Woo Hoo!!!

The sock and I say…..

…see you in a couple of days!!

I love that kid…

6:30 this morning, my son is getting ready to leave for work.  He walks back in the front door and says to me, “I think that’s a good sign… I think it’s going to be a great day… it smells like doughnuts outside!”

Hee - I hope it is Bud, have a good one.

(Of course, me… now for the last two hours all I have wanted is a doughnut to go with my coffee :o)

Wanna see new knitting?  Okay.  Here’s my “Lost Boys” sock:

This will be another Arch-Shaped sock (Ravelry link) and the yarn is the new Knit Picks Imagination Yarn, in the Lost Boys colorway.  I really love this yarn - it’s soft and squishy (the alpaca factor).  I hope it wears and washes well, because it could be a new favorite.  In fact, I already have more on the way!

Well - the girls and have another adventure planned this week - more on that tomorrow!

PS - happy birthday Sis!

Art and Beauty (and people with imaginations)

I love museums. I love seeing something that is hundreds of years old, and famous, right before me…. a piece of living history, the real thing. It’s always slightly surreal.

My sister and I, and our girls, took My mom to the Getty Museum this Tuesday for her birthday. What a gift for ALL of us! It was a wonderful day.

We saw beautiful sculpture

I thought this was beautiful, and wondered what it’s “story” was.

This guy, Vexed Man, was just amusing :o)

I’d love to show you the picture where there girls are making matching faces, but they’re too embarrassed. Not too embarrassed to make faces and take pictures in a museum full of people mind you… but just too embarrassed for me to show it here! (cheater hint… you can see it here, don’t tell them I told you)

And, the manuscripts were beautiful. Here’s a different take on the Ascension… I’ve never seen it depicted this way… with just Christ’s feet sticking out of the clouds as he is taken up!

This was one of my favorites. I was really moved by this painting of Penitent Magdalene. There is such emotion in her tear-stained face. It was really beautiful.

I loved this painting of Mary, Jesus, and John the Baptist. For some reason, it gave me joy to think of the two babies growing up together. As important as Elizabeth and Mary were to each other, I’m sure they did - I just never pictured it.

Nor did I picture angels with such colorful wings!

Silly me - I don’t have enough imagination to assume they ever had anything but white wings. This, among MANY other reasons, is why I’m not an artist. I look and admire, I do not imagine ;o)

The gardens were beautiful. (I tried to channel my favorite Donna when I took this one :o)

But, I’m sure you can guess my favorite… This guy

Ahh, the Monets… to beautiful for words.

But, this is one of my favorites…. I was snapping a picture of myself for y’all, to prove I was there, and after I took it my daughter says, “Did you see me?” I totally had not! (I was probably too busy making sure I was sucking in my gut and trying to capture the least amount of chins!) Isn’t she cute, though? - My little 2nd head :o)

And, since you can’t sum up thousands of pieces of priceless art in the 100’s of pictures I took, and the few I can show here…. here’s a collage of a few more.

If you’re anywhere near the Getty Center you really should go - and, It’s FREE!

Oh - just post already

All week long I’ve been telling myself I should blog about something - but it has been a week of no ideas, nothing to say, nothing even half-witty. But, at least I have a FO as of yesterday, so I can post that!

Pattern: Arch Shaped Socks, by Jen Showalter

Yarn: Online Supersocke, Color Tropic 81 (Ravelry Link)

Needles: Knit Picks Harmony, US 2, 2.75 mm

This is my new favorite sock pattern. I prefer stockinette socks to wear, and they work best with the striped and variegated sock yarns in my stash - but they can be a bit boring to knit. This pattern breaks it up just enough to keep it interesting. And, they fit well!

And… just because I was fascinated enough by all the different fences we passed walking to and from the creek last week to take pictures, and then make a collage… I’ll share it with you.

click to embiggen - some of them are pretty cool…. well, if you’re easily amused, like me :o)

Oh - How We Love our 4th of July…

…and yearly family reunion in Independence!!  (warning, photo and Layla-heavy post)

The dads and kids decorated up one of our best parade entries yet! (Sweepstakes award… doncha know)

and, yes, we know we’re dorks, and are proud of it!

We spent some time cooling off in our favorite creek

Layla was fairly worshiped by my cousin’s kids….. all weekend!

and was so tired by the end of the weekend she didn’t even mind being decorated with their freshly-painted wooden snakes and lizards!

(she’s a very good sport and, we found out, very child friendly!)

I even got some knitting done while soaking our feet in the ice-cold crawdad bucket (anything to cool off in the 100 degree “dry” heat)!

I am blessed with a family who loves spending time together and knows how to have fun!

An FO - and Layla’s new do!

Oh my Goodness - she looks like a different dog!   She should definitely stay cool through the summer - and I think we got our $30 worth!!

