One Week...

Nearly one week into the new year, and there is so much promise ahead...the world has been kissed with promise for things to come, like a little girl kisses her daddy's cheek... 

or like Face kissed Dollface on their wedding day last week. 

I wonder how the newlyweds are holding up after 7 days of wedded bliss? Hopefully Dollface likes it better than this picture might suggest!

I did not take many photos at the wedding, and that really good shot of the bride and groom is not mine...props to David Swidrak Photography for the awesome photos we have seen so far, and for those yet to come! I am glad that you were there to capture the moments so that we could enjoy the day!

I am glad to know that the newlyweds are settling in, and today is the day I officially welcome Face (our shiny, new son-in-law) to the blog! I'll update the who's who page when I get some better photos of the couple together, but at least we have all been properly introduced now! (Look at that smile! Someone grew up with a photographer in his family...this boy smiles on cue! Lol!)

As for the rest of the Pretties, our house is now eerily quiet. I have gone to bed at my regular time (sans bedtime books and songs) for two nights now, and I feel nearly caught up on my sleep. However, I am quite behind on granddaughter smiles and smooches...still, memories of the visit and the wedding carry me through.

How has 2018 started for you? I hope it has been strong, and that you have found promise and sparkle, like a little girl's eyes when she looks to see what kind of trouble she and Pop Pop can get into!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health in 2018!

Ornament Number Two

After the Santa ornament, I was pretty excited for today's post! I was so excited, that I started to write it yesterday even...leaving me more time for knitting at the Knitters' Christmas Party today! It's an annual event, and as this post goes live, I will be in the heart of it all...eating Christmas food, knitting Christmas gifts (that are still super secret) and listening to Christmas music! What a fun time it promises to be! I promise to tell you all about it, once I recover, that is.

But I digress. On to ornament number two on my Christmas tree...

This one is an angel, which you can see, of course. It was made by one of my little angels in 1994, which means her age was still in the single digits. Dollface has never fancied herself much of a crafter, but I've known differently all her life. I keep telling her that it's just a matter of time before the yarn (or something else) draws her in completely! As a matter of fact, this is a project that she and I put together in October, for her wall...

A little fabric, a little glue, a few trinkets and a few small, blank canvases, and BAM! Arts and crafts for grown ups! See? She IS a crafty girl! This makes her mom very happy.

What makes you happy in December? I hope you are enjoying the season, staying warm (unless you live in OZ, in which case, stay cool!) and enjoying the prep for the holidays.

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Pre-Fab? Kinda...

I promise that this post has nothing to do with beds. 

I know. There's been a lot about two twins and a double lately, but not in this post! This post is about crafting in the passenger seat, and beyond, because we went to see the grandkids over the weekend (yay!) and I had 8 hours (each way) in the passenger seat. Of course, I brought yarn and plastic canvas...and a plan!

Since I had cut out the shapes I needed before the trip (that's the pre-fab part), I stitched, and I stitched, 'til my stitchers were sore, but I did manage to finish this about 5 minutes before we pulled into their driveway!

Peanut loved it so much that she started filling it with tiny trinkets almost immediately...yay!

Then she put on her new socks, and away we went with the day!

Sweet Pea was fairly fond of her new elephant, as well, so as far as the crafting-for-grandkids goes, this was a terrific trip!

Besides the crafty goodness, there was a trip to Tumblebug class, 

time at the playground with Pop Pop, 

and baby snuggles all around! We had the most wonderful time! 

Even Dollface, who came along for the ride and visit, would agree that it was funtimes for all, because she got to experience this moment with her brother...

Yes. "Wow" is the appropriate word. She asked him to pose like that, and she was showing him her photo of his backside as I snapped that shot. So again, yes. And wow. lol!

And now we are back home, after a fabulous visit (making this a "post-fab" blog post), and I am working on more crafty goodness for Peanut and Sweet Pea. After all, the beds in the dollhouse still don't have linens! Off I go to remedy that situation!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit in Good Health!

Just Another Wednesday...

Nothing spectacular about my week so far. We did have a lovely Easter on Sunday. We colored eggs (thank you, Pinterest!) and put out pickles,

Snake and Dollface broke into their basket before dinner (like you do),

and there was a nap and a new knitting project (would you expect anything less on a holiday weekend?).

Other than that, we made sure the elephants were comfy, 

and that's all she (I) wrote!

I hope your weekend was lovely as well, and that there have not been many crises (yet) this week for you. :) Tell me, what's on your needles, dear friends?

Knit in Good Health!

Random? Hugs!

