At the sleeves

Front is now completed. I have stitched the front and back while I work on the sleeves. (You can't see it, but the back is there behind the front.)



Both sleeves are being knitted at the same time. I am making the body slimmer than the pattern. I didn't want it as over-sized as it is written. My intention it is to make the sleeves much longer since the body isn't as wide.



Meanwhile I have a sock started for times that I just can't sit and knit with a chart. I am not enthusiastic about the colors, but out of all the other yarns in my stash - this was bright and colorful. I needed something that wasn't grey and dreary. Come summer my choice will probably be duller.

Next up on the needles is a cute lacy dress I want to knit for T.
Also learned of a local church that puts together layettes for nearby hospitals for women who need a little extra help. The hospital calls the church and tells them what they need. With the generosity of the community - they are able to provide. Baby things are fun to make and though the siblings have been doing their best at keeping up with my knitting needs, ... babies do take time :-) At the moment I am burned out on the charity knitting, but will be doing it for this project in the next few months.

Party in Marquette!

Friday evening we left our home and headed to Marquette (UP) for a party. Though this picture was taken from the trip home, the trip up looked just like this only it was dark. The driving was rough, but more because of the white-outs and general not much practice driving on snow.



We got in around midnight. In the morning we loaded up the car and thought we would head into town for a local cafe for breakfast. The car had other plans. It decided that we weren't going anywhere. After the tow truck arrived, it was going to take more than a jump to get it moving. So Ram-niss spent most of the morning and afternoon dealing with local car repair places that may be able to work on our car on a Saturday. Fortunately the dealer was open and it was under warranty. Though they were afraid that they may not get to it till Monday. Oh, well - we didn't have many options. I took a few of the kids into downtown Marquette on the hotel shuttle. We enjoyed shopping. After a few hours Ram-niss called and said that our car was fixed! They managed to get us out-of-towners up and running.



We arrived at the party and T danced.



... and danced. This little guy came up to her, extended his hand and took her for a spin on the dance floor. He was rather suave for a 6 year-old!



A party with good food! Note: there was more than marshmallows! This is just where T headed. Friends from Escanaba were there too! Chris and Emily brought up my FAVORITE salsa from Ferdinand's on Ludington street! I shared it with friends back at the hotel, and finished it up after I got home on Sunday.



Here is son with his newest 'must have' hat. A furry mad-bomber hat. I wanted him to get the Iron Mountain, Michigan made 'Stormy Kromer'. Probably because all the adults were trying to sway him in that direction, he went the other way.



So long, UP! We will be back up again. The UP people are just wonderful. I can not stress how kind and helpful they are!!!

Creeping along

* I accidentally posted this on another blog. Said a choice word and then deleted it. So if certain people noticed that I had made some sort of mess on this other blog - OOPS!!!!!!
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Look in just over a little of a week and it looks like I haven't gotten very far. Looks are deceiving. This is actually the front panel. Next you will see is the completed back panel.



I showed this at the knitting guild meeting. I was slightly embarrassed. They were fabulous in their praises of what I had done, but I was embarrassed on how little time it took to knit. It was similar to the feeling I had when I took in several hats and mittens completed in a week to a work knitting group. And yes, it is possible that family, housework, sleep may be neglected at this time... I don't believe that I am a fast knitter, but I do pick it up and knit when I can. I also found a way to knit the cables without using a cable needle. Using this technique along with knitting a half hour here an hour there - it speeds up the process.

Yesterday oldest daughter went to her first college class. Afterwards she had time to kill till I got out of work. She took CATA, the local bus, to the mall out by MSU. I can't believe how excited I was that she did it without any trouble. I realize that most kids should be able to handle the big city bus, but we are from a small town and Meg is not very worldly. I was proud of her. Also cheered on her shopping find - she found a pair of leather boots that she loved that were originally $60 and got them for $8. The bonuses of being on the small size! Being big and goony myself, there usually aren't that drastic of bargains available.

Today the Niss family is heading to Marquette for the weekend. We can't leave till after the kids get home. This was their request. They didn't want to miss school. I was more than happy to take a day off from work and head up early, but no. I have some freaky kids. Actually in high school if you miss less than a couple of classes they let you opt out of one exam. Son is getting a good grade in Physics and doesn't want the exam to possibly hurt his grade.

We hope to arrive before midnight.

