Tripping

Of late Wonderful Guy and I travelled to the State of the Utes to see the Grandbebes that live there.  And also their parents.  Of course their parents too!

It had been way too long on both accounts.  This trip was a road trip, and whether it happened or not depended on the weather.  We lucked out, and had fine a fine travel experience. Of course we had a fine travel experience!  Because we had a great visit with the bebes and their parents.

See…the thing is...I learned stuff.  I learned that some of I-80 runs at 7500 feet.  And also, that checking weather is good and well.  But not complete.  One should also check road conditions when travelling….there.  Yep.  We spent some down time in Rawlins, but yea! They opened the road back up after 2 1/2 hours!

Only to have Hiway 287 closed 4 minutes before we reached Laramie.  So we spent an extra night there, before heading north and east an extra 120 miles to go south on I-25 to get home.

Under blue skies the whole way!  It was sideways snow…blowing snow was the issue.  Our direct routes home didn’t open up until way after we reach our fair burg, had lunch, and were all unpacked!

It was excellent to have a chance to catch up with Middle Daughter and have a chance to get acquainted with the grandbebe girls.  They are cutie-pies.  How could they not be though?  I say they could not!

And then we travelled to Desert Crazy Town in which to see Only Step Son marry the Lovely Fiancee.  The wedding was downsized from a big planned affair in June, to a intimate engagement in March.  They chose simple and less complex and less stress as the big plans started snowballing.

And I got a brief visit, once again, with Dearest Sister.  She and Car Guy celebrated Wonderful Guy’s birthday together with Lovely Step Daughter.  We took in the Shelby Museum, did a drive by of the Gold & Silver Pawn (home of Pawn Stars), and dropped some quarters at the Pin Ball Hall of Fame, where we all got a big kick out of the South Park game.  After walking Molly, the grand-pup, we finished of the day with the whole wedding gang at dinner.  I think the Guy had a good day of celebration.

(as seen on TV!)

We were up the next morning early for the flight home, and while it was not the best travel experience I have had, we made it safely.  And it was good to go somewhere warmish, though, and break out of wintry weather for a bit.

True Story

Talking to Youngest Daughter the other day…telling her something I heard on NPR.  It was something awesome and inspiring and deeply moving and no doubt humorous and full of truth, all at the same time.

She listened attentively.

And she responded, “you listen to NPR?!?”

Hmph. Yes. Yes, I do, and it doesn’t take away from my kewlness.

In other news, we have been totally enjoying a blissful March, with the middle of the month free of wind, and with temps in the high 60’s and low 70’s.

Last fall, with Wonderful Guy’s initiative and motivation, we hied ourselves to the local hardware store and bought a bag ‘o tulip bulbs.  Fifty of ‘em, then we went around the yard and stuck them in the ground.

Well, ‘we’ did until the guy ended up with blisters from the bulb digger thingie. I finished while he was in doctoring his wounds, so he didn’t know where the last several ended up.

Last week he asked me if some of those tulips ended up over by the blah blah blah because something was coming up…and I was all ‘Ohmigah!  I forgot about the TULIPS!!!  Lemme see lemme SEE!!!’

We have tulips sprouting all over, and hopefully soon we will have some blooming.  Oh, I am not fooling myself.  I know its just mid-March.  We are due chilly weather yet.  Maybe even more snow.  This is Colorado after all!  But still…we planted tulips last fall!

In the meantime, these bloomed this week.

Exchanges

(2 types)

1^st – the material

While meeting up in the old hometown recently, my sisters and I took advantage to save some postage and exchange some belated and early (depending on who you were) birthday gifts, and other miscellany.

I handed over a ‘for real and honest’ wool quilt batt for Dearest Sister, and some handspun, handdyed Jacob for Wisest Sister.

From Dearest, I received a cutie pie Longaberger basket filled with shortbread cookies. What? No photo? No shortbreads?  Whatever…I have already eaten them in my efforts to not gain poundage before Cancun.

From Wisest, I received a stack of these vintage knitting magazines.

(You will want to clicky for biggy, as these models are stylin'...)

All for some wool!

2^nd – the verbal

Dearest’s Sister Hubster leaves the 90^th birthday party to watch one of two car races that afternoon, the Indy and some Coca Cola NASCAR (fill in the blank with mileage).

Me: I don’t know why…all it is, is driving fast in left-handed circles…

Him: (shaking his head as he leaves) I know…

Later that day…

Him: I thought about it and I decided you are right.  NASCAR is boring.  Nothing but going round in circles that same way.  I have decided to take up a new hobby…
…spinning!

