Coping and More Family Loss

Regardless of the turmoil in my heart surrounding my great aunt’s passing, I didn’t have much of a chance to grieve.

My brother-in law and sister-in-law were traveling to California from Missouri and they were to stay with us for the weekend. It was very nice to see them. We rarely get to see each other, since my husband refuses to travel in that direction of the country. As my brother-in-law now is retired, they now have a chance to visit family at their leisure. How lucky they are! Sigh! They were able to see all of three sons and the grandchildren too.
I think they enjoyed being here. We are a very quiet family and after visiting relatives with young children, I think they needed some quiet to rest and relax.

I was so thrilled to see my sister-in-law loves to crochet afghans. She asked my help to start a new pattern. Her afghan has inspired me to start one too. I looked through different patterns until I came across the Catherine’s wheel. It is a very intriguing pattern one can make solid or change colors in patterns anyway you want. I was intrigued and looked through my stash until I found some worsted colors that would go together perfectly. I am using a 3-ply variegated cotton and blue, grey and maroon color of Caron’s Simply Soft. I am making a twin size coverlet. So far it looks great…..take a look…..

When I get bored, I challenged myself to try to make a jester hat from an article in the Magazine “Knit It 2002”. The hat was designed by Linda Cyr called ZigZag Accessories. Of course, I tried looking it up in Ravelry first to see if anyone else had attempted it. There were very few and one made a comment that the directions were not very understandable . Her outcome was not the best.

Nevertheless, despite the warning I tried to made sense of the pattern. I doubled the worsted yarn since I didn’t have bulky in a color I liked. I restarted twice but finally did the top piece. I started the side and realized Linda left out an important part of the pattern. I even tried to look up errata from the publisher to no avail. I became so frustrated and impatient I quit. I realized that there had to be a better way to make this. Her directions called for sewing the bottom half of the diamond to the side of the hat, but I’m sure that doing this part in “intarsia “ would probably be much easier and perhaps better constructed. I gave up for now. Perhaps, I’ll come back to it when I’m feeling more experimental and patient.

I finally knit a furry hat instead with Patons Cha Cha that I had hanging around. I am being so good in trying to use my stash. I even gave some away to my sister –in-law. Isn't that great?! Now I have someone with whom I can unload my unused stash.

I guess the respite from overwhelming emotion was not to last. I just had some more bad news. My niece’s husband passed away very suddenly at age 44 from a pulmonary embolism. This indeed is tragic. He was just a good father, husband and all around good Christian person. I know the Lord has His reasons, but it is still a hard pill to swallow.

The 4th of July

The 4th of July is a special day at our house. Not only is it the birthday of America, it’s my husband’s birthday too. How fortunate was he to be born on a day every American celebrates.

I enjoyed seeing my granddaughter again. She has been away from El Salvador for a month with her other grandmother. She will be 2 years old in a few weeks. It is so amazing to see how she is learning to speak both English and Spanish. She is more understandable now. It is lovely to hear her call me “Gamma”. I am seeing wonderful things in my eldest son’s parenting skills. It so lovely to see him and his daughter interact. It warms my heart to see the bond they have developed. He truly loves and cares for her. Even “Abuelita”, the other grandma, calls for his intervention when C. does not cooperate.. The word “No” is clearly in her vocabulary. When dad intervenes she pays attention and easily defers to him and his opinion. When her daddy says no, she knows he means it and is deeply affected to have disappointed him. How can one resist but to love her and comfort her which her dad doesn’t hesitate to do to reassure her of his love regardless of her disobedience or refusals to do something. This is so gratifying to witness this in my son. It makes all of my trials, worth every blood, sweat, tear and heartbreak ever experienced raising him. It leaves me with a sense of peace that he will be OK, being a father and raising his children.

Actually, I am at a point in my life that all my children have achieved some sort of independence and maturity to carry on when I am gone. I still pray for their wisdom and good judgment. However, I am feeling my life being fulfilled in them.

