We're leaving on a jet plane

Well, tomorrow afternoon we leave for Israel. I guess I am nervous/excited/hopeful all at the same time. I'm the kind of person that worries about getting to the plane on time and doing all that kind of stuff. (Once, when I was younger and about to fly to Romania all by myself, I accidentally left my plane ticket at home. Thankfully I had my passport and we were able to get a replacement ticket, but now I think about that happening all the time) We are mostly all packed and the house is just about clean, so we're just about ready. Dan's never been on a plane before and I haven't been on a plane in about 6 or 7 years. (That seems sooo crazy because used to travel somewhere practically every year. I've even been able to take free flights because of the flight mileage I've gotten) Anyway, we're looking forward to it and hope that everything goes well.

For your amusement, I put together a little photo montage of one of our cats. So here's Norman being himself.

l to r: top: Norman asleep on the living room floor, Norman and Dan in matching "coats"
bottom: Norman asleep under the chair, Norman asleep on the couch (don't worry he's still alive)

We get no end of amusement from our fun pets. From the looks of it Norman sleeps a lot-he does, but sometimes he gets this giant amount of energy that sends him racing from room to room, up the top of the chair and down. He sometimes gets so crazy he starts fighting with himself. He'll sit down on the floor and act like he's going to wash his back feet, but instead he starts kicking is own chin and growls and bites at his feet. The more he does to himself the more mad he gets at himself. We try to tell him that he is beating himself up, but he won't listen. At first, we thought this was just kittenish behavior, but he continues to do it even now that he is four years old.

Well, I hope that your next week is great (I hope mine is too). Hope you enjoyed the random information.

Myrtle Leaf Shawl

Okay, long ago and far away (a couple of weeks ago) I showed you pictures of the Myrtle Leaf shawl that I wanted to knit and said that I was getting the yarn and all that. Well, the shawl got started (I told you that, too), but then, as you may have noticed, no knitting content!!!!!! What happened you say . . . well, I got done with two repeats of the pattern and it was fun, but life gets in the way of knitting and sometimes (you may be shocked to hear this) it can be nice to do absolutely nothing during your free time. I needed absolutely nothing to be happening for a while (although I did start a simple scarf from the vintage knitting book I have).

The scarf I started is the one in the picture above here-except its blue

The life that got in the way was putting together a youth concert at our local performing arts center for my church. The concert (with Carpenter's Tools and Elizabeth Hunnicutt performing) was on Wednesday and was a success, but I don't know if I will ever again agree to be the contact person for things again. (ie: I should know more about sound equipment and all. I did work in my college's auditorium and set up for concerts and things, but I was always the underling who got told what to do and when to do it) Anyway, I won't go on and on about that now, but I do have something you would like to see.
Very early progress on the Myrtle Leaf Shawl!!!

Here is Rebecca Modeling the first two repeats!!!!


You can't quite see the leaves yet, but they'll show up better when it gets blocked

I have a long way to go yet and I had hoped to wear it in Israel, but that won't be happening. I will just have to accept it, but some glorious day I will have this . . .

How'd it happen?

Well, Maya got engaged in February and she just wrote about how it happened in her blog, so it got me to thinking about how my husband proposed to me.
We've been married for going on five years now, but I remember it anyway :0)

So here goes--we were already pretty much figuring on getting married the next fall, but Dan's kind of a slow guy sometimes. (I recall that he compared us getting married to selling his old truck (not when we got engaged-I promise)-meaning that even though he knew he wanted to sell his old truck he just hadn't been ready to do it right away, but then he ended up selling it-what a romantic guy, huh? (this was is the summer before he proposed to me-I still tell him that he should never again compare me to an old truck, but I digress))

Anyway, on a very cold and windy day in January (the 19th) he came over to my parent's house (the one we live in now) to take me on a date. We had been planning to go for a walk in the snow, but it was nasty cold. Instead I played something for him on the piano that I was going to play for church the next day. He sat on the couch across the room from me with my cat, Cleo. When I had finished with the song I turned around and then got up and walked over to him. He got off of the couch, knelt down and proposed to me. I said yes to my most romantic man. (He said to me later that he had been asking the cat whether or not he should ask me) Then we went up to St. Cloud to go pick out a ring-he was nervous about picking one out, so we got it that night and even though we would have liked to have gone to this fifties diner that we had seen up there once or twice-for whatever reason we couldn't find it and ended up eating out at Pizza Hut.

Ahhh, the memories. Well, what my Dan sometimes lacks in romantic notions he makes up for in boundless kindness and forgiveness for all of my faults. I will be able to show our children someday the place where their dad proposed to me . . .

