Ribbit

On my birthday last year both Shannon and mom gifted me hand spun yarn, what a treat! As soon as I opened Shannon's I knew exactly what I wanted to knit out of it.

A long while back (Spring of 2008) I saw a shawl pattern in Spin-Off magazine that I really wanted to knit. It is a Traditional Danish Tie Shawl, the pattern is based on an old Danish pattern. I know mom has already knit one up, maybe she will post a picture of her completed one so you can see it.

The pattern is simple so I thought it would be a good one to lug along to hockey practices and knit while I watch the kids play. I was knitting away on it at SeaBass's game on the weekend and the game was so good I put one of my yarn overs in the wrong place. I did not notice for a few rows and then when I did see it I thought maybe I could live with it that way (Denial, I know) the more rows I knit the more I realized I could not live with it.



I did at one point decide to drop a few stitches in that area and see if I could go back and fix just that little section. I tried that and and was not happy with the results, so I knit a few more rows to torture myself a little.

Finally I decided I needed to just suck it up and rip back to my mistake. I tried a trick I have read about often but have never done. I used a smaller size needle and picked up the stitches on the row just beneath my mistake:



I took a deep breath and pulled out my working needle. I ripped back to the needle I used for the life line and prayed I picked up all the stitches and the few yarn overs all on the same row.



And it worked!!! You can see my stitches are leaning the wrong way on one side, but that was no big deal, I stitched into the knit stitches the right way to turn them around and I was back on track. Now I have even knit enough to be back where I was when I decided to rip back. Shannon did such a nice job spinning the wool that it held up nicely to the abuse of being ripped back and knit twice, it no worse for wear at all.

Shannon, if I am remembering right this is well traveled wool. I think I recall you posting pictures of this wool while you were spinning it in Oklahoma. I was thinking if my memory is correct then this wool has been from CA to OK and back to CA only to be delivered to me in WA and then knit up in Canada.



One for the road. This is Q trying on the chaps that Paul's parents got him for his birthday. A perfect fit.

About Damn Time

I have about a million titles for this post, it has been to long I know.

I don't know really know why myself so I have no excuses (see there's a good title) and really no good reason (another good one) for not posting in so long.

So how about if I just start fresh and dive right in?

We had a wonderful holiday season, it was just Paul and I and the kids around here and we celebrated the season in the best way possible, just spending time relaxing and enjoying some family time.

We spent last weekend celebrating SeaBass's 9th birthday.

When I was pregnant with SeaBass I took a Lamaze class, there were only four couples in the class and we all ended up having our kids very close together. Three of those couples seemed to really connect and our kids even go to the same school.

You all know of Deb and her daughter Layne who is only 5 days older than SeaBass, and then there is Wendy and her family, there son is only one day older than SeaBass. Wendy teaches my kids piano and works out with me in boot camp classes. The third I see around town now and again and we always stop and catch up when see each other.

Wendy came up with the idea of a joint party at the tube park up at one of the local ski hills. Since the kids all go to school together their guests lists overlapped quite a bit. It made the party a great time and a more economical for everyone as well. They keep a couple of fire pits going at the base of the tube run so you can warm up when you get chilly and the kids had hot dogs and Smores instead of birthday cake.

I was talking on the phone last night with Mom about the crazy weather in CA right now. We have a crazy weather here as well. Ours has been on the other end of the spectrum, we are unseasonably warm.

Aunt Patricia requested some snow pictures and I can't provide you with any right now. We had snow for a little while but has all melted away with the hot spell we are having. Today we are sitting +4C (39F), last Friday if was +13C up at our house (55F), I just peeked at the thermometer and it has popped up to +9C (48F) since I took that picture an hour ago! I have been wearing sweatshirts to work and my winter coat has been put away for two weeks now. I am sure it will get cold again and I am hoping for some snow. I never thought we would in a situation here that I would consider asking California for water!



I will leave you with a couple of pictures of the back yard:



You can see the sun glaring off a bit of ice on the back lawn and bit a snow in the shady spot, but that's about it. (Oh yes and my finger in the picture too! Don't say I never post any pictures of me on here.)