"Properly practiced, knitting soothes the troubled spirit, and it doesn't hurt the untroubled spirit either." ~ Elizabeth Zimmerman

5/31/08

Wedding Fever, Me?

I don't feel like talking knitting today. So there will be no knitting content. Just warning ya.

Not to say I haven't been excited or happy about my daughters recent engagement to Frank. I am. It's just, the thought of planning a wedding has just been-well-kind of overwhelming. It's not like I haven't planned weddings before. I have-including my own. It seemed so far away at first. Now it doesn't. So I've sort of been 'nagging' about it, for lack of a better word. Asking the happy couple to make decisions, or at least think about things.

I've accomplished a couple things. For one thing, they've set their date for June 28, 2009 (thus the ticker at the top), which is plenty of time for planning. I also nailed down the wedding colors. Brown and bright Blue.

I wanted to knit Sarah a dress (I've been collecting knit bridal dress patterns for years in anticipation), but she would not go for that idea. However, they both want me to make the bridal bouquet and whatnot with beaded flowers. I am thrilled to do that. I love beading, so this will be fun.

All in all, though, I haven't been feeling real enthusiastic about the whole thing.

Something happened yesterday afternoon. I took a break from life to check my email and whatnot, and ended up surfing knit blogs for just a bit. I landed on one blog (can't remember which one) that had one of those click-on ads for a bridal gown site. Just out of curiosity I clicked on it (after all, I was surfing-LOL!) and ended up finding a bridal gown that would look absolutely stunning on my Sarah. I emailed a link to Sarah, she checked it out, and I think we've fallen in love. This is a pic of the front of the dress, which I've blatantly 'stolen' from the web site. (It's a pic another bride posted in her review of the dress, she's a gorgeous bride too.)



The sash is actually long in the back, all the way to the floor, and tied in a bow. There' s embroidery on the ends. The sash comes in several colors, including blue-which Sarah wants. The dress can be had with various sleeve styles-which is good cos she wants sleeves. Not only that, the store it's in is in our area. I am SO excited!

Suddenly I have wedding fever!!

Just so you know, dear reader. There's gonna be wedding content on this blog for - well - at least the next year.

Have a wonderful day.


(To see more about 'the dress')

5/30/08

Pomatomus Done!

YES! They're done, and they're gorgeous! I love them!




Pattern: Pomatomus from Knitty.

Yarn:
Pagewood Farms Yukon sock yarn in Prism colorway.

Needles: Size 2 Addi Turbo Lace Circular.

Comments: I LOVE this pattern!


Yesterday, just before sunset, we had a nice old fashioned rip roaring thunder storm. Twas very exciting. After the storm, we had a rainbow. It was so beautiful cos the sun was underneath the clouds, making them a strange sort of yellow/pink/lavender color, and then this beautiful bright rainbow appeared. We could see the whole bow from one end to the other. I took pictures.



Mother Nature put on quite a show.

Today my daughter Ruth is at her very first job interview. Lets all keep our fingers crossed cos she really needs a job. Not for the money so much as for the confidence building. Sweet Hubby and I are working hard to encourage her to get one for this reason. Nothing makes a person feel more independent than a real salary paying job.

She wants to work at Silverwood Theme Park in the worst way. They have an opening in one of the restaurants for a dishwasher.

It's going to be a beautiful day today. I think I'm gonna go sit on the deck and work on my shawl.

Have a great day!

ETA 1:00pm

My daughter is gainfully employed. Hurray!!!!

5/29/08

WOW! Entry for May

Time for the monthly WOW! Sock Club entry from my stash.




This is from Fearless Fibers. It is 100% Superwash Merino wool in subtly variegated shades of Deepest Forest green. There's 550 yards of fingering weight yarn in this baby. I'm not sure when I'm going to knit it up into socks, but I will eventually. I just love this colorway.

Have a great day.

5/28/08

WIP Wednesday 5/28/08


I almost didn't post anything today cos I keep thinking it's Tuesday, and I didn't really have anything to say. Then I remembered it's Wednesday. Time for some WIPs!

