Is it really?

This is the theme of the next Parenting Group meeting at my church:It's easy to get lost in all the activity when you're a woman/mom/gramma and you work full time. Lately, for Pretty anyway, it's also easy to get lost in the muddledness that is my brain. . .work stuff, home stuff, planning for a summer wedding for one kid, a fall deployment for another, a new baby to coo and marvel over, knitting (and other) projects that scream, "Why aren't you spending your time with me?!?" Lost is how I was feeling much of last week. . .humming Welcome to the Jungle in the office, and Crazy Train the rest of the time.

That's right. Pretty rocks.
Orrrrr. . .at least, she used to. . .you know, back in the day. . .

So, even though I wasn't feeling that time is on my side when I posted that first picture, I decided to just keep going, and you know what? As I think about it, I did get to sleep in until 9:30am this morning. . .and there is really nothing solid on my calender for this fine-and-sunny-Saturday. . .soooo, I guess that time IS on my side. Who'd a thunk it? And since I apparently have so much time, I think I am gonna go marvel at my granddaughter's pictures again. . .here's one for you, too! (Just in case you have a bunch-o'time today, and you need a sweet baby to marvel at for a moment. . .because I'm generous like that. . .you're welcome!)

This morning, Peanut is modeling the lovely Spring Garden Tee that her grandmother knit for her in soft cotton yarn, the color of a watermelon shell. . .

Time is on your side, too. . .I am sure that it is. Sometimes you just need a moment (and a couple extra hours of sleep) to figure out where it is. . .I hope that you get that moment today, and I also hope that you have some time to do whatever it is that you love.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Red, White and Purple?

Not as patriotic as red, white and blue, I know. . .but my yarns seem to be coming in red, white and purple lately. . .it is what it is! The RED is a little bolero sweater for the flower girl in this summer's wedding! I am down to the sleeves and the trimming, and it's looking pretty good, I think!
In the white category, I have a couple of gifty items I cannot yet mention, and the bride's shawl is finally finished!

Well, in all honestly, these pictures are pre-blocking, although the shawl is blissfully bound off! Isn't it ruffle-ly?

And then, at knitting last week, Dawn was doing the de-stash dance, and I got this purple beauty! Cherry-Tree Hill is one my very favoritest sock yarns. . .love their colorways! (there was some sockotta and some be-a-u-ti-ful roving, too!) So now I am having Deep Purple Dreams about what to knit with 100g of luscoious Cherry Tree Hill. . .hmmmmm. . .

Suggestions would be greatly appreciated!

By the way, thanks for all the comments and well-wishes upon hearing the stormy stories of the past week! The power was only off for a couple hours on Saturday, but Sweetie and I took the day to run around town and play a little, so I never did put up a proper post that day, but I seem to be back in the full swing of things today!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Happy Easter, Peeps!

I hope that you all have your favorite candy in the basket, and that you know how loved you are*.

Knit in Good Health on this Good, Good Day!

*For the rest of the story, click here.

powerless...but at least i have yarn...

A "Whirl-Wind" of activity!

Being the new grandparents that we are, Sweetie and I decided that we just HAD to go and visit the Little Peanut this past weekend. . .pictures, cute as they are, were just not doing it for us!
And really, you can't call it anything but a whirlwind of activity when you are driving nine-and-a-half-to-ten-hours-each-way for a weekend visit, but that does not stop Pretty! Even though our Saturday on the road was gray and rainy most of the way. . .

. . .we plugged on through, and I even started a sweater for Peanut!

As we drove, however, I noticed the skies getting darker, and everything looking stormy-stormy-stormy every once in awhile. Not wanting to knit veryverytightly on Peanut's sweater, I didn't even try to finish it. . .

Oh, I kept knitting on it periodically, but mostly I watched the sky and stressed out. I really am not a fan of stormy skies in the mountains. . .

Then, about an hour from the kids' house, we stopped for some dinner. When we got back onto the only-route-we-know-from-this-town-to-there, you know what we saw?

If you guessed a TORNADO(!). . .well, you would be correct! An actual, literal whirlwind was on the ground, tearing up houses and stores in it's path and blocking our path with downed power lines and debris. . . The poor GPS was overwhelmed because we would not follow her directions anymore. She "recalculated" over and over again, taking us to roads that were blocked by downed lines, trees, debris and law-enforcement personnel. She was frustrated, and we were frustrated, but Gramma and Grampa were NOT going back home after 8 1/2 hours on the road!

Well, we ended up buying ourselves a paper map. . .remember those?. . .because all of the locals just kept telling us to go back to that main road (apparently not understanding what we meant when we said, "The main road there has just been closed BY A LARGE TORNADO, and we cannot go that way,". . .I dunno, maybe it was our northern accent? Or maybe it was because they had not seen what we had seen. . .yet). Luckily, I learned to read a map in school (back in the olden days) using the "hunk o' paper" method (thank you, Mr. Hunk O. Paper!), and we were able to find a main route around the tornado's path.

It took us an extra hour, but eventually, we made it to our beloved Peanut. . .contented sigh!