Because there are now two bunnies, and they love to hug each other...

but they are tired of watching Dollface eat in front of them.

They have asked for carrots. =/ Have you ever knit a carrot?

Yeah, me neither.

Thanks for stopping by anyway. Hugs to you, and Knit it Good Health!

The Knitter's Instant Gratification

Sometimes I give a knitted gift...and then I never see it again. Since I do not live with all of the people that I give knitting to, and since some of the gifts are socks (which I might not see if the recipient is wearing shoes), I try not to let this bother me. I do not have to see the item(s) in use to assume that they are actually in use...I can make that assumption on my own, with or without visual confirmation. While it is generally not within any industry's best practices to assume things, I think this kind of assumption is a good one for me, as a knitter. I assume that you like the gift, and you do not destroy my ego by telling me you do not. (All of a sudden, I hear my mother's voice, "I know it's ugly. Just take it and thank your grandma...she gave it to you because she loves you." There's some irony, huh?)

Anyway, and with all that back-story in place, I have to thank a couple of very special people who did not force me to make any assumptions this weekend! First up, this momma, who received the sweater at church and immediately put it on the baby it was intended for...even though it really was plenty warm inside without it. 

Then she and the daddy gushed, and they gushed, and she gushed some more. :) You're welcome, Owl-y Baby Sweater Wearer and his parents! (By the way, they also gushed appropriately at the pink sweater, for a little sister that is still cookin' in her belly...this is a very knit-worthy family!)

You might not have guessed that Dollface (the deny-er of the hand-wash socks) is my next special lady to thank...after all, she just got done denying a pair of hand knit socks. I assume that is truly out of respect for the knitting and the knitter, so I am totally ok with that. And look at this:

Immediately upon receiving a sweater for the grand-dog, it went straight on him! Isn't he just the adorable-est??? (That's rhetorical, by the way...we all know he is...lol!) As I look at that picture again, you know what I have to do, right? Yep, it's already cast on, this time with some fancy color-work and a hood! (Gah! The cute will probably knock me right over when she puts a hand-knit hoodie on that pup! Gahhhhhh!!!)

Thank you, Owl-y Baby Sweater Wearer's Parents and Dollface, for your appropriate gushing and for reinforcing that knitting=love! This has been a very wonderful, instant-gratification kind of knitting week for Pretty, and I couldn't be happier about my recent home runs with yarn!  

Thanks for stopping by, friends! Tell me, what victories have you claimed in your crafting this week? I hope that your yarn has been knot free, soft and wonderful, and that all your hand-knit-or-crochet gifts have been well-received and thoroughly gushed over!

Knit in Good Health!

Let it go, Pretty...

As you may have figured out, we spent this past weekend on the road to see Peanut, and bring her some knitted toys. 

Usually when we do this, I blog ahead a bit, so that I won't stress about getting back to work and getting a blog post ready for Wednesday morning. I thought I had done this before we left on Friday, but I checked yesterday, and it turns out that I didn't. That means that this post has been written hastily to get ready to post early today, and the photos are probably not edited and cropped to perfection (she says, as though perfection is something she achieves regularly, which it is NOT), and the text may be choppy or have some errors in it. But sometimes, you just have to Let it Go!, yanno?

So here's a brief synopsis of the fun we had, including our arrival,

walks with Mommy and Daddy (and the dogs)...

...to the playground!

Time on the swings...

She promised not to kick Pop Pop, but this looks a little suspicious...

To add to the fun, Uncle Snake and Aunt Dollface showed up for a day, on their way home from vacation. :) So there were walks and playtime with them, too!

Then more time on the playground,

reading Kindles with Pop Pop, 

and lots of playtime and singing with Elsa and Anna!

It was a great weekend, and I still have not quite recovered. :) But, there is work to be done, and life to be lived, so I'm just gonna Let it Go!, and try not to stress too much about anything. I think Elsa's advice is pretty good in most situations, don't you?

Whatever you might be stressing about, thank you for taking a moment to check out the blog today! Now, Let it Go!, and Knit in Good Health!

They Stood on the Porch in Their Underwear...

Many years ago, when my children were small, and Sweetie was in the Navy, and I didn't have a job that paid in anything more than peanut butter kisses and chocolate fingerprints on everything, I was a bit of a bored housewife. I mean, I treasured peanut butter kisses, and I didn't even mind the fingerprints (much), but I needed a hobby. Oh, I was already a yarnigan...and I had been crocheting for more than a decade, but I was looking for something new.