This is a dinosaur I'm making for Knitwits. The pieces are done. I just have to sew them together. I'm thinking I'll do that after I get my Pomatomus socks done-which should be any day now.


The second Pomatomus is almost done. I've done another fantastically perfect heel turn. I'm halfway down the foot. Should have this done in a day or two at most. I'm thinking I might not wear these ones until after the North Idaho Fair next August cos they'd make a good entry-unless I knit some even better socks this summer.



On Monday the kids went for a walk on the Parkarosa and brought back this big bouquet for me. There are a couple lilac bushes in the woods that my husbands sister, Helen, planted years and years ago (She passed away from cancer a long time ago too). They're pretty much wild now. We call them Helen's lilacs. Anyway, they're blooming. There is some Oregon Grape in this vase too.



For those of you who have lilac bushes-- a tip to make the blooms last longer in the vase. I've rarely had any last longer than 2 or 3 days in the past. But I got a hold of a package of that powdered stuff florists give out to add to the water in the vase to extend the blooms life? It's working. My lilacs look just as good today as they did Monday. No wilt whatsoever.

Last but not least, I'd like to thank my readers for the tips in the comments of the Grosbeak post on how to attract Cardinals. Unfortunately, all the tips in the world will not help me. Cardinals do not live in this part of North America. But just so you'll know, I do have suet cages, and a flat platform with seed spread on it too. The suet cages attract the woodpeckers, and some Starlings. I'm not real fond of Starlings, but oh well.

Have a good day.

5/25/08

Quiz Silliness

When do you know, without a doubt, that your daughter is a Geek? When she downloads a free program that makes her Mac laptop sound like a slashing lightsaber when she moves it. Yup, she did it yesterday. Last night she was standing there, in the living room, waving her laptop around like a mad person. LOL! The furkids looks told the whole story-she's a looney bird! (But she knits!)

I got no gardening done. Sweet Hubby decided we would plumb the water line for the coming new refrigerator (no, it's not here yet. There's been a delay in the order). This required a total trashing of my kitchen. What a mess! It also required a trip into Coeur d'Alene to visit Home Depot. Sweet Hubby had bought the wrong size valve, or something like that. Very frustrating for him. I picked up some potting soil, 4 snapdragons, and a pair of cushions for the chaise lounges on the deck. Then we went home and finished trashing the kitchen, and cleaning it up afterwards. After we got done, though, we went to see the new Indiana Jones movie to reward ourselves.

What a blast that was! I loved it. The opening sequence was fantastic! Now we're wondering, can you really survive a nuclear blast in a lead lined refrigerator? You'll have to see the movie to know what I'm talking about. It's a fun one to watch.

After the movie, we went to a new restaurant right next door to the theater called Azteca for some dinner. It's a Mexican grill. Mmmm, is their food ever good! We had a booth by the front window. While we were eating, various of our relatives walked by about every 15 minutes or so-leaving the theater no doubt after seeing Indiana Jones (several showings were going on simultaneously). Heck, we could have had a family reunion right there on the sidewalk. It was funny. The waitress finally came by and asked why I kept tapping on the window and waving. She thought we were randomly waving at folks we didn't know.

Some silliness. I found a couple knitting quizzes to take on the net. Here are the results. If you want to take them yourself, click on the underlined titles.

The results of this first one made me laugh.


What is Your Level Of Knitting Experience

Your Result

You are a knitting god. Seriously, you should be the one writing this quiz. You should have your own fashion line. It is disgusting how much you know about knitting. Get out of my sight.


~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~


What Kind of Knitter Are You?

Your Result

1097733262_Guru.gif

You appear to be a Knitting Guru. You love knitting and do it all the time. While finishing a piece is the plan, you still love the process, and can't imagine a day going by without giving some time to your yarn. Packing for vacation involves leaving ample space for the stash and supplies. It can be hard to tell where the yarn ends and you begin.