Although there had also been a tornado that had touched down very close to her house during the storms, she was blissfully unaffected, and we were all thankful. Unlike these folks (just a few miles away) who lost everything, Army Boy and Wifey Poo only lost power for about 24 hours.We all had a very nice visit, and our return trip on Monday was uneventful. We were able to take that main road out of town, and passed the place where we saw that storm, our jaws in our laps at the amount of damage we saw. . .On the way home, we had sunshine all the way. We worked a very difficult crossword puzzle. . .

. . .and I finished the Spring Garden Tee for Peanut. It was a nice day for a drive.

Knitting and Crosswords and Whirl-Winds, Oh My!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

PS - if you want to see what we saw (I could not work the video on my phone, ugh!), this video was taken very near where we were as the storm went by (my apologies for the first 14 seconds, or so. . .this person was also not too familiar with her camera, apparently. . .'course she did get the video that I did not). I understand this twister was on the ground for over 60 miles!

Be Prepared!

Those of you who follow know that rabbits nag me. The felt bunnies that I made in honor of the holiday season, they are terrible nags. . .and my self-esteem was really starting to take a major hit when they questioned the quality of my Gramma-hood. I have finally quieted them (at least a little bit) by showing them that I do indeed have pictures of the Peanut at my desk. . .I try to keep this brag book at my desk at all times when I am in the office, and I made a book for both of the great-grandmothers as well. Grammas gotta be prepared, and well-armed with photos, when friends ask about babies!Grammas also gotta be prepared for the little ones when holidays come up! That's why I gave this Grandma I know 4 bunnies to send to her little "Peanuts" for Easter! Heck! Even the bunnies, created for the sole purpose of being given away, gotta be prepared for that eventuality! I think some of the bunch was surprised when this little cutie stopped into my office last week, and I handed over a sister bunny and a brother bunny. . . But who am I kidding? The bunnies will all get over their separation anxiety, and the kids will all have fun with the bunnies! I just hope they don't get overrun. . .I didn't have any of the bunnies spayed or neutered. . .!

"Lucky Rabbits!"

"I Know, right?!? She had both of US fixed!"

"Oh, the shaaame!"

"And she wakes us up super early on SATURDAY!"

"I wish I was a bunny. . ."

In Knitting Knews, I have made much progress on THE SHAWL since my last post! I have finished the thousands of stitches that make up the hem ruffle on the main portion of the shawl, and I have bound off all 1198 stitches on the bottom - Yay! Now, I just pick up the collar stitches, and knit a pretty ruffle there to match, and then the bride will be prepared! Yes, the bride will be prepared with a wool shawl for her August wedding. . .No, she probably won't need a shawl. . .Yes, I needed to knit it for her, and I am prepared for the possibility that it will not be worn much.* But, it is very pretty, and I am glad that I have knit it for her. :)I hope that you have someone to knit for who senses the love in each stitch. Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

*I have decided not to staple the shawl to Dollface, Andrea. But thanks for the suggestion. :)

3594

Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Four stitches on the shawl -
Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Four stitches!!!
Take one down, as I knit them around -
Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Three stitches on the shawl!

BIG BREATH

Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Three stitches on the shawl. . .

I have decided to knit a shawl for a bride that I am close to. Dollface says, "You took this on, Mom. I am fine without a shawl...," and she probably is. But I need to make her a shawl for her wedding. . .because her dress is sleeveless and the hall is air-conditioned. . .because I want to show my love for my daughter in a tangible form. . .because I think love can be represented well in tens of thousands of tiny knit stitches in squishy-soft, lace-weight wool-and-silk. . .because I knit, I must knit my love for my daughter.

I have chosen the Bella Capelet, and you have seen a couple of pictures along the way. I don't have a new picture of it for you, but here's a gratuitous shot of the Peanut. . . Ain't she cute?!? I am NOT at all biased. Honest. I'm not. SHE is seriously adorable!

Back to the shawl. . . I am making really good progress, and I was pretty happy with the knitting (about 300 sts in each row for the past 60 rows or so), and then I came to these lines in the pattern:

---Knit 1, *YO, K1 repeat from * to end (599 sts)
---Repeat previous row (1198 sts)
---Knit the next 5 rows, then bind off with larger needle.

OK, those who know me might say I am a pretty quick knitter, and I would generally agree. My standard sock (64 sts around) takes me 3-4 minutes to knit around. OK, then let's do the math for those last 5 rows (here is where you should look away, if you are faint of heart when it comes to "the maths"). . .

1198 stitches x5 rows=5990sts. . .let's say that I knit 64 sts in sts in 4 minutes (lace-weight moves a bit slower for me), so 64 stitches/4 minutes=16 stitches a minute. . .back to high school here. . .5990 stitches for those 5 rows, at 16 sts/minute. . .5990/16=374.375 minutes. . .there are 60 minutes in an hour, so 374.375/60=6.24 hours to finish these last 5 rows! Argh! That means that it will take me 6.24/5=~1.25 hours FOR EACH OF THESE ROWS! Then the bind off, which will take even longer. . .I soooo should have read ahead and done this math before diving in!