June 6, 2008
Reflecting on the weekend.

I finished sewing up the Monkey Socks and the quick Charity hat this weekend. Yea! I finished something.

I wanted to learn a new skill this weekend. I researched some direction for toe-up socks using July Becker’s cast on. There were many false starts. I must have restarted about 4 or 5 times. On size one needles it was quite a challenge to increase. I possibly should have used a thinker yarn and bigger needle but I’ve been wanting to use the Knit Picks Felicini yarn I ordered and this was as good an excuse as any. The self striping yarns seems to be easy to knit in stockinette.

Summer makes me think of taking inventory of my fiber. I thought I’d start with my UFO’s. I created a database and after much trial and error, I figured out how to add pictures of the projects. I am getting the itch to attempt to finish some of them. Perhaps I can work on some of these this summer. I probably should rip out the ones that will no longer fit. I am clearly a process knitter. I enjoy learn how to do something. Once I learn it, finishing it is not very important. This is the issue with socks and bigger projects like sweater. I hope someday to settle down and knit straight through a sweater that fits well. I have yet to find the perfect pattern.

Pomatomus problems & Olympics

At my work, the week we fondly call “Hell week” is over. I survived. Actually, it was much calmer than usual. It’s the week we set aside to do mass enrolling of preschool applicants, scheduling about a dozen parents each half hour to interview. Chaos usually ensues but this year, it was frighteningly quiet. Which means there is still a lot to do to be fully enrolled within a few months before Sept. It may sound like a long while away for some, but for us, summer is never very quiet. The office staff and management staff are busy throughout the summer preparing for a new year.

At the end of each day, I looked forward to coming home and taking up my needles to relax. I’ve been plugging away at the Pomatomus sock. Yes, I’m still on sock one, but I’m now on the home stretch. The first part seemed to go so smoothly and then I hit the gusset. OMG! I must have ripped it out several times. Changing from the all around lace pattern to Chart B (half pattern, half stockinette) proved to be more of a challenge than I thought. I kept ending up with the wrong number of stitches every few rows. I had to “tink”(aka knitting back) so many times. I finally learned my lesson and started counting the pattern stitches after every row. What a bore! It took me 3-4 days to get through the gusset. Then throughout the foot, I again had counting challenges on the pattern and tinked often. For me, I did 2 ½ repeats of the chart pattern and started the toe, but now I find I have some extra number of stitches on one side. I’m going to have to rip back to the start of the toe and redo it. This is just the first sock! I don’t know if I will have the courage to start the other. I have been fighting the need for finishing something, but have succumbed to seek gratification and started a quick hat with chunky yarn so I could satisfy my need to finish something. I saw that the new Summer issue of Knitty is posted. There are many great articles. I especially enjoyed the one of Fiber reactive dyeing. This summer, I want to do some more dyeing with my Procion MX dyes on Cotton. I have been trying to think of what to do with the cotton I dyed in the Spring and ran into a cool hat pattern called Couvercle. I plan to try this pattern this summer, as knitting with wool does not appeal to me in the increasing heat.

I am still trying to decide whether I want to join the Ravelry Olympic Trials knitalong, knitting a new project during the August Olympics or the UFO Olympics knitalong, which is finishing a UFO. I have in mind either to finish a Cotton Sampler Vest from the Leisure Arts booklet Summer Chic or a Cotton Flag Sweater from a Berroco pattern I started several years ago. I doubt either of these will fit me now, but I have invested so much knitting in both of these projects, I just don’t have the heart to rip them out. Stay tuned to “THE DECISION”.

Winning the Race!

I won.! My goal was to finish 24 inches of Candlelight scarf within 7 days and I finished in 5 days! It was a race to the finish and I won! I am blocking it today.

I really need to work on completing my UFO(Unfinished Objects). I have so many and I am starting to forget how to do them, so I thought I would make a concentrated effort to knock them off one by one.