I got some done on the Pomatomus sock. I've also started diagramming out the next book project. Blue-I want to make something in blue. A few weeks ago, while in Bead It, I impulsively bought a tube of matte blue metallic seed beads that were very expensive as tubes of beads go-13 bucks! They are so pretty, there was only one tube, and the boss was telling me how they came in her order, even though she didn't order them, and she didn't think they'd ever sell. (I guess I was bailing her out as well as feeding my desire to own them.) I found the perfect shade of blue perle cotton to go with them too. So, blue it shall be.

Speaking of the book, I did a bit of reading on the subject of book publication and got to feeling so overwhelmed I almost cried. I've got a lot to learn before I can get this project done. The big question: Do I self publish, or go with a well known publisher? That's what I need to find out. Which would benefit me best? I need to find some brains to pick. Any volunteers?

Maybe we'll get that garden planted today. The sun is shining, so it should be a nice day to do it.

Happy Memorial Day

We Have Grosbeaks

New birds have come to my feeders. I'm SO excited. I got pictures! By the way, if you click on the pictures, they will get bigger.



Male


He has bed head! LOL! It took him awhile to get that sunflower seed cracked open.

Female


Much more muted in color, but very pretty pale peach breast. The male stood guard over the tree for a long time, chasing away any birds that might bother her, letting her eat in peace. When she was done, then he ate-along with 2 Chickadees, a finch, and a male Towhee. No peaceful meal for this guy!

I am amazed by the birds I am seeing this year. I had no idea there were so many brightly colored ones. All these years I've been envying my Dads Cardinals and Goldfinches, and here I had a whole host of rainbow feathers around. Just needed the right seeds in the feeders. Black sunflowers and thistle. Oh yes,`and shelled peanuts (NO salt!). I swear by them now. Avoid too much millet. They like to throw it on the ground more than eat it.

Knitting news:
I have got some more done on my Pomatomus sock, but to be honest, not much. If you've been a reader of my ramblings for very long, you know how stubborn I can be. I could not leave the bag pattern alone. I'm glad I didn't.

I stopped being so ferociously set on my original idea-basically a fern leaf in lace. I allowed other ideas into my brain. When I did that, the problem solved itself. I got so excited I sat down and knitted up the whole thing right then and there (after I fixed the virus problem on my computer). It turned out absolutely FABULOUS! So much better than the original idea.

While it was still fresh in my head, I wrote up the pattern right away. Took me five hours cos my notes were all over the place. Some parts I'd forgotten to write down, and other parts I'd discarded and forgot to cross out. Most of my time was spent figuring out where the extra 4 rows came from on the front (that was the stuff I forgot to cross out). Eventually, I figured it out. Ah, the joys of designing. I love it!

Now that I have that figured out, I can knit my Pomatomus sock in peace.

Ruth is still working away on her fingerless gauntlet gloves. She is spending a lot of time knitting.

Sometimes, Tommy thinks he is a cat. Silver does this all the time. Tommy seems to want to copy him.



I am going to attempt to start planting the garden today. I've got my seeds, Sweet Hubby gave it another rototill yesterday. Let the growing begin!

Have a good day.

5/23/08

Virus Nasties and Ravelry Swag

Yesterday, after posting on here, I went in search of a clover lace stitch pattern, just to see what might be out there. I clicked on a link that was supposed to be an enlarged photo of just such a pattern. Instead of getting a picture, a virus/spyware/spam program downloaded and installed on my poor little laptop. It happened so fast it took a bit for me to realize just exactly what had taken place.

My first clue was a warning from Google telling me some program was trying to change my default search tool (which is supposed to be Google) to some place called Virus Heat. Not good!

Wow! Did it make a mess of my laptop! It was a program that claimed to protect my computer from viruses/spamware/spyware/worms. It kept popping up windows telling me it had detected something and that I needed to download a host of different programs to get rid of the detected nasties (some of these programs required a purchase-what a scam!).

I'm not that stupid. I knew exactly what nasty it detected. Itself!

My laptop did not have any actual security protection software on it. I have asked Sweet Hubby many times what I should have for just that purpose, but he always says "Oh, you don't need anything. The firewall I set up will protect you."