Me:  (crickets)

We shared much good laughter, because he scored with that one!

Ravelympics Socks

Done!

Kids got hitched without a hitch.

The after nuptials party was a kick.

We are having a famous time with the family.

Here's a GGP (gratuitous grandbebe pic) from the roadshow that is my life...

A Visit by Wisest Sister

Wisest Sister has been visiting. She is making a trip, seeing Favorite Aunt, the Grandbebe Girls and us older residents of the same state, and some old schoolmates at a class reunion. I think we are showing her a good time.

We watched the Grandbebes on Saturday, and had some interesting moments. Some important elements were left out of the diaper bag supplies, but we managed a recovery before distress was reached. Grandbebe Girl stepped on a bee coming back from a good time at the park, but she doesn’t hate me for it. A knickknack was broken but Wonderful Guy applied his super superglue talents and ‘Dating Cow’ is good as new...almost.

Wisest Sister worked on some pants hems while I worked on the quilt last night. She asked if I had a seam ripper, which I did. Then she asked if I had a new one. Seems the one I gave her was dull. One holiday, she set about to peel potatoes in my kitchen. Guess what. She deemed my potato peeler dull. I think the holiday must have been Thanksgiving. At Christmas, I received a new potato peeler from her. This time, I happened to have a new seam ripper. By chance. Maybe I shouldn’t have admitted to having it, though. Maybe she would have bought me another!

Anyway. The quilt piecing is coming along. I am putting together 9-patches, embroidered patches, and the in-between strips/squares. About two-fifths done. We purchased some fabric to use for the very outside sashing. It is nigh on impossible to match vintage colors without going to reproduction fabric! But progress is being made, and it is looking good. I promise photos forthwith, but, well, I have been really really busy!

But seriously? It is fabulous!

Good Morning from Colorado Springs

We have been to KC to be with family and the memorial service. Lots of thoughts and feelings there. I am grateful to have the family I have..siblings, children, nieces and nephews, cousins.

Also, thank you for all the kind and good thoughts.

We are on the road now, set to enjoy some previously planned time off, with just a bit of a delay. We are nothing if not flexible.

Today's change of plan will include the Great Sand Dunes National Monument, then Durango.

I told Wonderful Guy since I missed the wool market, I may stop at every yarn shop along the way.

And I know where they all are, thanks to Ravelry!

How Much Fun?

This much fun...


An attempt to get a self portrait...


Eldest Daughter, the impertinent young miss, gets hold of the camera and switches to movie mode...


The result...





Happy Birthday to me!

Life is good.

Wonder What Today Will Bring...

...I mean, besides what I am expecting, and that being the arrival of Dearest Sister.

And Galaxie Guy, of course.

See. Yesterday brought more Unexpected.

I spoke of feeding the masses last night. I biked home from work, and an extraordinary ride it was, too. Little wind, and from the east. A tail wind for once. I cruised!

Shortly after arriving at home, so did Eldest, Youngest, and Grandbebe Girl. Come to find out Eldest was keeping Grandbebe this morning, so my schedule was lightened considerable in visit preparations for Dearest Sister.

So anyway, the four of us are enjoying the pergola, and Bebe Momma says to me, 'I'm tired...go get me a glass of water...' and I am all, sure why not, and Eldest says 'hey fix me some tea, while you are at it...' and I am thinking...hey, who's been working?! but whatever...

And when I take them their gosh darn drinks, Middle Daughter is sitting out there, under my new pergola with those sneaky petes!

Yep. I had the three of 'em around my dinner table last night. Can it get any sweeter? Only if Lovely Step-daughter and Only Step-son had been there, too.

Wonderful Guy said I actually had six of my girls around the table...counting the grandbebes! He's such an engineer...and so right.

Still Here

Just treading water. Not so terrible bad, really. Still transitioning, I suppose. The older I get, the longer making a change takes.

Shuddup. Does too. Seriously!

I got alot going right now, and not alot finishing. That's an icky place for me. I like getting things accomplished! Having something to show for my time!

Right now I am just in the middle.

In the middle of my favorite month Ever! and it's getting away from me.

Finally really getting the yard cleaned up. Finally! I have color showing on some tall bearded iris, and just today had a chance for clean up. Between weather, time, and energy...

Whatever. That chore is almost done, and with mother's day this weekend, I should get the outside finished up, and ready....because....