Us on our wedding day outside the church

So that, in my long-winded nutshell is how my husband proposed to me-Anyone else?

Someday soon sometime once again there will be knitting content, but, eh, there isn't very much to talk about on that subject.

. . . oh, what a beautiful day . . .

. . . I've got beautiful feeling -every thing's going my way
Well, maybe not so much, but it is a beautiful day. The temp is in the 30's and there is sun outside shining on the snow. It is truly very pretty out there. Not that I have a picture of it to show you, so you'll have to believe me. I'm seriously thinking I need to get a digital camera of my very own. I always feel bad when I steal my dad's and put pictures on it-even though I am only walking outside of the gallery that the camera resides in.
Anyway, all that said-did you know that in 10th grade I was in the HLWW/DC High School version of Oklahoma? You probably didn't know that, but I was. I was a part of the "chorus" and got to wear a white dress with bright purple, pink and green flowers on it with a giant purple sash. I think it was the brightest dress on stage. I knew the costumer well and she told me she thought I could handle it. She has been a director of a few plays that I was in as well and she always had me wear some strange outfit or in charge of some strange giant prop. Much as I can't act that well, I can handle props and looking strange. What a gift!!!!

Since, my parents live next door to the gallery, I ran next door to see if there were any pictures of this dress and lo, and behold-here they are. The picture might be a little small, but anyway they give you an idea of how it looked. Well, that's all for now. Have a good weekend!

white stuff from the sky

Well, I am a happy person because it is snowing outside. At this very moment there are white flakes falling outside of the gallery windows. I took a few pictures earlier when it was snowing a little less.

We also has a large storm last weekend so there was already snow on the ground. The snow last weekend fell during the Home and Garden Show in Hutchinson. It was great! (the crowds weren't that big at the show, but there were a good many hardy Minnesotans who decided to show up just to get out) We ended up getting about 12-15 inches around here.

I don't know what other people think (well, actually, I do-many people do not like large snow storms), but I enjoy snow. I enjoy the times when we get so much snow that things get canceled and we get to stay home and make cookies and watch movies and things like that. I enjoy the fact that we can be "forced" into sitting down, relaxing, and spending time with family.

(here's me on my soap box-you can just skip to the next picture if you like) I feel bad that there are people out there that get annoyed when the snowplows aren't out there in the middle of a storm plowing. Now, I understand the folks that are emergency personnel and need to get to the hospital and those kind of things could get tired of the snow, but the people I tend to hear complain about these things are usually are the ones who are truly able to take a day off.

We live in a rural area and I like it. I like the fact that there are times when our gravel road gets giant frost heaves or there are huge soft spots that not very many people can get through. It makes people think of different ways to get around. We only live a mile out of town and I remember a few times when my mom put on her cross-country skis to go work after a snow storm had come through.

The snowplows pile the snow from the roads on this side of town across the street from the gallery.

Looking in the other direction is my red truck and the bandstand where we have a couple concerts in the summer.
(It all has much more snow covering it now.)

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!

Hanging out in the Window

Well, my little teeny-tiny sweaters were hanging out in the front window
today catching a few rays.

You all know that I live in Minnesota, right? And of course you believe that Minnesota is a vast and frozen wasteland where it is never warm ever-including summer and all that.(which truly is not that case we get our share of 90-100 degree days with plenty of humidity to go around as well) Okay, so today, JANUARY 26TH!!!, it was nearly 40 degrees outside. What little snow we have gotten this year is nearly gone. Get this though-tomorrow and the rest of this weekend it will be down to 0 at different times of the day. I've lived here all of my life-I'm used to wild swings in temperature, but we've been on a roller coaster this year. Let me tell you-I like snow-I like to ski-I like being forced to stay at home because the weather is too dangerous to be outside on occasion. 0 degrees is not conducive to snow and neither is 40, but somewhere in the middle works great for snow. (I'm not a meteorologist (I'm sure I am boring you, so go ahead and just look at the pictures while I finish this mini rant), but I believe that when temperatures get really low the moisture is sucked out of the air, so that no precipitation can come down even if there was a giant snow storm coming overhead it would skip us and move itself below us or around us or whatever. Then, obviously, when temperatures are above freezing-it doesn't snow.)

I still must say that today was a beautiful day with the sun shining and warm-so the teeny-tiny sweaters got a big kick out of hanging out in the window!