HA!!!

I shouldn't have believed him.

So, now my laptop was bogged down, and fast heading for a running to a halt situation. I can't get the fake virus warning pop ups to stop (I'm clicking x's right and left!), I can't get the fake security software to uninstall, and I'm starting to panic. So I did what I had to.

I Googled for a free security program to download and install asap! Microsoft has one called Windows Defender. I downloaded it right away, installed it, and started a scan. It found 4 programs that were bad. Hmmm...they all had names with Virusheat in them. Isn't that interesting? Defender was able to completely remove it all, and now my computer is running really fast again.

Don't have any security program running on your computer? GET ONE! I highly recommend Windows Defender.

After I spent 2 hours fixing my computer, my daughter went to the mailbox and found a package for me. YES! It was my Ravelry Swag!

Me in my Swag



Last week the Ravelry store officially opened so I ordered a shirt. It's a deep grey. The words say "A daily dose of fiber" with pics of a sheep (wool), bunny (angora), goat (cashmere), and alpaca. I love my shirt.

Have a great day.

Lace Frustration



AAAARRRGGH!!!!!!




Thanks, I needed to get that out of my system.

I am giving up on trying to make my lace pattern idea work. It doesn't, plain and simple. Well, it does if I want to do a lot of complicated increases and decreases. On size 0000 needles with size 8 perle cotton? I don't think so. I can do it, but most couldn't. I don't want to make my patterns that difficult in this book (it's supposed to be a FUN book!), and since the laws of knitting physics are refusing to budge on my behalf, I will have to come up with some other less dramatically beautiful idea. Phooey! It would have looked so cool if the laws weren't so darn stubborn. There is a bright side to this, well, actually more than one.

1) I understand lace construction better than probably 99.999... percent of the knitters out there.

2) I've become really really good at frogging teeny tiny little stitches and putting them back on the needles-without a magnifier!

3) I've developed awesomely even tension in stockinette stitch on said teeny tiny stitches.

I'm taking a couple days off from this project to clear my head and work on the Pomatomus sock over the weekend. Maybe I can get it done.

Speaking of socks, this morning, to relieve some of the pent up frustration, I surfed the web for free sock patterns. Ravelry lists quite a few-over 1800. But I went looking for some that may not be on Ravelry. Sheesh! A person need never purchase a book on socks there are so many! I thought I'd share a few of the places I found.

Knittychick has a web page devoted to links to almost 600 free sock patterns:

Boogie Knits has a link list of several hundred:

Socknitters group:
Sock Patterns

Wendy Knits:
Sock Pattern Links


My sock yarn stash isn't nearly big enough to knit all those.

Have a great day!

5/22/08

Sock Close Ups

Wednesday was a knitting day for me. I worked some on the book project, but mostly I worked on the second Pomatomus sock. Here are some close ups I took of the first sock.


The amazing gusset corner-no hole! ('Cept where there's supposed to be holes.)



The awesome toe



I love this stitch pattern with this yarn. The way the light plays on it is wonderful.



This last photo is my daughter Ruth's new project. She's making a pair of fingerless mitts with a spiral rib pattern in them. She's using green Opal Crocodile sock yarn which I think is discontinued now. The advantage of having Mom's stash to dig in I suppose.


Greyback is still hanging around the yard. He's been decimating the wild Service Berry bushes, which are in full glorious bloom right now. I unloaded the pistol of a full compliment of paint balls on his rear end yesterday, and he didn't even blink. I gave up in disgust.

Have a good day.

5/21/08

WIP Wednesday 5/21/08


A swatch I've made to figure out the current book project.



The back of the current book project. (No way am I showing the front. You'll have to buy the book to see that!)



I thought I had it figured out, but I was wrong. I frogged back half of it this morning. This lace designing thing is harder than I would have thought. I shall carry on. This idea is NOT going to beat me!

This, technically, is still a work in progress cos I need to make the second sock. I just had to show the first Pomatomus off.