She still has her sweet face, although I think her legs grew 3 inches.  She looks like she’s on stilts!

I also finished my June socks for the Pair-a-month Challenge - boot socks!  Being DK weight they were a pretty quick knit.

Pattern:  my own, with Kaity’s help

Yarn:  Rauma-Ragg that my brother-in-law brought home for me from Finland when he was over there on business (points for that guy!)

So - there ya go, all that’s fit to print, at least for now.  I’ll be back after our annual 4th of July trip with pics and my latest project update!

Have a fun and safe 4th everyone!

Inspiration, Love, and Memories

I loved this yarn the minute Kaity dyed it.  It wasn’t supposed to look like this - when she dyed it (back when we were still learning) , it was much darker, bright, and vivid, but when she rinsed it most of the color came out, and she was not pleased.  I was VERY pleased.  And I was blessed when she gave it to me :o)

Immediately, two things came to mind, Monet and Hanami.

Years ago when my mom, sister, and I took one our a girl trips, this one to Manhattan, one of the places we knew we wanted to visit was the Guggenheim Museum.  When we got there I was thrilled to see they were having a Monet exhibit.  I’ll always remember standing there, drinking in the paintings.  It was one of those moments where you can’t believe you’re really looking at something, that it’s real, that it’s even more beautiful than you imagined.  I remember not wanting to leave, because when knew when I walked away I would never see it again.  I’ve been blessed to travel a lot of places and see a lot of things, but I’ll always remember not wanting to leave the Monet paintings.

The other thing that immediately came to mind was that this was the perfect yarn for my Hanami shawl.  It just said cherry trees and cherry blossoms to me.  The more I read about the tradition of Hanami, and looked at pictures of cherry trees in blossom - the more it became apparent that this was the perfect yarn.

I’m SO glad I didn’t give up on this shawl after the first few trials.  I’m so in love with it.  And, it’s already full of memories.

Did you look at the directions???

That’s what I always ask the guys when they can’t figure something out. Actually - I preach on it.

Yeah - well, I spent the ALL my knitting time this weekend trying to figure out what I was doing wrong with Hanami (Ravelry link). Ever since Kaity dyed this yarn, I knew it would be for Hanami, and the mood finally struck - Knit.It.Now.

But, I couldn’t. Every time I got to row 6 I would get all messed up. I got on Ravelry and swear I read EVERY word ever written about Hanami… hmmm, no one ever had a problem. WHAT am I doing wrong, over and over and over??? I mean, come on, I just finished a lace shawl - I know know to knit lace and I’m actually getting pretty good at looking at the chart and figuring out what’s happening in my knitting.

But, no… I just couldn’t figure it out. I mean - come on…. if 375 other people have successfully knit it without so much as a mention of a struggle - so can I.

But no, I finally just gave up out of frustration and started and frogged three other shawls this weekend. None of them satisfied. They didn’t “click.” The were not what I wanted to knit - I wanted to knit Hanami.

This bugged me all night and this morning I woke up bound and determined to conquer Hanami. I mean - I HAVE to be able to figure this out! So, in an inspired moment of brilliance (NOT) I decided to actually read the pattern, not just look at the chart. Yep - there it was… explained all out for me. And the worst part - it wasn’t even particularly tricky - actually not at all. Kind of embarrassingly simple.

Oh well. I feel vindicated in my own mind at least - I’m smart enough to knit Hanami and now it’s coming along swimmingly. Doncha know - 6th time’s a charm :o)

Metamorphosis

From  this

to this

This pretty Swallowtail Shawl was gifted to my sister tonight for her birthday.  Her birthday is actually not until next month, but she and her family are leaving in 2 days for a two week trip to Europe, and I wanted her to be able to take it with her.

This is by far my favorite shawl pattern.  Whenever I’m surfing Ravelry and am stopped by a shawl that really catches my eye, it’s inevitably a Swallowtail.  Now I need to make another one for me!

Pattern:  Swallowtail Shawl (Ravelry link)

Yarn:  Laceweight extra-fine wool, 2 ply, hand dyed, by Mary Kay, gifted to me a while back (thanks Mary Kay!).  I used 437 yds.

Needles:  KnitPicks Options, size 6

Mods:  None

In the Pink…. and food for thought

Here’s my first Beanies 4 Buddies combo! What a fun, quick project to use up those less-than skeins!

I have been thinking a lot the past few weeks about these two things:

a quote we studied for quite a while from our John Piper study, the Pleasures of God-

“The worth and excellency of a soul is to be measured by the object of its love” - Henry Scougal

and how I should think on this in light of scripture-

“..for where your treasure is, your heart will be also.”  Matthew 6:21

I need to live each day with this in mind, that the object of my love and the treasure of my heart should be my Lord, and my life as others see it should reflect that.  Wow - deep, and reflective, and hard to live out some days.  I need to keep this forefront in my mind.

Ponder if you care to…