Then again, I do love Dollface a whole bunch. . .and I think she is worth it! Besides, I have already completed 2 of those 5 rows. . .sooooo, all I have left is

Three-Thousand, Five-Hundred, Ninety-Four stitches on the shawl!

Thanks for stopping by, and for keeping me in your thoughts and prayers through these last few thousand stitches. Oh, and Knit in Good Health!

The Fool(?) on the Hill

Remember, a while back, when I said that I had had a chance to play with clay again? And then I promised that those beads would find their way to the shop? Well, they have! Introducing the "House on a Hill" collection, by Pretty Knitty! Right now, there are two 20-row counters, one in copper. . .

. . .and one in silver! Oooohhh, SHINY!!!

I think I like working these millefiore-style beads about the best of any clay creating that I do. The process of figuring out which lump of clay to put where, so that the cut line of each bead will create the picture is demanding, but so fun! The first time I tried millefiore (here's a site that tells you more about it), I wanted each bead to be exactly the same as all the others. . .but my beads never seemed to reach that identical-ness that I was aiming for. Instead, I stressed out at the way each bead was an individual, and I felt like I was somewhat of a clay failure. Then I took a step back, and I ended up falling madly, passionately, foolishly in love with the imperfections. . .the character. . .of the beads emerging from the blade. I embraced it even. And look. . .

Look at my little houses on their hills. . .their tall, skinny hills, with their oddly shaped shrubbery, and imperfect corners. . .heck!, even though my "real" house (the one I live in everyday) is not set on a hill, it has imperfect shrubs, I can never seem to find a 90-degree angle when I want to put up a corner shelf, and none of the doors are perfectly squared into their frames. When we moved in, I called that "character," and I embraced it (mostly). Foolish or not, I love where I live, and now I love the House on a Hill collection at Pretty Knitty Jewelry. I hope that you like it, too!

Thanks for stopping in to see this "Fool" on her virtual hill,

and Knit in Good Health!

Progress. . .!

Remember how the bunnies were YELLING AT ME last week about the clutter? Well, I couldn't take it any more, so I finally did this: The purple bunny (you know, the one with all the rhythm?) is especially happy, because he can once again see, and apparently sit on, Easter Sunday. I think he was a little afeared that if he couldn't see it, it wouldn't happen. . .and he really likes ham and sweet potatoes! The rest of them just wandered around the desktop asking about Army Boy, Wifey-Poo and Dollface. . .

"Where's Snake?"

"Why aren't there any pictures on your desk of the Peanut?"

"What kindof gramma are you anyway?!?"

"Yeah! I'm glad she's not MY gramma. . .!"

These bunnies, they are harsh! To cope, I have continued the knitting. I have found that knitting is my yoga, helping me to focus and center my mind around the positive. . .like a shawl that is much farther along this week than it was last week. . . . . .and mindless socks, all in stockinette, for Snake's size 11 feet! Oh, how I love the mindless knitting. . .the best of all knitting yogas are mindless socks! And then, there are dreams of future knitting. . .my Creative Knitting mag came last week, and I really have not had the chance to look at it super close, but I think I may want to make this for the mother-of-the-bride at a certain summer wedding. . .Of course, if that certain mother-of-the-bride could get herself looking like that model by the wedding, I am sure it would be a no-brainer. But I am a realist. I mean, it looks like a really cute sweater, and in cotton it'd be good for any summer event, especially an event that will be (at least partially) indoors, in an air-conditioned venue. . .over a sleeveless dress. . .thoughts anyone?

I look forward to your opinions, and even suggestions of other sweater patterns, if you have any. Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Lime Green?!?

Did you ever get tired of your car keys? I get tired of mine on a regular basis. I got so tired of these keys recently. . . . . .that I traded them in on the keys that go with this! Some of my friends are not fans of the lime green (lime squeeze metallic, to be specific!). . .but I am! The bunnies all seem to approve of the car too, and of the lime green color! They also approve of the fact that Mr. Pretty and I spent some time de-cluttering as we downsized into our party car, the one that boasts 38 miles to the gallon - C'mon, everybody, get down and Fi-es-ta! Well, that's not how the song goes, but I am still a Shaun Cassidy fan, so I couldn't help myself. The bunnies are not fans of Shaun, or of my cluttered lifestyle. The past few days they have been really bugging me about all the clutter on my desk and in my life. . .

"Didn't you join the 'Get the Crap Out' challenge last summer?," they nag. . . "You should take notes from Music Man. Make your desk look more like this. . ."

"Pretty! Get these bunnies off my desk. . .!" *

"Yes, Sir. Right away, Sir. Sorry, Sir." **

Such is the life of a Pretty Knitty Secretary, temporarily overrun by felt rabbits. sigh! Hopefully I can de-clutter a little in the near-ish future. . .for now, I think I will knit. Yes, knitting seems the perfect solution. . .any suggestions on what I should knit for the Little Peanut? I think she needs a little something for Easter, no? YES!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

*Where I work, no one has ever yelled at me. lol?

**I am not really that "Yes, Sir"-ish as a secretary. However, I don't like to let my hobbies interrupt those actually doing their jobs, either. . .