This is a pattern that requires concentration, so it's not a fast knit compared to other socks I've done. Oh, but I just LOVE LOVE LOVE the stitch pattern! Absolutely luscious!

Have a great day!


5/20/08

Greyback the Moose

They're back. They must have heard I've bought some new plants.

We had a visitor yesterday, just after sunset. Sweet Hubby has named him Greyback.



At one point he was scratching his side on my husbands pick up truck (much to Sweet Hubby's horror).



He's a fairly young one, but look at that beard hangin' there! We don't know if he's grey cos he's covered in dirt, or just grey in color.



Whatever he is, he isn't bothered by paint balls hitting him in the rump! He didn't even seem to notice he was being hit with them.

Yup! Winter is definitely over when they come a callin'.

Have a great day.

5/19/08

Ruth's Hat

Ruth's first knitting project:

Knit Beanie



She found the star shape created by the decreases fascinating.


Pattern: Head Huggers by Ann Norling

Yarn: Rustic Wool by Queensland Collection in Chocolate.

Needles: Size 7 16-inch Addi turbos.

Comments: For a first time project, she did very well. I would say it's a good project for beginners.

It was another hot day yesterday. I spent a couple hours on the deck trying to work on my current book project. However, the wind started blowing and got to be too much so I finally gave up. We didn't go kayaking because of the wind too. It was blowing pretty hard.

We decided to go see a matinee showing of the new Chronicles of Narnia Prince Caspian movie. We met Frank and Sarah at the theater. After getting our popcorn, candy, and drinks, and finding a place to sit, who should wander in but BIL Dan, Sue, and Nathan. They sat with us.

The movie was very good. I was totally drawn into it. I don't think I moved a muscle the first hour I was so engrossed....

OH MY GOD! Brb...

While I was sitting here writing this, I had the back door open so the boys could lay in the sun and a bird flew into the house! Took a bit to catch it because the cats got involved. So there I am trying to catch a bird and trying to keep the cats from catching a bird. Yeeks!

I caught it. It was okay. Just a bit disoriented. I've identified it. It was the most beautiful shade of deep green I've seen, and a bit of purple on the rump. Turns out to be a Voilet Green Swallow. I see these swallows all the time. They've even made nests up in the work shop. But it's the first time I've ever seen their green backs. So pretty!

I took it outside and let it go. It's soaring around the back yard now. I would have taken a picture, but I can't operate a camera and hold a bird with 2 hands at the same time.

Whew! That was some excitement!

Have a good day.

5/18/08

The Hummers Have Returned

Have I mentioned how much I love my camera?

It's all about nature at the Parkarosa today.

It's the middle of May. Time to put the hummingbird feeder out. I did so Saturday. This morning I patiently sat out on the deck with my camera, and was rewarded well.








Must be tasty


My old camera could never have taken these.

There were a few other hummingbirds too. Another pair of Calliope's and an absolutely stunning male Broadtail showed up, but the above pair were quite aggressive about not wanting to share, so there were hummingbird wars-which they won, beaks down. I am thinking maybe I should put out another feeder in a different location if they're gonna fight over it.

Earlier last week I said something about more wild flower photos. Here are a couple more I took on Mothers Day weekend.




They are very tiny flowers. Smaller than a quarter inch in most cases. They grow in thick mats on the ground, but look so dainty and lacy. I just love these little girls.

This is the sprout of a western California Corn Lily


They have a fascinating structure at this age. Eventually they open up, spread out, get 3 to 5 feet tall, and have some really large and ugly flowers. They're extremely poisonous, so in general, I don't like them. They're pretty right now though.

On the knitting front, my daughter has finished knitting her hat. It was almost 90 degrees yesterday, but she wore it, all day long. I sense some pride in workmanship here. I will try to get a picture of her in it today.

I am working on the next book project. It's been a challenge cos I've had to make up my own lace pattern, seeing as how I could not find anyone who'd already done it in my library of stitch pattern books, or on the internet. I'm finding it hard to believe someone else didn't have this idea. Anyway, it took me all day to get it looking the way I want. Now I'm working on the little amulet bag itself. Much frogging is happening. Thus is the price paid for something new.

