Felt Like Knitting

Thoughts II: The Sequel

I mentioned the other day that I have photos to share.  Let's start there:

Simple Sparrow recently had a contest to mark her 200th blog post.  I was one of the lucky winners!  She sent me one of her beautiful handmade pincushions, some fabric and vintage buttons for a project (I'm thinking of making one of those cute needle books.), and some candy from across the Pacific.  Thanks so much, Toni!  If you haven't checked out Simple Sparrow yet, stop in when you have a chance.  There is always a lot of inspiration and beautiful photography.

I've been on a bit of a felted bowl kick lately.  I had big plans for green felted bowls with chocolate truffle Easter eggs tucked inside.  That's not going to happen, but I do have some bowls to show for my idea.  :)  I used the One Skein bowl pattern, but altered it for the dark pink one to get the shape I wanted.

Two more Christmas dishcloths are finished.  I really like the pattern for the Garter Slip Stitch dishcloth on the left.  I'm currently knitting my second one with blue as the dominant color and white as the accent.  I like that color combination, too.

Recently, Rachel recently had a stash sale.  I bought this sock yarn from her.  There were actually two skeins of the blue Knit Picks yarn, but one skein was already in use when I took the picture.  I'm thinking of using the hand-dyed yarn for a lace scarf or small shawl.  Thanks, Rachel!

Now, for the nice gifts I should have mentioned before and didn't.  Last fall, Trek sent me a braiding tool to make Kumihimo braids.  I had big plans to make a beautiful braid right away and to post a picture of the tool and my braid.  Unfortunately, I am just now trying my hand at braiding and it's taking more tries than I thought it would.  :)  So, no great pictures yet.  But, I am feeling bad about not publicly acknowledging this nice gift.  Thanks, Trek!

And in December, Caitlyn offered me her copy of Spindle Spinning.  Again, I thought I'd spin some and show my progress, so I didn't post about it right away.  I recently started reading the book and I got my spindle back out.  "Thunk!" - it hit the ground.  I guess I should read more of the book before I try more spinning.  :)  Thanks, Caitlyn, for your generosity in sending me this book.  It's full of great information and it will help a lot!

What I was forgetting the other day is that we are leaning toward California for our trip.  We're thinking of San Fransisco, Sequoia National Park, Yosemite, and possibly the Napa Valley.  Thanks to everyone that gave me their opinion about the two locations.  Both would be great trips!

One last thing...  Royal Yarns rocks!!!  They had the Nashua book in stock for the KAL with Katie, Keri, and possibly Emily.  That alone was great because I had trouble finding it.  But, the best part is that I ordered the book and a skein of Touche on Monday and I received it yesterday!  So, today I was able to start swatching.  If you want to join us, the web site shows that Royal Yarns has more books in stock.  :)

Thoughts

I have lots to share and little time to do it, unfortunately.  The whole bullet point thing works pretty well for Sheepish Annie, so here we go:

*  I should be in bed right now, but I have yet to complete my lesson plans for the circulatory system.  I know, I know.  This should have been done a long time ago and why am I blogging instead of finishing up?!

*  My daughter is finally taller than me by 1/2 an inch.  No more calling her "shrimp" in a joking way!

*  Katie and I are going to have a little KAL for a top from the one of the latest Nashua books.  Other knit bloggers are joining in, so let me know if you're interested.  You can see a picture of the top here.

*  I have photos to share from finished objects, a contest prize, a yarn purchase, and two nice gifts (that I should have share a long, long time ago).

*  We're supposed to be getting ready for next week's spring break.  How do people that work full time survive?!  How do they get ready for anything?  I'm only working 2 days per week (not even full ones) and I can't pull myself together.  I have tremendous respect for working women everywhere.

*  If you haven't seen Casino Royale, it's worth seeing.  It's very different from the usual James Bond movies.  There was more suspense and "reality" than normal.  (No corny jokes, no odd high-tech gadgets, etc.)  Usually suspense is something that I don't like, but it was good in this movie.

*  I know I'm forgetting something, but I've got to move on to red blood cells.  Spring break can't get here soon enough.  :)

Feeling the love

                           

I had another great Saturday last weekend.  Restless Knitter and I got together to knit again and met another knitter while we were there.  Neither of us had enough guts to ask if she had a blog.  :)  When I got home, I was greeted by some beautiful flowers and a package.  The birthday flowers were a big surprise from my sweet high school friend, Karen.  They smell fantastic!  We are all really enjoying them.  (I don't think Karen even knows about my blog, but I'll say a big "Thank you!" anyway.)

And guess who the package was from?  The talented Katie!  She monogrammed the towel for me and gave me some lovely note cards and two chocolate bars.  What?  You say you only see one chocolate bar in the picture?  Hmm...I wonder why that is?  :)  Katie did such a nice job with the embroidery on the towel.  Thanks, Katie! I love everything!