Dearest Sister is coming! Dearest Sister is coming next weekend!!

She will be here for one day, but we will make the very most of that day. Oh yes we will. Trust me. That day will be my birthday. Remember this picture?

Well, there won't be any party dresses. And we won't be sharing our treats with any friends. Nosirree. Just her and me...and our favorite people.

Each other!

More Knitting History

A couple of posts ago, I talked about my mother teaching knitting in the backroom of the local five and dime in my hometown of Greensburg, and about being The Resource.

Wisest Sister commented on that post.

"FYI your mother gave knitting lessons at our home before I was born(Yes, even then!) She also sold yarn. The tatting edge that she added to a pillowcase was payment from a lady who did not want her Mr. to be able to criticize "wasteful" spending on lessons. Mom also knitted a skirt for herself...and later used that yarn for a jacket for me. (Yep, she "unknitted" her skirt so I could have something special. Love, WS"

Well, I didn’t know that! Imagine. I knew that Momma was very keen on the early version of ‘reduce, recycle, reuse’, which was ‘use it up, wear it out, make it do, or do without’, but she thrifted yarn?

My mother, again, goes before us! What we think is new…

So I remarked to Wisest Sister…tell me more. I say to her,

"I have a little knitted outfit in my hope chest, a skirt and vest of tweedy looking yarn, grey and cream and black. I wore it in kindergarten. The story I remember is that it was worn by the ‘Big Girls’ before me. And Eldest Daughter wore it when she was a wee tyke."

Well, apparently…

"The knitted outfit is the one that was Mom's skirt! My memory misfired that it was something else, but your memory helps me. (That’s what sisters do!)"

And here it is…

A skirt and vest, all grey/black/cream tweedy...and wool...scratchy on a five year old's skin!


Buttons up the front...with reinforced buttonholes...ten of them!

Ribbing around the bottom of the vest...

Slits about one inch deep for 'belt loops' for the ribbon belt...all the way around.

Is that not just something?

There is some discoloration, and some moth holes. The FO has to be sixty years old, the yarn older. (I feel certain that the moth damage is from long ago, and that in the hope chest and in the dry Colorado climate it is safe from further damage.)

We may not be EZ and Meg Swanson, but we sisters, well...we have our own family history of knitting.

And I'm thinking it's a strong one, just like us...

Success!

Yesterday, Eldest Daughter calls, all squealy and excited. 'Mom! My tulips, they are poking up through the mulch!', she cried. These are the tulips we planted last fall on my trip to Philly to see her new digs.

What prompted her to check on afore-mentioned tulips was a call from her younger sister, bespeaking of her own tulips, showing foliage.

I have raised Gardeners!

I am so proud.

Now...for something completely different...I feel the need to address some of yesterday's comments.

Lynne-sometimes newly planted rhizomes need re-seating. That freeze-thaw cycle may heave them out. Keep the good thoughts. Not all make it all the time.

Wunx~-the kittie girls have only been interested in the ends before they are woven in. They are such old lady kitties.

And to my wonderful, supportive sisters...about my filling all my baskets...blah blah blah! You're just jealous.

Early Childhood Adventures

Of late, Dearest Sister has asked the rhetorical question 'What were they thinking?'!


She is referring a photo of me as a child, less protected from the cold than I might be, and then makes a broad assumption that it might have led to my current 'obsession with woolen hand knits'.


Obsession? I think not!


I know obsession, and this is not it. I manage very well to keep my compulsions well balanced, thank you very much!


However. I do think that I see the reason I have been chilled much of my life.



Again, we see the devotion of elder siblings, in this case Deeply Missed Sister, taking time out of her busy social schedule to teach her baby sis self defense.

While wearing Daddy's boots.

But no coat.

Or long pants.

With snow on the ground.

Hmmm.

What were they thinking?

What I remember

...about Deeply Missed Sister

1. Her hands. Her hands, and long, graceful fingers were so distinguishable. For me, it was the only recognizable part of her in the casket.

2. As a mother. She was a wonderful and devoted mother to her boys, just loving and caring for them in a way I admired so much. She would be so tickled with her grandsons, and revel in that role.

3. Her photography! She took lots of mediocre snapshots with her Kodak Instamatic (or it may have been a 110). But she was the one in the family that took a lot of photos and got them developed. And she organized them! And now, we have her albums, with names and dates on the backs of the photos.

4. As an aunt, she loved her nieces. She adored her nieces. She could just eat them up. And I know she would be proud of them all today.

