E is for...

...Easter Eggs!

Knittie eggs (by Curly Purly) using all the bits and ends of my leftover dishclothe cotton yarn. Knit in the round, my only variation is to use magic loop instead of dpns, and size 7's instead of size 8's.

After I finally read the directions correctly (my problem, not the authors!), I have this pattern down to about 40 minutes per egg.

Instant gratification, indeed.

Egg-actly (har har har) what I need with two never-ending projects such as the MLCB and the GBII quilt going on and on and on and on. And on.

Like the Eeenergizer Eeester Bunny?

My plan? Well...initially...to knit one dozen for Grandbebe Girl for Easter. I am 92% there.

But I have more tail ends of yarn to go, and the eggs, they look so fun.

And I have a few...just a few...more baskets that I can fill with them.

So why not?

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?

Babblative

babblative

\'ba-bl-tiv\ adj : pointlessly or annoyingly talkative : garrulous

At the risk of being...here's your post for the day...or for the last couple of days, as it were.

I am going to hae to go to Barnes and Noble today. Precious Niece has given her mother and myself the heads up, with the warning to 'not get any ideas' (silly girl!), about the latest issue of 'Quilter's Home' magazine. Apparently there is, within it's covers, an "exploration of adult themes in quilting". And this so hot that the publisher has gone to the trouble to wrap them in plastic before distributing them. JoAnns, that bastion of uprightness and morality, has opted not to carry this issue. I am not castigating JoAnn's here, folks, just reporting the news. I have three coupons for there (2-50% & 1-40% off!) even as I type this. According to the article, the magazine's other cover lines: "5 Popular Appliqué Glues Put to the Test," "Read This Before Buying That Longarm." Hmmm...I am not sure any of this is of use to me. Perhaps I should just take my coupons and go to JoAnns. And buy a quilt book!

Grandmama...quit stalking me!

I had lunch with Grandbebe Girl (and Bebe Momma and Wonderful Guy, too) yesterday. I am teaching her how to say 'girls rule'. Because we do.

'I wanted to wear the handknit sweater, but she made me wear this broncos sweatshirt...'

I finally made an appointment for a regular yearly check-up with the regular doc for this next week. I need prescriptions refilled and have managed to eke out the past year and a half without a visit. So now I will go in for the requisite yearly (or in my case, 2 and and half yearly)bloodwork for cholesterol, triglycerides, etc. I don't anticipate problems and it is so easy to put off. So I did. And now...this morning I awaken with a UTI. Jeesh. How does it always seem to happen like that?

Just about the time I am getting sick and tired of the MLCB, it's time to change colors. All new again! Shiny yarn! I have four skeins left. Then the binding, which, as of now, and this has changed about 437 times, I believe I will use some of my handspun. I am getting so close to the end I can taste it. Until I remember is takes about a week per skein of pretty good consistent knitting. That's four more weeks minimum! I may yet bag the handspun idea (even though it would be an excellent use for this early effort) and use one of the remaining skeins, thereby shortening the effort all around.

Because, remember, I am also quilting. (But only in a good way!) I calculate I am 0.375% complete. Exactly. Okay, I am joking. Best guess, about 1/3 maybe? I would hope more, but closer to a half is probably too generous. Somewhere in between.

So that pretty much defines blabbative, now, doesn't it?

knit knit knit....

stitch stitch stitch....

knit knit knit....on the never-ending blanket.

stitch stitch stitch...on the GBII quilt.

All it seems I have been doing.

Well, there's the third day in a row of 70 plus degree weather. Makin' me feel like spring.

But I know it's just a tease. That's the way March is.

stitch stitch stitch...

I offer this in the absence of a more meaty post.

Dearest Sister's post from yesterday. (or maybe the day before...)

knit knit knit....

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.