Although……I keep seeing new ideas and projects that I would love to make. Interweaves’ Knitting Daily has come out with the results of its Reader’s Choice poll for the Best Of Interweave Knits and has posted them for free. One of the designs I have fallen in love with since I’ve seen it and have been trying to find the sold out magazine to get the pattern to no avail. I was thrilled when I saw it and downloaded it as fast as I could…..the Swallowtail Shawl. I had put it in my Ravelry queue a long time ago. Photo from Interweave Press: http://www.interweaveknits.com/preview/2006_fall.asp

I’ve been trying to figure out what in my stash is worthy of being the Swallowtail shawl. Finally, it hit me. I am spinning the handdyed merino on my wheel right now. I am spinning it fine, trying to decide if I want it to be 2-ply or 3-ply. Since merino will shrink and felt if mishandled, I don’t dare make a fitted garment out of it. A beautiful shawl will be perfect.

Last weekend my husband and I went to the movies and I was desperately trying to find something I could knit in the movies. In vain, I could not find anything thing already on needles, so I decided to use up my spinning stash and grabbed a few balls of handspun wool and #8 circulars and headed out the door. On the way I cast on for a simple striped hat. By the end of the movie, about two hours later, I finished about 5 inches of hat. Today I finished the rest. I like how it looks. In the dark, its hard to count the rows, so I guessed and thus the result, but I still like it. It is made of a Cotswold wool and an unknown mix of wool for the other colors.

Disaster Strikes!

I cannot believe how blind I am. I was working on my Green Medallion Hat and am just about to start the finishing decreases for the crown of the head and I discover a mistake.
Can you see it?

On row 3 for about 5 stitches I knit when I should have purled! Why didn’t I see it earlier?. There is no way for me to fix this without a lot of trouble. Sooooo……dumb-da-da-dumb…..I frogged it and will not remake it. Not right away anyhow.

I had just made myself a plan…..a UFO plan. This was a plan to knit on each of my UFO’s, my main ones, at least twice a week.


1 Baby Sweater
2 Market Bag
3 Celtic Tote
4 Green Hat
5 Pink booties
6 Tofusies socks
7 Branching out
8 Caliometry
9 Candlelight scarf
10 Adult Surprise
11 Walter Sweater

Sunday: 1,3,6,9

Monday: 1,4,5,10

Tuesday: 2,3,7,9

Wednesday: 1,4,6,11

Thursday: 2,3,7,9

Friday: 1,6,7,11

Saturday: 2,4,8,10

I was planning on knitting the above projects on certain days of the week, hoping to make a little progress each week to the finish line. Well, #4 is now off my list.

Instant Gratification

I think its time for me to step down from my political knitting soapbox, and think about my actual knitting rather than technique in the Eastern style. Spring is trying to show its sunny fresh side and something is happening to me. Suddenly, all I want to do is small quick projects. After finishing the Medallion Capelet, I have a need for instant gratification and satisfaction by finishing some quick projects.

I felt that my cape needed some accessories, so I used the stitch pattern from the collar to quickly make a hat to go with it. If I can manage it, I will try to make a written pattern to share it. It knit up very quickly and fit nicely. I liked it so much I started to make a green one to match my Zimmerman rib warmer.

I have an update of my Dad’s socks made with Tofutsies. I was going to frog them because the 2x2 rib was so boring, but the more I looked at them, the more I felt this would be best for him. He has had heart surgery in the past and occasionally gets swollen ankles. He also tends to get foot infections so I wanted to knit socks that would not be too tight with a little give but snug to stay on. I decided to resume them but I think I will make the ankles longer. I hope I have enough yarn. I’m almost up to the heel.

I haven’t worked on the Hemlock Blanket, but am feeling like I need to finish it and get it over with. Feather and Fan stitch is just not my cup of tea.

