Lest I Forget

Hi there! The kids have finished school for the day, and I have a little time before I have to make supper, and I am ignoring the fact that there is a load of laundry beeping at me so that I can write a quick knitting post! I think the bunny looks quite dapper in his new sweater. I ordered this book last week. This is as close to a spiritual director as I can currently get. I made it through the first chapter yesterday morning before little people were up and about. I think it is going to be very, very good. Holiness might be for everyone, but holes in the shawl may not be for me. I cannot decide if I like this or not. Don Camillo's little world is quite hilarious and a great light-hearted read. I love his conversations with Christ when he is trying to decide what he should do. Joining Ginny , as usual.

This week found me working on three different projects, which is very atypical for me. However, I find it is working out just fine. First up, I am knitting a new sweater for an old bunny. I might have swiped the too-small sweater off Jack's bunny to put on the elephant I just finished. He is much tinier and it fits him just right. Jack picked the color and it is the perfect piece of knitting to have at the school desk while giving spelling tests and such. Second is the baby blanket for my niece's new baby. Since she knows what the first blanket looks like and since she picked the colors of this new one, I do not feel the need to hide it from her. This is the perfect car knitting. And by that I mean that the pattern is easily memorized, and I don't have to watch my husband drive. And that is all that I have to say about that. Third is my new shawl for me. Tortured by all the choices, I just picked one and cast on. I had read a review of this yarn saying tha...

After our amazingly crazy adventure last summer flying Space A, you would think I might wise up and not try that again. Not so, my friend, not so. First and foremost, I like free. Free is good. Free is worth putting up with little inconveniences. Free is not $10,000, which is what it would have cost us to fly home otherwise. Secondly, I miss my big girls and all my family. Therefore, we watched the flight lists, packed our bags, and waited for our chance. We did not have to wait long at all. Tony's leave started at 12:01am Saturday morning. There was a flight to Charleston whose call time was 3:15am. I was very realistic and did not plan on catching that first flight, but that is exactly what happened! And Charleston! That meant we were only a couple of hours from the cemetery in Georgia where Ben is buried. So, after a brief frustration with the car rental place, we headed to Hinesville to have dinner with Jack's godparents, who happen to be amazing people. The next morning wa...

Knit Picks was having a great sale in July. I have had my eye on their Hawthorne yarn for some time, but what with my frugal nature and the idea that I wanted to make myself a shawl that I could wrap up in when the weather cools down, (though I can barely imagine that right now. We are in Germany, sans A/C, with temps in the 90's all this week! To say that I am melting is an understatement of gigantic proportion!) I just couldn't bring myself to make the purchase. But with 40% off? I did! And I bought 2 skeins. Anyhoo, now that I have this gorgeous yarn, I am overwhelmed with all the beautiful patterns on Ravelry. So, the question I am putting to all you knitters out there is this: If you had  roughly 714 yards of fingering weight yarn, what is your favorite shawl pattern? I cast on for a new baby blanket for a new niece or nephew that is expected to arrive around mid-October. I am knitting the chevron blanket again, since it is for the sibling of the first one I knit...

I let the kids stay up late tonight. Darkness is beginning to come a little earlier, which meant we could get down to business around 10:00pm. All the lights in the house were turned off and we all gathered on the back patio and laid together on a huge blanket. At first, we could only see one or two stars, but as we chatted, more twinkling lights dotted the sky. We lay there, hoping. Hoping to catch sight of at least one little streak of light. Just as the kids were beginning to grow doubtful, a large shooting star made its way across the sky! We all cheered and laughed, and then immediately hoped for another one. Before heading inside to bed, we spied four shooting stars. Yesterday marked eight years since Ben left this world. More years than we had him with us. I can't tell you how many times in those years that I have gazed up at the sky and wondered about him. Sometimes the sky is the exact color of his beautiful eyes. Sometimes I just look up and talk to him. On the night ...