It's going to be another hot day today. I've heard talk of kayaking later this afternoon on Twin Lakes. Woot!

Have a great day.

5/16/08

Floral Earrings

Yesterday morning there was a major change in the weather. The week started out dreary, grey, wet, and cold. I didn't mind though. It wasn't snowing. I was happy.

Yesterday a warm sunny front moved in. It was 80F, and gorgeous. Ruth and I spent most of the day outside, on the deck. She was knitting her hat, I was doing some beading. I puttered in the yard, planted 40 marigolds in the flower boxes on the deck, and knitted too. Finished the first Pomatomus sock. We are both impressed by it's beauty. Needs to be blocked before I take a pic of it though.

Today it will be hot. They're saying 86F. At 9am this morning it was over 60. I tried sitting in the sun to knit but it was just too hot. I need to set up the umbrella so I can knit in the shade. The air smells wonderful, sweet, and fresh. Like new green things with a touch of pine (and just a hint of skunk from the one that passed by on Wednesday-whew!). I love it when it smells like this.

I have 3 pair of earrings done for the earring swap so far. I've decided on a floral theme. Here they are, in no particular order.

I just kinda made these ones up. They are made of 2 short spiral ropes and brick stitched leaves.


I used size 11 Japanese seed beads in matte olive for the leaves, light pink and ab crystal for the 'flowers'. I'm not happy with the bead caps. I may change them.

Of the three, these ones are my favorite. I wanted to try an interesting combination of 3-bead netting with loops at the intersections. I got the idea from a necklace/earring set featured in the white Russian beading book. I think I did pretty good considering I don't know a word of Russian.


The netted base is done in matte silver lined clear beads. The loops are size 15 in silver lined turquoise and lime. The color idea came from the new spring sweater I was wearing the day I started them.

I am not sure if I'm going to follow through on sending these ones in or not. They're kind of on the big side, and very funky. I'd wear them, but I don't know if anyone else would.


They're Cellini spirals. I used some 6mm flowers, along with seed beads in the following:
size 6 white lined red.
Size 8 deep red.
Size 11 silver lined red, white, matte brown/green iris
size 15 silver lined lime.

Last, but not least, I have new sock yarn. It was an Impulse buy-in every way.

Dancing Moss from Impulse of Delight.



There is a blog I read, Knitting on Impulse. The gal who writes this blog dyes yarns on occasion and sells them. She has an awesome sense of color. When I saw this one, I couldn't help myself. She based the colors for it on a photo of Dancing Moss she took. (She's an awesome photographer and jewelry maker, as well as knitter). One look, and I had to have it. The yarn is every bit as bright as it looks in the photo. I will need a special pattern for these two skeins.

Well, the sun is calling me. I'm gonna go set up that umbrella.

Have a good day.

5/14/08

WIP Wednesday 5/14/08



Honeybee is coming along, slowly, but surely.



The tomatoes are growing, finally.



My daughter Ruth has started her hat.


All is right with the world.

Have a nice day.


5/12/08

OMG!

Mothers day started on Friday afternoon for me, when the UPS truck arrived with a delivery. I was handed a large box that contained this:



except on Friday it looked like a basket of moss. It is a fairly good sized bulb garden planted in a large pot inside a picnic basket. There are 84 bulbs. This is a gift from my daughter Sarah and her fiance Frank. I am having a blast with it. What colors will these flowers be? The bulbs started growing immediately after I watered them. In just 3 days, look how much they've grown?

Sarah and Frank came over for dinner and Ruth came home from school too, so I had my whole family home for dinner. Before dinner we took a walk on the Parkarosa together looking for wild flowers. Here are just a couple of them we spotted.

Buttercups



One of my absolute favorites, I am surprised how many of these are around this year:
Shooting Star



I will have more pics to post later this week.