5. Her faith. She had a Christian faith that ran deep and strong, and raised her boys to have the same.

6. Glamorous. In fact, she got all the family’s glamour…sucked it out of all us, I am pretty sure! She was the cheerleader, the homecoming queen, TWA stewardess (with Wisest Sister). She lived and vacationed in famous places, and did fancy things, and always looked just spiffy. When the family would get together re-unionizing, the rest of us would be in jeans, and tees or sweats, with jogging shoes…and she would have on a belt and a tucked in shirt, with her hair styled.


7. Aerobics, and how she just determined that was what I needed to do after my first baby was born. Paid my way to the first clinic, and walked me through what I needed to start teaching classes way back when. Such a boon for me and I don’t think I ever let her know how much I appreciated it.
8. Trendy craftiness. She knit with broomstick size knitting needles, for example.

9. The sound of her voice and her laugh, and how that changed when she went on oxygen.

10. Her grief at the loss of her son. She taught us so much.


11. Her illness, and how our definitions and references and understandings about life, and health, and living, and death changed. Figuring out that others don’t know and likely won’t understand unless they have had the experience. Seeing that each deal with it on their own level.

12. Saying that when she goes, many of the things she holds valuable will suddenly become worthless, and the things she thinks nothing of, will suddenly become valuable to us. I held onto a moving box with her handwriting for years. Just because it had her handwriting on it.

13. Her death as a wakeup call, for looking at how I was living, if I had only 10 more good and healthy years left.

P.S. Found the crocus blooming in my yard this afternoon.

Dearest Sister is Coming to Visit!

It was about the only thing that got me back home at the end of vacation.

Well, not really. I don’t mind so much coming home. I like where I live, and don’t mind what I do for a living. It would be better if that part of my life wasn’t so much up in the air right now, but that’s just technicalities. Over all, I don’t have anything too much to grumble about.

And I think that makes special times even more special. Like the trip to Yellowstone, or when I get a visit from Dearest Sister and Galaxie Guy.

See, we go way back, we do. I’ve known her all her life, and I know things about her. Yes, I do.

She didn’t use to clean up her room. Well, neither did I really. We always shared a room and it was always a mess!

And sometimes she really misbehaved with babysitters. Maybe I wasn’t such a good example. In fact, the few times my poor mother found someone to watch us, how we performed might be akin to torture. Not many repeat babysitters in those days, now that I think about it.

She gave me the mumps. And that made me miss the first day of fifth grade. I thought that was about the worst thing that could happen, missing the first day of school. What was the point in going the rest of the year if one missed the first day, I ask you? That she did, gave me the mumps!

And she got me hooked on hankies…

On the other hand, one of my daughters was overheard warning a friend ‘not to worry about my mom and her sister…sometimes they just start laughing at nothing!’….to which we started laughing, thusly proving her point.

(Sometime she gets me to laughing just so I will wet my pants.)

Hurry up, Dearest Sister, and come see me. I anxiously await your arrival!

It Was A Chilly, Cloudy Saturday...

Of course, Monday, after going back to work....almost 70.

Made a trip to Wellington today. Wonderful Guy has a bug, so we were laying low, around the house. I thought it a likely time for a trip to Nanytutu's, as I had read on Ravelry about a yarn sale there. (Yes, I need more yarn. Shut up!) It was 20% off (all balls and skeins are 20% off until the end of the month of March - ALL). I bought some Crystal Palace Maizy, that stuff made with corn fiber, and some Panda Silk. I have gone sock yarn bonkers, I fear. Ah well, it is for gifts, I tell myself...and others. I ran into fellow travelers from the Brown Sheep Mill trip there. It's a small knitting world here in northern Colorado.

I talked to Dearest Sister for an hour and a half today. We had some good, almost too good, laughs. Everyone should have someone they can share with on such a basic level, with whom there can be no pretension because that person knows them like no other. Dearest Sister is my such person. On the other hand, I know her equally well. The playing field is level. She was my best and dearest support when I was going through the Dee-vorce. We often have shared with each other the dream of growing old together like the spinster sisters on 'The Waltons', who made the 'recipe'. Not that we have a recipe, but we have other pursuits that keep us active and interesting, not to mention, quite humorous to our offspring. We share serious thoughts, too, about our future and our past. But usually, we end up making jokes. And laughing. Sometimes too hard. Dearest Sister is my best friend.

Look at the bebe sockees!

