Key West

I miss it already.

Happy Birthday Evan!

Today I am celebrating having a nephew named Evan for ten years. Even if I have to go to work.

Evan with his dad and his brother, 09 10 99.

Evan wearing the family christening gown. Already a handsome fellow.

Evan wearing a sweater made by The Goddess of All Things Wool and Then Some.

(It's a knitting blog, see?)

Evan these days.

I hope your day is great! Love, 2T

P.S. I sent you something. Did you get it?

Memory vs. Reality

Some time after I started knitting but before my mother died, I asked her about a knitting project of hers and why she did not continue to knit. My mom took a stab at the whole knitting thing in the early eighties. I am pretty sure that I was still in high school and that The Goddess of All Things Wool and Then Some was in college--so, sometime between 1981 and 1983 my mother briefly tried knitting. She had one finished object--a dishcloth. Which I remembered to be regular in shape, a rectangle or a square, and made of orange and white cotton. Most of the time that I saw it, it was being used for washing dishes. I think she also began a pink mohair scarf for The Goddess, but that was a UFO, lost somewhere in their house. The only thing I remember otherwise about my mother knitting is that she hated purling.

So sometime, in the last year of my mother's life, I asked her about her knitting, and I mentioned the little dishcloth that she'd made. And she said, "That ugly thing?" and then, "It isn't even square." Which seems odd to me in a way. My mother was pretty artistic and crafty. This would be the only thing I can think of that she couldn't do well. But, it wasn't that bad, was it? I didn't remember it being odd looking.

I found this at my dad's yesterday while I was putting away aprons and dishtowels. Buried in the bottom of the drawer was one cotton dishcloth, stained and faded, in orange and white cotton. It is absolutely a study in beginning knitting (I personally have one of these too, full or neat little twisted stitches) . There are two color sections of stockinette, which would account for the rolled end. Then one section where she switched to garter stitch with a few guilty looking pieces of stockinette in it and then the she continued on in garter stitch to the end. This made is sort of a trapezoid shape The stitches are super tight and they were likely done on metal needles. A beginning knitter using cotton (which does not stretch or cling) on metal needles (slick). It is no surprise that she didn't do more. It was sweet to find it, though.

Happy Birthday Susan (one day late, sorry)

This is a guest post.  A birthday present post by Britomart's sister Teresa (Pink Purl).  I am listed as a contributor to this blog but Angel the dog has contributed more than I have.  This is a sad state of affairs.  This post would have occurred on Susan's actual birthday but a very inconvenient (and lengthy) power outage ruined my planned blogging opportunity.  I have been planning several guest posts for Susan's blog as I do not have a blog of my own or the time to post very often.  I have a 16 month old and two older children (all boys), need I say more?  

Susan just celebrated the anniversary of her 29th birthday on April 12th.   Her birthday actually falls on Easter every now and then, as it happened to this year.  How swell is that?  Our brother's birthday is often the first day of spring.  Also neat.   My birthday did end up being the last day of school once or twice when we had a great many snow days to make up but that didn't seem quite as special.  It could make the birthday get overlooked in all the hub bub as a matter of fact.

Since our mom died in the past year and couldn't call Susan on her birthday and tell her what a cute baby she was (it was her yearly tradition) I decided to post a few pictures so everyone could see how cute Susan was.  Here is how cute Susan was at 3 months:

 

This is Susan, age 7, in her second grade picture:

  

Cute pigtails, cute freckles (lots), big new teeth.  Very adorable.  This was in the early 1970's when little girls still wore dresses to school almost every day.  

This is a knitting blog but this is not a knitting post.   It is a post about a very clever self-taught knitter who happens to be a daughter, sister, a fabulous aunt and a friend to many.  She is considered by my children to be much cooler than I will ever be.  She is hilariously funny and smart.  If you were a member of our family you would know that Susan is one of Santa's helpers. She spends as much time on stuffing a stocking as she does purchasing the actual gift.  If it were not for Susan, many years my stocking would hang lank and limp.  My husband is nearly perfect in almost every way but he will never come as close to being Santa Claus as Susan does. 

She finds great gifts for all occasions really.  Here is a picture of a recent gift from Susan in use for Easter.

See, the perfect, funny yet useful gift.

If you know Susan, make sure to send her birthday wishes.  I am dreadfully sorry it is so late.   The state that my brain is in now is causing Blogger to kick my butt.  I have never blogged before, but for you, Susan, I will stay up late and get this done.

I promise to post something about knitting, but not tonight.  My brain is fried.   We are all looking forward to visiting you this week.  The boys have been asking when we were leaving since they got out of school on Friday afternoon.  Apparently employment is not a good excuse for being denied an immediate visit.  They have requested "home made" french fries and an egg hunt.  I should mention that Susan is the master of egg hiding.  Brennan, Evan and Alexander look forward to seeing Angel, as does Winona.  Winona has a special Easter gift for Angel.  She would like to help her demolish it.

Winona and her current squirrel wishing Susan a happy birthday.

Here is a sneak peak at a future knitting post.  Hint, it is from The Best of Lopi by Susan Mills and Norah Gaughan.

http://www.amazon.com/Best-Lopi-Susan-Mills/dp/1893762041  

You would think I lived in a much colder climate than Piedmont North Carolina to like this kind of sweater.  I'm just cold natured and love the patterns (genius) and color work.

I hope you had a happy day Susan!

Happy Easter

I've documented a few submissions from the Easter Bunny This morning. I've dyed an obscene number of eggs and will be eating deviled eggs for a long time. I did some new stuff this year, which may (at some point) translate into yarn.

Some of the eggs I dyed were brown eggs. It has the same effect that using dark primer before painting a wall would have. All colors do not look good on brown eggs. Red, however, looks amazing. Next year, Evan and I can do a batch of NC State eggs. I've got it down.


I also did some speckled, tie-dyed looking eggs (white ones) using oil in the dye. Some of these were extremely cool as well. I also did the traditional pastel colors because I love them too. Off to do some deviled eggs...

Testing, Testing 1-2-3

Amazing what batteries can do for a camera. I did get a few photos of my azaleas before they got pummeled by the torrential rain yesterday. Most of them still look OK, but a few of the big ones were drooping after their weather workout. Some of them are taller than I am. They are one of my favorite things about my house. Looking back on the post where my house was hiding sock yarn from me, I did seem a bit negative. So, here are some of the best things about my house:

This funny azalea is MOSTLY white, with a couple of magenta blooms and several striped and spotted ones. I've always thought it was neat.

These are of my absolute favorite.


The white ones look unreal.

This is a picture from my backyard. Right behind my house, looking toward my property line. See the neighbor's house off in the distance? Me neither.

Back to knitting soon.

My Camera is Not Working

I really did take some nice (for me) high resolution pictures. Instead, you get an example of what I spent April Fool's Day doing...

My Brother, The Dread Pirate Roberts.