And with their friend the headless/toga clothed lady. She has a very sad story. She's not really supposed to be headless (come think of it the Greek and Roman sculptures really aren't supposed to be headless either-and she's based off of one of them-they had very similar things happen to them to make them headless as a matter of fact-hmmm) This young lady used to spend her days outside the gallery in the great out of doors. (In the winter she was given a nice warm hat and scarf) Sadly, one day this past summer young vandals came in the middle of the night and broke off her head. They did much other damage around town that same night and have since been caught and convicted. We can at least be thankful that they didn't throw her head through anyone's window :0)
Have a good weekend everyone!

Elizabeth Zimmermann and Israel!

Okay, I just realized in the other day's post I spelled Elizabeth Zimmermann's name wrong. I'm sorry-I often write without any reference information in front of me. Well, anyway, I am definitely going to make make the bi-color Norwegian mittens from her book the Knitter's Almanac.
Of course, now that I think about it maybe I should convert the mitten to a little bit more of a Swedish pattern because I don't have any Norwegian blood in me. Maybe I could use a Swedish Horse Motif or something like that. Hmmm .... Just when you think I have it all figured out I decide to throw a wrench into the middle of it all. Well, that's just the way life works.
I haven't done any knitting since my last post. Monday evening I had my guitar lesson and didn't feel like doing anything after it and last night I had a church council meeting and didn't feel like doing anything constructive after it either. I just looked through the Almanac to get ideas.
During this past week, I have been trying to get a trip together for my husband and myself to go on at the end of March. I am excited to say that the last week of March we are going on a tour of Israel. Our airline tickets are bought, the payments are all in, and our passports should be here in a couple weeks.
My husband's boss gave him a big bonus to go on a trip to wherever we want to go because Dan has been working at his job for 10 years this year and is also a very good employee. (It's a small business with about 5 employees, so this isn't something that has ever happened before)
Sorry about no pictures this post. I promise I'll do better, at some point :0)

A new FO!

Well, I finished that purple-y/lilac-y hat with the ruffles. I've tried it on and it isn't exactly my style, but I think that it would suit others well. Maybe a college student or someone like that would like it. It probably would have suited me my freshman year of college. This picture does not do the hat justice, but I didn't have time to set it up really nice, so I just scanned it in the scanner.

Yarn: Rowan 4-ply soft 1 and 1/4 balls of (I believe this is the real number of the shade, but I forget numbers easily) shade 378
Needles: Metal dpns Size 3
Pattern: My own (that I might not ever remember) based on gauge found in Ann Budd's book and a ruffle from a vintage learn to knit book's baby bonnet. (You probably don't want me to try and remember how I finally got this sucker off of the needles because it wasn't real pretty. I had something in mind that didn't quite work, but maybe if I had done something else at a way earlier time it could have worked)

Anyway, I think the hat is really cute. It could probably fit a kid in late elementary school or middle school and be cute as well. Oh well, I think I will put it in the bag to be sold at the Hutchinson Arts and Crafts Festival.
Yesterday, I was looking at the yarn for the mittens and being puzzled, but it is definite now that the yarn would be far too thick to make a nice anemoi mitten. Now, I have to think of a good pattern maybe I should look in my Elizabeth Zimmerman book about patterns for a year. I think that there is a nice mitten pattern in it, but I can't remember.
Anyway, in my confusion I started another tiny sweater from Last Minute Knitted Gifts out of some extra cotton Sugar 'n Cream. I'll probably finish it tonight.

Pictures that have nothing to do with the Post

(a gallery pic)
Last night we had our monthly meeting of knitters at the local coffee shop, Latté Da. The coffee shop is owned by sisters-Diana, Sandy, and Judy-who enjoy knitting. We don't have any yarn stores really close by, so this is where we go for knitting. (We have a Ben Franklin about ten minutes from our town that has a nice selection of standard yarns and then there is a JoAnn Fabrics about 20 minutes away, but the closest full yarn store is 45 minutes away)
I worked more on my lilac ruffled hat, but it looks about the same as it did last week. Scroll down to check it out if you like. It has a few more rows and is close to being finished, but from most people's perspective-its the same.

