My girl

I've shown these pictures before.

Of my sweet girl,

and the beautiful woman she's grown up to be.

Here's to my girl child.  We love you for who you are.  We love you forever and always.  We've watched you grow up, watched you become the woman we are so proud of.   Looking forward to all the good things ahead for you.  Happy birthday, bunny.  Love you.

Cloudlike

ETA: Oops!  I didn't remember that I hadn't shown my finished Strathendrick.  Here it is.

I do love it.

I also started the Lucerne hat by Jared Flood.  Had to stop because I ran out of one of the yellows in the kit I got from Brooklyn Tweed of the Peerie yarn.  BT came through and sent me more, so sometime I have to pick that up and finish it.

Now back to where I started before.

Here is my current WIP -- Like a Cloud by Joji Locatelli.

I'm using the yarns specified in the pattern -- Shibu Cima and Shibui Silk Cloud held together.  The combination really is like a cloud.

This past weekend, the father type and I went to see the Punch Brothers in concert, along with a pre-show Q&A session.  What a treat!  The best part of the experience (we were lucky enough to be in the third row center from the stage) was when for the second encore, the band performed unplugged -- no electric, no amplification, just them.  It was magic.  (They came right up to the edge of the stage.)

These guys, and especially Chris Thile, are my heroes.  Such talented, intelligent, fun musicians.  Yes, I'm a big fan girl.

Mia had a nap in father type's hat.  Silly cat.

Can't believe tomorrow is August!

getting there

I've been working on my Strathendrick by Kate Davies, slowly but surely.  And I'm finally finished with the color work and am working on the sleeves.  By the time July rolls around tomorrow, I'm hoping to be working on the neck ribbing and bottom ribbing.

ETA: I finished the second sleeve today!  Yay!

This is a fun project to work on.  I'm looking forward to being able to wear it!

June is our anniversary month -- 35 years married.  It's hard to believe it's been that long!  But I guess if you look at our picture from our marriage day, it's believable.  :D

Mia says hi.

Keep cool!  Here in the northeast, it's going to be way too hot for the next week.

A finish

I have finished my Kirigami sweater by Gudrun Johnston.

Sorry it's not the best picture.  I used Brooklyn Tweed Arbor in the Sashiko color way.  It seems to fit, atlhough it's probably larger than planned.  I like loose fitting sweaters, but of course they don't always look the best.  I will know more once it's finished blocking.

My arm and wrist seem to be mostly all better.  I tried a row of color work and seem to be able to do it with no pain or discomfort.  Hooray!  My plan of finishing Kirigami first to help my arm and wrist heal worked!  The plain knitting was good for it, and once I reached the yoke, my arm and wrist were ready to go.

Mia hopes you have a great weekend!

One of those months

First off, here is my Rams and Yowes all finished.  That border didn't work out, as predicted.  So after removing the offending border, I just knit an i-cord bind off directly to the color work and called it good.  It's living on my stitching chair now.

I also finished my Sockhead Cowl, knitted with a potluck Hedgehog Fibers skein. 

Then I tackled the Peerie Flooers hat by Kate Davies.

And I swatched for and started the Strathendrick by Kate Davies.

And then things screeched to a stop.  On April 14th, I somehow took a fall and injured my knee and arm, both on the left side.  I ended up going to the ER just to make sure things were ok.  The ER sent me home with a splint on my left arm, saying there was a possible "occult" fracture of my elbow.

Thankfully, come Monday (the accident occurred on a Saturday), I went to the orthopedist who said there were no broken bones.  Just take it easy and bend and flex three times a day.  So I started back in on knitting the day after that.  Slowly, just a bit at a time, cause it still hurt.  (My wrist was also affected by the fall.) 

So slowly but surely, I've been knitting and working on getting my arm back to normal.  I've gotten to where I can knit pretty normally.  But color work is too much for my arm still.  (I knit two handed with color work, so my left hand is used a lot more with color work.)

As a result, I've started a couple of new projects as I've been healing.  Here is my knitting basket.

I did manage a row or two just to try color work out.  So you can see my Strathendrick progress.  I'm waiting to work more on it.  My wrist and elbow need more healing. 

The first picture shows the start to my Polka Dot scarf from Churchmouse Yarns and Teas.  I'm using Isager Alpaca 1.  The second picture shows my start on Kirigami from Gudrun Johnston.  (I'm actually much farther along than this by now, but I haven't taken another picture recently.)  I'm using Brooklyn Tweed Arbor, my first time using this yarn.  Love Brooklyn Tweed!  The color is Sashiko.  It's a bit darker in color than in the picture.

Right now, the straight stockinette body of Kirigami is good for my arm, so I'm sticking with it.

Mia has had at least a day or two where she could enjoy the fresh air.  Spring is coming!

It's supposed to warm up this coming week.  I know Mia will like that!

Talk about in like a lion....

First off, here is my Birkin, all finished.

I knitted an XL yoke and a L body.

I picked up a very old (from July 2014) UFO next, the Rams and Yowes blanket by Kate Davies.

I have doubts that this will come out ok.  The garter stitch border is definitely larger than the color work part.  Sigh.  I plan to try blocking it before knitting the i-cord bind off around the edge, to make sure it's not a waste of time to do so.  Not sure what I will do if the border continues to be too big for the center panel.

So yes, March did its proverbial thing and came in like lion -- more than a lion.  There were 4 nor'easters in the space of 4 weeks?  Something like that.  The first one, Riley, knocked our power out -- tons of trees down, which knocked down the power lines in the area.  We were out of power from March 2, through March 8 (6 days), when our power finally came on in the evening.  Yes, we were without power for the second nor'easter, Quinn.  Thank goodness Quinn wasn't as bad as they called for.  And thank goodness for generators!  It would have been tough to survive the cold without our generator and hookup to the house that we had installed after Hurricane Sandy.  We learned our lesson after Hurricanes Irene (no power for a week) and Sandy (no power for 9 days) -- get that  generator and generator hook up, cause our electric company leaves us for last when it comes to restoring our power.  Not fun.

I'm hoping that spring is finally here and that March leaves like a lamb and April just brings spring showers.

I couldn't resist taking a picture of all my color work garments (not including accessories or blankets).

Starting from my Birkin sweater and going clockwise, we have the Birkin by Boyland Knitworks, the Stopover by MJ Mucklestone, the Cruden vest by Ysolda Teague, the Ninilchik Swoncho by Boyland Knitworks, the Wave cardigan by Toshiyuki Shimada, Miss Rachel's Yoke by Kate Davies, Second Grace by Bristol Ivy, and Firebirds by Alice Starmore.

Happy Passover, and Happy Easter too!

Happy 24

How can time pass so quickly?

But these pictures show it to be true.

We've watched you grow into a wonderful young man.

And we're so proud of you for who you are.  Happy 24th birthday!  Love you!