I looked around in the craft stores, and I finally decided on a victorian dollhouse kit. It cost a lot, especially on our then shoestring budget, but even Sweetie knew I needed something to fill my evenings after the kids went to bed. Wine and TV by myself on the sofa when Sweetie was deployed or on duty was no longer a healthy alternative! So, I shelled out the cash, and brought home the kit (and some paint, dollhouse wallpaper, an electrical kit, and a few pieces of upholstery fabric to use for carpeting). Go big or go home wasn't a big catch-phrase in my world back then, but it was apparently my dollhouse motto, in 1:12 scale!

I spent several months working on the dollhouse, and eventually I spent several months creating furniture and draperies in balsa, styrofoam, lightweight quilting fabric, wood glue and acrylic paint. I guarded the house...I had great plans for becoming a great miniaturist, and turning my dollhouse into a showpiece, so I never let my kids play with it. Then they were suddenly too old for it anyway, even before I put the shingles on and installed the electric kit, and I lost interest. A few years after that, I started to see the silliness in keeping it tucked safely away, unfinished and neglected. Eventually, I gifted it to a family with 5 girls who loved it well, and returned it to me just last year. (Thank you Becky, Jaime, Rachel, Sarah, Leah and Erin!)

As I received the house (still sans shingles, etc.), I spent quite a bit of time re-acquainting myself with it...this quite-average dollhouse that I had made from a kit with my own two hands. I dusted the remaining furniture that I had built, and cleaned up the wallpaper and upholstery the best I could. I regret that I was too uptight to ever let Dollface actually play with it. It was never a masterpiece, and I honestly think that it's now used status makes it more dear to me. As a matter of fact, Peanut will be coming to visit soon, and I am really looking forward to seeing if she likes it.

Of course, anticipation of the upcoming visit led me to the realization that a dollhouse isn't much fun without dolls to live in it, so I grabbed some yarn and set to work, creating these two:

And even though the man doll is 7-and-a-half-feet tall (to 1:12 scale, lol!), and his "wife" is just a bit shorter, I took the house down last night to see how they "fit." They walked around inside a bit, checked the mattress, and the sofa, and found that he could easily reach things for her from the top of the refrigerator. I also think I heard her planning a windowsill herb garden, so I think they will be very happy here. :) At the end of the evening, I promised that I would get busy with my needles to make some clothing, but they said there's no rush really...they kind of like the pants-optional prospects of owning their first home. That's what they said anyway, as they stood on the porch in their underwear.

Remember to call first if you're coming for a visit. Apparently my dolls' house is pants-optional, but I'll try to remedy that as quickly as I can. Not that there's anything wrong with that...

Knit in Good Health!

The Cat(s) "Helped"

A couple summers ago, I made a t-shirt quilt for a friend. She offered to pay me to make the quilt for her daughter to take to college, and I got it done just in the nick of time...she loved it. :)

When my son-in-law Snake saw it, he asked Dollface if she thought I might make him one. "Of course!," I said, a year-and-a-half ago. I thought I could even get it done by Christmas (2012)! Then I had surgery...still, I had him bring me his shirts, and I told him I'd get it done as soon as I could. I think I lied...either that or I am a really bad estimator of how long I will procrastinate on a project, because I did not actually start this thing until after Christmas 2013!!! It was then that I finally got out his t-shirts to see how many? what size? colors? and the cat "helped..."

Then I cut off the sleeves and put them aside until New Year's Day (day off work) when I started the cutting, interfacing and finally sewing the top together! I finished the top that night (yay!),and the next day, the day that knit night was cancelled for snow (boo!), I laid it all out to cut the fleece to size for the backing, and the cat "helped..."

I pinned it together, and the cats "helped..."

Then I bound the fleece around the edges, sewed on buttons and added quilting ties to the centers of the shirts, and (you guessed it) the cat "helped!"

Overall, I'll call it a success, and he loves it!

And the cats are so very "helpful." When it was all done, I took a moment to decompress, and I knitted up a quick pair of Peanut socks. The cat modeled them, kinda...

I even added a little non-skid to the bottoms, so her little feet don't slip and slide too much!

One thing that none of the cats were very helpful with was this hexipuff...

...which I knit while Sweetie was helping Snake and Dollface install their first ceiling fan!

Of course, I didn't help much with the fan either, but let's not throw stones, ok? Ok, and I think we are all caught up now...phew! What a lot of activity there has been in my Pretty World lately! Now I think it's time to get to work so I can get home and work on a sweater (or two)!

Thanks for stopping by, and Knit (and sew, and install ceiling fans) in Good Health!