Very Done Sweater

Yesterday I finished my Very Necessary Sweater by Shannon Culbertson. All my calculations worked and it fits great! It was a very quick knit. I now want a pink one, a blue one,... Though I really think if I were to do it next time I will start from the top and knit down in one piece. It was still drying this morning, so I will wear it tomorrow to work. (In the TMI category... I wanted to photograph this sweater before I went to work. Usually I take a photo on the bed. Ram-niss was still in bed. I arranged the sweater over the covers and then told him not to move. I was trying to use the lumps to help arrange the sweater, but it didn't come out as I had hoped. Bedspread and Ram-niss has been removed from the photo.) :-)



I have now started working on Welcome Back, Old Friend from Interweave Press. This will take me forever! It is very pretty, but I do see me doing a few other quick knits while working on this. Goal is to have it done by the fall. I want to enjoy the process and was in need of a challenge. This will do it!



Meanwhile I will have to work on socks or the purse when in situations where I can't really work using a pattern.

Casting on in 2007

*I have updated my projects page. I can't believe everything that I have done in the past few months!

I began knitting this on New Year's Eve - before the party.


After swatching (I hate swatching, but then doesn't everyone?) I realized that the yarn I purchased to make a comfy cable sweater was too tweedy. The pattern made it difficult to see the stitches. I wanted to make Welcome Back, Old Friend from Interweave Press. Now I had a lot of soft pretty yarn and no knitting pattern. I ordered more yarn for my original patter, this time it was a solid. I then went on a search for a nice plain pullover. I found Very Necessary Sweater by Shannon Culbertson. I hesitate to tell you about this pattern, because I may really screw it up. I don't want my mistakes to reflect poorly on the creator of the pattern. This pattern only comes in size small. I am modifying it to accommodate my size. I have checked my gauge and several sites to work out the raglan portion of the sweater. I also started knitting it in the round. After I got through the body I figured out that I may have wanted to start my raglan from the top down instead of the bottom up. Oh, well - I continue to knit on.

It is knitting up very quickly. My thought is I will be spending a lot of time frogging in the near future. I am still a newbie knitter and pessimistic too. Honestly my favorite part is the knitting process. Others fawn over the yarn, I love the process of learning new things.

I wanted to share the cool hat my SIL knitted. I saw this hat when she entered it at the county fair. I loved it! I was so surprised and extremely happy to get this hat. I also have to fight off the kids, they want it too. Now if Michigan would get some snow - but I will probably get the chance to wear it when we head to the UP later in January. (I confess that sometimes I sit on the couch knitting while wearing this hat. Goofy? You betcha.)

Welcoming the New Year

The kids cleaned up pretty well. We had a New Years Eve party to go to. Due to the flurry of activity from the day when I went to take their picture I realized that there wasn't a clean spot in the house for them to pose. Oh, well. Please note that my son has on a kilt. The kilt was his Christmas wish, so Grammy made it for him. (Some kids go Goth, my son went Scottish.) He had many thumbs up from the men. One gentleman came up and complained that he had wanted to wear his kilt, but his wife wouldn't let him.


T had a picture/letter that she had made for the Governor and had to give it to her. I wasn't exactly sure what she had done. A few days before the event I knew that she was working on something and borrowed tape and an envelope. At one point she asked me how to spell Governor Granholm. After I spelled it out, she told me that she would write something easier instead. On the way over I warned her that she may not see the Governor and if she did come it may be later on in the evening. We weren't there more than 10 minutes when T came running up to the table grabbed her envelope and ran to the Governor. They had a nice little talk. Later T danced the night away. We had to tag team to keep up with her (my co-workers also danced with her).

The next morning we drove back to Lansing and watched the final oath of office for Governor Granholm. Although the event started at 11:30 - it felt like it was early in the morning.


I always get a kick out of the rows of cameras, satellite trucks and press that arrive for some of the events.The flags are at half staff for 30 days because of the death of President Ford. Unfortunately during these days some of them will also represent Michigan soldiers we have lost as well. We lost more men in the past two weeks than we have during most of the monthly totals since the war started. Sadly though, when you look at the Flag Honors you will see that there has been an increase in the monthly totals.

Holiday wrap up...

The bits of fabric and yarn became Raggedy Ann dolls for nieces and T. (Not
sure that they took less time than knitting, but they sure are cute.) Along
with the dolls they also received a copy of a book of Raggedy Ann original stories.

After a long holiday and traveling between states, Little G kept her doll close by. Seeing her talk and snuggle with her doll made the many hours/days worth the effort.

I was able to finish all knitting projects for the kids. Escanaba
Scarf (not shown), Son's socks, Meg's clogs and Mo's clogs were all done in time.
At one point Son had on his scarf, socks, and bathrobe. Mo thought all that he
needed was a bubble pipe to complete his ensemble.