6 - 7 - 8

The math geek in me can't help but notice that today is 6 - 7 - 8. It also is my birthday. The T-man is with his dad so we are going to celebrate later. I am going to knit all day.

Half Full or Half Empty?

Problem solved, but frogging is in my near future. I decided to knit the puppy sweater (middle of top row). Of course, I can't ever do it just like the pattern. I'm changing the colors to a red background and the puppy and stripes to black and white. I also am knitting it in the round. At least I hope to be able to knit it like a seamless yoke sweater.

So, I started out with the sleeves by the magic loop method (one long circular). I'm using the seamless yoke directions in The Knitter's Handy Book of Sweater Patterns by Ann Budd. The directions say to use dpns and place a marker for the beginning of the round. Then to increase 1 stitch each side of the marker every 6 rounds. Well, with magic loop, I'm at the beginning of my round when I get back to "home position". So my increases are in the first and last stitch.

The sleeve on the left frustrated me. I tried several different types of increases, but I was left with a protruding bump every time I increased. I resolved to go forward and hope that washing and blocking would help. Then it dawned on me that it would not harm anything to move my increases in a stitch. The picture does not show great detail, but the sleeve on the right has a much smoother line for the increases. I ended up doing a make 1 after the first stitch and before the last stitch.

So, my glass is half empty because I have to frog the left sleeve. It just bugs me too much. But on the other hand, it is half full because I learned something that will make me a better knitter.

Grandma's Flowers

These are my Grandma's flowers. I did not get her green thumb. She sent me off to college with an air fern and an aloe plant. Grandma said that I could not kill them. She was wrong. One year I wanted to grow green beans and can them like she did. I suspect that when I was away at work, that Grandma came over and took care of my bean plants. These plants have been blooming in her yard every year all of my life.














Edited to add: I was out talking to my mother this afternoon. She said that she has identified 5 different varieties of these flowers in the yard. She also told me that my Daddy remembers hunting Easter eggs in these flowers -- so they have been here a really long time.

Our Trip

The T-man and I got in the car at 3:30 am on recent Saturday morning to go visit Kimberly and kids. I always seem to have some crazy things happen when I travel and this trip was no exception.

I had found a really sweet deal on the internet for parking at half what I would have to pay at the airport with a free shuttle to the airport that would drop me off right where I needed to be.

The T-man was navigating for me and reading off the directions, but we still missed the parking place and the next thing I knew we were driving into the airport parking. It was still very early and very dark and I was starting to worry about the time. For some reason, my brain thought I the trip to the airport took less time than it actually did. So, I sort of panicked and grabbed the first parking spot I could find. Since I had planned to park away from the airport, I had not even looked up which terminal I needed to go to. God was with us. We were exactly where we needed to be. Of course, it would have helped if I had paid better attention to the signs and gotten in the right line once we got inside, but we still managed to get our bags checked and get to our gate in plenty of time.

This was the first time the T-man had flown. He was sooooooo excited ...until we stepped on the plane. We had to grab a barf bag. It seemed like it took forever for them to take off. T-man was getting upset. I thought that we were going to have to get off the plane. I have to hand it to him, he was doing great in spite of being so nervous. He told me later that he had figured out that that he could get off the plane and let me go on alone. He would just wait at the airport for his grandparents to come get him. Like I would leave him in the Atlanta airport.

Once the plane finally took off, he loved it! Many hugs and "I love you Mom!" followed. We saw a lot of really neat clouds. The T-man took several photos. These are our favorites.

We landed in Dallas without any problems. The T-man was a little nervous about landing, but did really good. We made our way through the airport and to the gate for our flight on a very small plane (I think the term is puddle jumper) to make our way to Kimberly's (current) home town. The T-man is a seasoned traveler by now and thinks the whole thing is cool.

About mid-flight the captain announces that we can expect some turbulence. T-man looks a little concerned, but I explain to him that it is no big deal, just that the ride may get a little bumpy. The turbulence did not bother him at all, but I thought that I would need the barf bag. I was trying so hard to hold it all together and not let him know that I was having a hard time. After a while, he noticed something was wrong and was so sweet to reassure me that all was OK.

We did not get any cloud pictures for this flight because we flew through the clouds.

Kimberly and I have been e-pals (T-man's term) for a little over two years now, but we had never met in person or even talked on the phone, but the visit was great! T-man wants me to send him back, flying by himself, to spend the summer. Not going to happen. But, I hope we get to go back for another visit.

Caleb took a little longer to decide that I was OK.

I took a suitcase full of acrylic yarn that I would have never used now that I have touched the good stuff to Kimberly's kids. I have never seen kids so excited about yarn.

Two of the kids used some of the yarn to knit bookmarks for me from some of that yarn. Jessi's is on the left. I did not get a good picture, but it has taken me so long to get this post done, that I am going with what I have. She embellished it with some stitching around the edge. Jac's are shown on the right. He made two. Both enjoyed going through my knitting bag and asking about the various gadgets.









I have called Kimberly the Knitting Wonder Woman for some time and now that I have seen her in action I can assure you all that the title is deserved. She knitted more than me while taking care of 5 kids and 2 guests. She was the ultimate hostess -- when she would get ahead of me, she would stop and do something else to let me catch up.

The Christian Artisans group is having a KAL. The idea is to actually make something for ourselves. We are knitting the Bar Harbor Shell Bag. Mine is the purple one. I'm up to round 4 now. Kimberly hasn't mentioned hers in a while. She has probably finished and is just being nice.

Kimberly helped me with my first ever yarn dyeing project. I'm really looking forward to knitting this up and to dyeing some more. Kimberly just couldn't resist. I mean she was nice and didn't do any weaving while I was there because she knows I just can't take on a new hobby now. But, we rationalized that dyeing yarn is not really a new hobby since it is part of my knitting hobby life.

And here is my airplane knitting. Two sleeves for a toddler sweater. CIC is currently collecting small sweaters. I'm using this opportunity as an excuse to try out several sweater patterns and styles of sweaters. More details in future posts (yes, Kimberly, I promise to post).

Wow, this is probably my longest post ever, but it was a really great trip. Just what I needed -- a nice calm long weekend with kids to entertain the T-man and a great friend to knit with.

God Has a Sense of Humor

I am acting chair of the PE department at the college where I work.

DB#2 said: "The screen writers can stay on strike with quality real life comedy like that."

Christmas Eve 2007

My gift list this year did not include anything that I had to make. I love making things, but I hate doing it under pressure. I had been collecting odds and ends of neat pads of paper and pens and such for my neices for most of the year and the T-man wanted stuff for his Wii game. So, I was set. Then on Gingerbread House Day at Bebe's house (an annual tradition since the T-man was little), Niece A came running in saying "Aunt Sally, I want you to make me some doll clothes for Christmas."

Naturally, I caved.

The outfit is from Sew Today's Fashions for 18-inch Dolls by Joan Hinds. The blouse was a lot of work, but worth the trouble. The pants turned out a little big. Lots of neat outfits in this book. Niece A picked this one and many others. Now I have to start working on birthday presents. Both nieces got a new American Girl doll for Christmas from their grandparents, so I know they are expecting Aunt Sally to sew more clothes.

	The T-man is ready for paintball action. His grandparents got him a new gun and two very nice used guns and some gear. Aunt J gave him paintballs and a gift certifcate to the paintball fighting place. Mom added the vest and more paintballs.

The tree did not stand a chance.

More Cables

Details to follow. I just wanted proof that I am knitting. The mate is at about the same point. Both will probably be finished tonight or tomorrow.