(two of my drawings)
The wool I got from our local spinner (which is sold at the coffee shop) is still in ball form. I am trying to figure out exactly what kind of mittens to make with it. Isela asked if I was going to make Eunny's Anemoi mittens from it, but I'm not sure I would be able to figure out gauge very well. The yarn is pretty thick. I love those mittens, though. My eye looks at those mittens longingly wishing for a pair of my own. My other thought on the pattern I would use is making one up based off of other things I have seen. Maybe using the brown to make fair isle snowflakes, or something like that. Maybe I could even make a felted mitten with a snowflake pattern in it. There is soooooo much to think about sometimes.
Okay, I believe that I just put in my first links ever with this post-I'm pumped ;0)

Shetlands

Now, I don't know if you all know this, but I grew up with sheep and goats. None of them were the variety that had anything beautiful that could be spun. The goats were dairy goats and the sheep were the kind where you sent the males (or, actually the used to be males) to the "shipping yard." I still think about getting sheep again sometimes and this time getting some that we could use their wool, but that would mean re-fencing and also our property has issues with burdock (or so called "vegetable matter." I always laugh a little when I see the words vegetable matter, as though the sheep got a little too close to the carrots and broccoli in the garden. They were in the weeds-the burdock and other sticky stuff-or at least ours were). When I have worked with handspun, which has only been a little bit, I am amazed how clean those sheep were kept and applaud the sheep farmers for their wonderfully mostly weed free farms!
Here's a pic of some of our sheep (The one in the sort of middle with a really white face is Ewe-nice. Not pictured are some more of my favorites like: Nose, Killer, Aretha, and Mouth)

So, anyway, why is this post called Shetlands? I just got some local handspun shetland wool with which I am going to make some mittens. Here are the little balls of wool lounging in the gallery window.

And why am I mentioning the names of some of my old sheep? Well, when you take a little closer look at this in-its-natural-state-wool, you will notice that they each have some pretty special names:)

I look forward to making some double-colored Posey, Molly and Shona mittens and will make sure to show my finished product to their proud human mother!

ATTN: NO KNITTING CONTENT AVAILABLE

In order to distract you from the fact that I didn't do any knitting this weekend, I am giving you a beautiful picture of my husband and me in Rocky Mountain National Park this past summer!
I am tired out and I ache.
My weekend including not a stitch of knitting time (pun intended) and now I am sore. It's my husband's birthday today and Saturday was his dad's birthday, so we had a birthday party at our house last night.
So, earlier in the week (or earlier in the month) Dan decided that we should really fix up our basement-nasty old boxes of junk sitting in the corners, cardboard boxes on a bed and you name it. It has all been sitting like this for about three years. Plus, he does leatherworking and the area where he has had his bench is right next to the furnace and is a too cramped.

Some of Dan's leatherwork (spur straps he made for his brother)
So . . . we cleaned and cleaned and cleaned. Saturday, after I got home from work, we sorted through boxes, threw things away, and organized everything. Oh My. I scrubbed the walls and the floor. It was yucky and spider-y. Anyway, we were done about 1 am and we were tired.
On Sunday, after church we got home (still things to clean up a bit in the basement) and had to make sure the rest of the house was clean and baby-proofed. (Dan's sister has five-going on six kids ranging in age from 1 to 10). So we were home about 12:45 and everyone was coming at 6:30. It all got done and things went well-plus five loads of laundry, but boy I am tired. The kids loved running around in the basement and now are all asking about when they can come have a sleep over.

I Have Comments!!!!!

Hi, there people!
This is so exciting I have people who have commented and everything and all that. Thank you guys soooo much much coming over and seeing me!
Okay, I thought I would start by showing you all something on the needles at this very moment. The metal at the top of the picture is a foot from one of my dad's sculptures that is in the front of the gallery. If you want to see a picture of the whole sculpture, you can find the info at www.wildestudios.com.

This is a hat I am working on. I am kind of figuring out a pattern as I go, so I am hoping it will fit me when it gets done. We shall see.....it is a bit of this and that being put together. The little ruffles along the edges are from a baby bonnet in a Learn to Knit book from the 40's or 50's that was my grandmother's and I figured out gauge by looking at one of Ann Budd's books with all sorts of basic start out kind of patterns in it. I'm making it with size 3 metal double pointed needles-no idea what kind specifically-another of my grandmother's things. Oh, the yarn I am using is Rowan 4-ply soft in (I believe) shade 384. It's a pretty lilac-y, light purple-y color.
Here's a little ruffle detail and such. I'm not sure how it will look on me totally yet-maybe just a little too girly-girl, but I'm a girl and it just might work anyway. If it doesn't, we have a coffee shop in town that sells handknitted items and other craftiness.
I thought I would end the day by showing you a little funny something.
That blob in the middle is our puppy (our 1 and 1/2 year old puppy), Dakota hauling hay. My husband had a big square bail of hay that he had been feeding the horses with and she thought it looked like fun. Of course, what would be really helpful is if she would actually bring the hay to the horses rather than walking away from them, but she can only do so much!
Hope it gives you a little laugh. See you Monday!