Further progress has even been made. Heel has been turned and gusset is about half done. And there is still knitting to be done tonight. Why, at this rate, I am going to need all that sock yarn!

My Hometown

My mother's family homesteaded just a few miles southeast of Greensburg, Kansas at the turn of the last century. I was born in the local hospital, and spent my grade school years there. All my family, from my grandfather's generation through my older siblings, graduated from Greensburg High School. I learned to ride a bike around the Big Well Park. I won a Grand Champion ribbon for a sewing project in 4-H at the County Fair one year. Momma taught knitting classes in the back room of the Ben Franklin 'Five&Dime' on Main Street. (That's where I learned to knit.)

On May 4, 2007, a EF-5 tornado all but destroyed this town where I was born and raised.

Just the night before, my sibs and I had been discussing the possibilities of meeting in Greensburg to inter my mother's ashes around Memorial Day. She passed away 2 years before, and her memorial service took place elsewhere. We siblings are a spread out crew, and hadn't managed a time to get back to our hometown to bury Momma's ashes with Daddy. Now it looked promising with certain travel plans and arrangements that we could all be there over Memorial Day.

Friday night, while watching TV, I got a phone call from my brother saying it looked like Greensburg was getting hit by a tornado. Being raised in southwestern Kansas, my experiences with tornadoes were of those skinny little funnels that dip and touch and raise and hit and miss. As the events were unfolding real-time, it was very difficult that night to get any definite news, but as the story developed, it appeared this tornado didn't miss much. Almost two miles wide, it covered pretty much the entire town.

When I woke Saturday morning, I grabbed a cup of coffee, and turned on the national news. I was stunned. As the weekend developed, Dearest Sister and I spent time on the phone, each on our own computer, looking at the aerial photographs, trying to identify landmarks. It seemed in each photo the house where we grew up was just outside the shot. (We found out later the back part of the house was damaged, with the roof, and later had to be demolished.)

We were able to take care of Momma over Memorial Day weekend,burying her ashes 48 years to the day after my father died. It was going to be just Mom's kids, a couple of nieces and nephew, and some grandkids at the cemetary, but word had gotten out. Others started showing up, and kept coming. When it was time for us to say our good-byes, there were twenty or so other people there, some who had lost a good deal, who had a lot of unanswered questions about what they were going to do. Nevertheless, they came to say good-bye to this woman who had been a part of their community years before.

I read an article today that the residents of Greensburg have been named Distinguished Kansans of the Year. Some left after the tornado, but many stayed, and are determined to rebuild, whatever it takes, and to do it up right. And that is right, and good, and I am so proud.

But the town I grew up in is only in my memories.

Needles of Iron....

I read yesterday about site counters, and have been thinking about the implications of such regarding my philosophy of blogging. Do I care how many might read it? When being honest with myself, I know when I see how many times my Ravelry projects get viewed, I get a charge out of it. And undoubtably, the Ravelry linkage opens the blog up to others. While I might not mention it to those who know me, certainly some can see there that I have one, unless I remove the address, which I could. What a conundrum!

Today, on the Needles of Iron…as usual, a Four-Corners Dishcloth (1870 Pearl), a Maple Seed Hat (Angela Hahn), and Alison’s Scarf (Annie Modesitt). My history with dishclothes will be for another post. I have developed a process to determining what my current WIPs are at any given time, and this has kept me challenged, yet also let me have some mindless knitting. I keep about 3 projects going, one being the ubiquitous dishcloth, one a project using a little bit more concentration and technique, and the last requiring new technique and skill levels. When some knitting time rolls around, I can pick up whatever is called for. The hat is using leftover yarn from my Cinnabar Scarf (another Angela Hahn), and I hope there is enough. I am using some Paton's Decor for the scarf, sturdy enough for some learning of new technique with the requisite frogging. The scarf's I-cord cast-on is very interesting, and I think I like it alot.

I have knitted a lot this past year, and really it has only been since June when the group at work started knitting the squares for the Greensburg project (again, another post). FO’s are listed on Ravelry and I count 25 projects, plus dishcloths. For half a year! I have honed some old skills, and picked up new ones, too. I have come to look at knitting as one of my Momma’s legacies. I value the lessons from my mother, teaching me the basics as a young girl. As I have taught others, I’ve come to appreciate her patience. Well, at least now I do!

Other crafty accomplishments this past year: I completed the quilt for the grandbebe girl, the eldest daughter’s lifetime scrapbook, and the dearest sister’s 50th birthday scrapbook.

Back to knitting….