On Saturday Sweet Hubby took me into Coeur d'Alene to purchase a Mothers Day gift. He bought me a new refrigerator in black with an in-the-door ice maker. Don't have it yet cos it had to be ordered. It will be delivered in about a week. I am so surprised. I've been asking for a new fridge for about 3 years or so. The one we have is getting very very old, and is not working like it used to. I am very excited.

In the evening we went over to BIL Dan's house for a family bar-b-que. Basically, it was a meeting to form a plan. A plan for a trip to Mexico next January. We found the place we want to go, and the place we want to stay, and now we're all excited. We're going to rent a house near Cancun on the Yukatan peninsula, right on the beach, for a week. Mmmm, beach...........

On Sunday we went to the movies and saw Iron Man. It was a pretty good film. Very entertaining, lots of action, some very very funny parts in it. Definitely based on a comic book. I enjoyed it.

After the movie we went out to dinner at Bardenays Restaurant and Distillery. It was wonderful. They have really good food there. Sarah gave me some chocolate Truffles and Fudge. Then Sweet Hubby, Ruth, and I came home so we could watch the Survivor finale. I ate most of the truffles. Mmmmm, were they ever good!

All in all, it was a very very nice Mothers Day weekend. Thank you Sarah, Frank, Ruth, and Sweet Hubby. I love you's.

Today we expected Ruth to be leaving on a geology field trip for Montana for 3 weeks. However, something came up which has prevented her from being able to go. She was devastated. She's been looking forward to the trip for a year, but sometimes things don't work out as you planned. I won't go into why she can't go. It's not important for anyone outside our family to know. She will be able to go next year, so all is not lost.

Anyway, it looks like she'll be home with us all summer. I wasn't expecting that. I thought about it a bit and decided this may be an opportunity for me to try something I've been wanting to do for quite some time. Look at this:




My daughter, Ruth, is knitting. See? Knitting needles in her hands!


Today I asked her if she'd let me teach her. She surprised me by saying yes, she'd be willing to try it.

So, not to let any moss grow under me, or give her a chance to change her mind, we hopped into the car and headed for Coeur d'Alene to Harmony Yarns where we purchased a set of size 7 circular needles and some pretty brown variegated superwash wool so she can make a hat. When we got home I got some scrap yarn to practice with and taught her how to cast on, the knit stitch, and the purl stitch. I spent about half an hour on it, then told her that was the end of todays lesson and she was free to keep practicing with the scrap yarn if she wanted. Ask me any questions at any time. We'd start the hat tomorrow.

She knitted (and purled) for 2 HOURS!!! She got fast at it, and her tension evened up really quickly. She has a natural aptitude for it! She said, and I quote, "Knitting is easy!" Not only that------SHE ENJOYED IT!!!!!

My God, I think I've died and gone to heaven!

5/10/08

WWKIP Day


What is WWKIP Day? World Wide Knit In Public Day. An international event where knitters get together in a public place and knit. I think the goal is to bring knitting into public awareness, as well as an attempt to get rid of the stereotype image of a knitter--granny sitting in a rocker making hideous sweaters that don't fit. This years official day is June 14, 2008.

For more info, you can visit the official web site:
http://www.wwkipday.com/index.html

I've decided to host the first-that I know of- North Idaho World Wide Knit In Public day. I am not limiting this to just knitters. All fiberholics are welcome. All knitters, spinners, crocheters, etc are invited.


North Idaho World Wide Knit In Public Day

Place: Falls Park, Post Falls Idaho. Located off 4th St., west of Spokane Street. A nice park with lawns, a pond, picnic tables, restroom, parking lot, and views of Post Falls (the water fall) and Spokane River


Date: Saturday, June 14, 2008


Time: 10:30 am - 2:30pm


Bring: Your knitting, spinning, crochet, a chair, a picnic lunch and beverage, sun block.


We'll just get together, do our fibery thing, and have some fun.


If someone needs more info, they can email me at:

thebeadknitterATyahooDOTcom


Please pass the word around to other knitters you know.


Please let me know if you’re coming so I'll know I'm not the only one who's gonna be there.


Have a great day.