Once, our pastor encouraged us to ask God to organize our days.  When I remember to pray this in the morning, my day certainly does go better.  My day may not be easier exactly, but I'm able to handle it better.  So, now that I'm starting a new year, I've asked that God organize it for me, too.

Wanna play travel agent? :)

Our vacations usually consist of trips to Ohio or Florida to visit our relatives.  Occasionally we'll take a trip to see friends in Maine and Massachusetts or go to Disney World.  This year, we're living it up and going on a real vacation.  But, we can't decide where to go.

At first we thought about going to the Grand Canyon.  Now we're considering seeing the redwoods in California.  Have any of you seen both and which did you like the best?  If you liked the redwoods, which park is the best for seeing them?  Or is there another sight we should see?

I'm leaning toward California because I've never seen the Pacific Ocean, the redwoods, or anything else out there.  Plus, I know three or four knit bloggers in CA.  But, I'm trying not to let that influence my decision.  It certainly isn't influencing my husband!  :)

Just a great day

Do you ever have a day that is just all around good?  It might not be the most special day, or the most exciting day, but it's a day that makes you happy.  I had a day like that today.  I feel happy and blessed.  Here's what happened:

1)  E. went with friends to celebrate her friend's birthday.  Four of them went to IHOP in their pajamas.  It was a surprise that all the moms were in on.  The girls had a great time.  I feel blessed that my daughter has sweet friends and that I am friends with the moms, too.

2)  Katie and I talked on the phone this morning.  It still surprises me how two people that have never met face-to-face can talk like they live next door to each other.  :)  I am happy to have Katie for a friend and to have other knit blogger friends around the country and the world.

3)  I met Restless Knitter for some knitting, chatting, and lunch.  As always, I had a great time.  I never want to leave when we get together because I'm always having so much fun.  While we were there, the master knitter from the LYS came in for lunch and we got to talk with her for a bit.  An added bonus today was that RK brought her stash of Cotton-Ease for me to look through.  I'm thankful to have RK nearby.  I'm also thankful that she's such a generous, sharing person.

4)  While I was out knitting, S. was installing baseboards at the house.  I am grateful that my loving husband has good handyman skills and that he doesn't mind me taking some time for myself.

5)  After I (reluctantly) left the restaurant, I started my search for a family room area rug.  (We had already tried several rugs from another store without any success.)  I went to the nearest store and found a rug within a few minutes.  S. and E. came in the truck to get it, we put it on the floor, and we really like it.  It's nothing like the rug I thought I might buy, but it goes well in the room and gives us lots of decorating opportunities.  I'm excited to able to buy this rug and to find it so quickly.  (Things like finding a rug usually take me forever!)

6)  While I read blogs, S. went to the store to buy food for grilling out.  He made most of the dinner and we all enjoyed eating together.  I love my family and we enjoy spending time together.

7)  There were other things that made this a great day:  e-mails from knit blogger friends, making stitch markers, eating chocolate, getting yarn in the mail, etc.

What a nice day!  I hope you all had a great day, too.

And the award for the lamest blogger goes to...

...me!  It's an unfortunate, unhappy coincidence that when life is busy and there's lots to tell, there is little time to blog.  Plenty of time to blog?  Nothing much to say.

The past two weeks have been really busy with organizing a cake decorating class, cooking dinner for 80 people at church, helping put together the science fair, preparing to play guitar at the chapel time my daughter organized at school, and so on.  Tomorrow is the chapel and the science fair, so things should lighten up soon.

When I come back, I'll have pictures of some felting projects and a report on how I did during chapel.  Playing in front of my students might make me a bit nervous...  :)

Typepad trouble?

Is anyone else having trouble posting to Typepad blogs?  I've tried leaving comments on 4 or 5 Typepad blogs last night and today.  None of them have gone through.  :(

Some things change...

...and, fortunately, some things stay the same for a little while.  Like picnic lunches on homemade quilts.  Reading favorite books.  Spending time with my daughter.

When E was little, I loved reading to her.  I remember thinking that someday she would be ready to have me read The Little House on the Prairie books to her.  She did get to be that age, then she was old enough to read them herself.  Now we're reading To Kill A Mockingbird.  I told her that this is one of my favorite books and we have to read it together!  I read TKaM in 9th grade, now E is reading it in 7th.  When did I get old enough to have a 7th grader?

And next year's Christmas ornament for my 7th grader (although then she'll be in 8th grade, yikes!)...  I made this with scraps of Bartlett yarn and the egg cozy pattern from Weekend Knitting.  I just need to fashion a hanger from wire and it will be ready for the tree.  Hopefully, when December rolls around I'll remember where I put it.  :)