch above the belly-button pants. I have seen quite a few patterns that I would be very willing to wear if I would ever get around to making them, but I have a hard time finding anything my husband would wear. (This has nothing to do with learning to knit-but my husband has absolutely no sweaters. He wears leather gloves-not knitted ones, he wears cotton button-up shirts-not sweaters, I did make him a knitted neck warmer for skiing and he loves that, but I would love to make him a sweater someday-it will have to be extremely special though)

Well, I keep learning all the time and like to try all sorts of new things. I love to make things that are challenging and beautiful. Well, I hope that you have a great day!