I was scanning Ravelry and discovered a really nice French Market Bag pattern that is felted. I thought this would be great for the Patons Classic Wool I had just ordered from Smileys Yarns. It has become my takealong knitting as it doesn’t take took much concentration.

I joined the Unraveled group in Ravelry and they are doing a Knit Along Celtic Bag tote, which is an intricately cabeled felted bag. This pattern intrigued me and gave me a challenge to make. I bought the yarn last Saturday at Unraveled in Monrovia, Lamb’s Pride Worsted in an Oatmeal color. I also took advantage of their 15% off sale on Koigu! I have always dreamed of getting some of this but it seemed so pricey. It didn’t seem as painful getting a discount, so I bought 3 skeins of Koigu in pinks, reds and purples. I haven’t yet decided what I will make with it.
Getting back to the Celtic tote, I casted on yesterday. I’m a little rusty on doing cables. Twenty years ago I made my husband a Aran vest with cables but I had forgotten a lot how to make them. I discovered a video on the Unraveled website that was very helpful in demonstrating some of the difficult stitches and had excellent techniques how to read a chart. One of those tips was to color code the different cable stitches and this has saved multitudes of frustration.

A Glorious Family Christmas

We had a wonderful Christmas day! A lot of fun and food from dawn to dusk. I managed to cook breakfast and dinner for about 15.
A summary of the days activities:

7:30 All my sons and friend, grandchild and her mom, came over to open stockings. A very happy time. Grandaughter, 16 mo toddled about, opening her gifts and pulling the ornaments off the tree. She’s loosing her baby fat from all her non-stop activity.

9:00 Breakfast buffet cooked: Menu Scrambled Eggs, Bacon, Potatoes Obrien, French toast, Muffins, Juices, Coffee and Egg Nog. Everything was very yummy.

10:00 We opened our tree presents. Youngest son plays Santa Claus passing out presents. Knitted gifts fit recipients perfectly. We vegetated and enjoyed our presents for a few hours. My son gave me a great book, The Field Guide to Knitting and I also received two Zimmerman DVD’s The Knitting Workshop and Knitting Around. My new Ipod nano will allow me to see videos as well as audio podcasts. Below are some knitted Christmas presents I made for friends and family.



This year my husband planned a "12 days of Christmas" treasure hunt for my middle son. He had to search for a DVD clue that lead to a clue. On the 12th day he found his Christmas present. It was fun watching him look for all the clues.
The other night while I was dozing off I decided to listen the Lime & Violet Holiday Podcasts. The music was hilarious. I laughed all the way to dreamland. If you haven’t heard it, you must check it out. It is 50 min and hilarious Christmas music to knit by.

1:00 We had six of us break up into two teams of 3 for the Christmas Scavenger hunt. We had to take pictures of as many landmarks and items within the city, on a list, within one hour and be back to the house. This was a lot of fun. Each team had a member familiar with the city. One was the driver, one was the navigator and one was the picture taker. What a sight to see this 50+ old lady run up the street taking pictures of street signs and Christmas lawn decorations. Although, it was a lot of fun, I kept hoping the house owners would not sic their dogs on me taking pictures. We reviewed the pictures to validate the items on the list and our team won by two items. Our prize was a beautiful gift basket filled with gift cards to the movies and restaurants, assorted candies, nuts and limeaid drinks, which was donated by family members.

4:30 Dinner buffet of honey-baked ham, seasoned potatoes, vegetable, fruit, rolls and assorted desserts, candies and cookies. Greatgrandparents arrived, and uncle and girl friend arrived to share in dinner. After dinner we sang Christams Carols and my middle son played a special Christmas solo on piano. More presents opened and dessert and goodies were yummy.













10:00 This grandma is very tired and ready to collapse. It was a good family day. I count my blessings and God’s goodness that we can share Christmas together.

What’s next? Planning for the New Year’s Knitting resolutions……stay tuned.