Family Fun

Last Sunday was my cousins' son's Baptism. Afterwards we all congregated at her house for family gathering and fun. This family gathering was extra special as the majority of these people are from Iowa. About a 10 hour drive from Michigan. The kids are kids of cousins. My grandma was there, Karolyn's Great-grandma!


Karolyn desperately wanted to be in the midst of all the fun.



Finally, she got the ball.


All tuckered out, she is showing us the proper use of the football.

About knitterly things. I have to say that there is nothing noteworthy to mention. OK I'll admit it right here and now. I haven't knitted a damn thing. Not a simple sock or a hat or even a stitch for that matter.

Maybe tomorrow or Friday, I'll tell you what is extremely exciting in my life. OF COURSE I'm gonna make you wait so stop asking! Just come back later and you will not be surprised unless you are Bets or Benne or anyone from Elann. Basically cuz they informed ME of the good news! LOL

See ya then!

Baby Jesus

I arrived at the cafe Thursday night and in walks this vibrant lady. Penny, a knit night regular, sees her come in and called her over to our table.

Penny was at a local vegetable market during the day and saw the most wonderful sweater and just KNEW it was hand made. She followed the lady all throughout the market and then finally asked her about the item attracting her attention. Right there in the middle of the isle, these two women became fast friends and were actually asked to leave the store because they were talking too long! Penny tells this lady with the wonderful sweater about knit night.

"Mary, welcome!" exclaims Penny as she starts to rattle off names. Mary sat next to me and I'm very glad she did as that lady sure does know how to spin a great yarn. We were in stitches that entire night and I have to admit, we didn't get much knitting accomplished.

Mary was from Malta and immigrated to the United States with her father when she about 20. She met Tony and they wed. For their honeymoon, they decided to spend about 3 weeks in Malta and then go to Spain to visit an Uncle before heading back to the United States.

Mary wanted just one thing to remember her trip and when she found a statue of Baby Jesus she decided that "this was it." She and Tony carefully packaged the Infant in some tissue paper and placed Him in a shoe box in order to survive the long travels.

In Spain, Mary's uncle gave her some pickled pigs feet wrapped in a cloth. She said that Tony had "no idea what pickled pigs feet were and wanted to know what you do with them."

"well you eat them of course" she explained.

"oh, ok"

Faced with the dilemma of getting the delicacy back home, she took the Baby Jesus out of his shoe box, wrapped Him in the dirty laundry and put the pickled pigs feet into the shoe box. Tony, of course, was none the wiser.

At Customs in New York, they were living in New York at the time, the officer asked if they had anything to delcare. Mary tried to tell him about the pickled pigs feet while Tony tried to "shush" her.

"Well I was a bit mad at him for shushing me. I don't like that. Shush Shush. How would he like it if I shushed him?"

The officer seeing this, asked them to open their luggage. The shoe box grabbed his attention.

"what's in the box?"

"Its... the...." Mary tries to explain.

"Shush"

"But Tony..."

"Shush. Its Baby Jesus Officer."

The officer asked them to open the box. As Tony opened the box he was mortified to find the pickled pigs feet. Clearly confused, he looked to Mary who explained everything.

The officer told them that he had seen it all but this put the icing on the cake!

Mary had us in stitches that night and there were times we were crying from laughing so hard.

Today I found out that Mary had passed away. Last November she was diagnosed with stage 4 lung cancer. Rest in peace Mary, I will always remember your great stories.

Knit Night

Thursday is knit night. It has been knit night for over a year and everyone that knows me, knows to not plan anything on Thursday nights cuz I'm busy. Sacred female bonding going on. With that said, yesterday's knit night was special. DH and Karolyn came over for a bit so everyone could meet my baby!

They have been hearing about her for quite some time now and Kristine wanted to see pictures. Well I decided I could do better. I'm so glad they came. After they met everone, I took Karolyn and DH to the library and Karolyn loved it. All she said the entire time was "bu" "bu" "bu." This is Karolyn talk for book. The child was in heaven. Can you tell she loves her bed time story?

Knitting News

I made significant progress on the FI. A good 6 rounds! I'll give you a pic later.

Now for the alpaca. What a dream to knit with. Here I am knitting along and my hands are actually getting softer! I couln't figure it out until I remembered that this stuff is not processed at all. I do not know if alpaca contains natural oils but it would not suprise me if it did. I felt like I was knitting with lotion.

As far as decision making is concerned. I decided on a stole. I'm using the pattern on the book cover of Barbara Walker's 4th Treasury of Knitted Patterns.

Getting Sidetracked

When I was in Idaho this May, I visited an Alpaca farm which just happened to sell yarn. How can you NOT sell yarn when you own an alpaca farm? That would just be sinful...Luckily for me they did indeed sell their yarn. OHMYGOD what a scrumptious luxury! This stuff is just sooooo incredibly soft that I could just roll around in it forever. I keep rubbing it all over my face and neck just to bathe in the softness of virgin alpaca. What a great treat this is. Well this little luxury has been eating a hole in my stash...just quietly waiting for me to say..."OK its your turn to be knitted into something lovely" Well it has been talking to me very directly lately and I'm under the impression that it is starting to feel left out. I certainly don't understand this as there are yarns in the stash that have been there MUCH longer than this lovely alpaca has...Now I understand that this is a high quality yarn but to be fair to everyone else it should wait its turn right? Well I just can't stand it anymore. I must knit up this stuff.


I only have 3 skeins of this color. The yardage was not listed on the band however the weight was. I figure that I have enough for a shawl or a stole.

This leads me to my next dilema:

1) I can either knit something that someone else has already designed and published and worked out the kinks of. OR

2)I can design my own.

I'm gonna go for #2. Mostly cuz I'm up for a challenge and I want something that no one else has. EVER. And because I'm crazy. Did I mention that I'm crazy?

Well I'll be off to consult with Barbara and I'll be telling you how this starts to take shape. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears.


I'm still trudging along on the Fair Isle (FI). I'm working on the main body now and there is something like 300+ sts per round. 300 That is an awful lot of sts. I think that I clocked about 15 minutes per round so the knitting is slow on this but I'm determined to finish it sometime soon. Needless to say I'm getting sidetracked.

The Philosophers Way

Fair Isle knitting is indeed a daunting task. Normally it is done while knitting in the round. For many it involves stranding the yarn behind your canvas while you are knitting the one color. Then switching the yarns to the next color. If you are among the many that are totally in love with self-inflicted pain (or don't actually know a better way) then you would probably be stranding it. I'm not among this group. Yes my dear friends I'm telling you that there is a better way. A much easier way. The Philosophers Way.


The philosophers way may seem daunting at first but believe me it is a technique well worth learning. It involves knitting with BOTH hands simultaneously. So if you are an English knitter, then you will need to learn Continental and vice versa. The beauty of this is that there is really no need to worry about the tension at which you are stranding it. The reason being is that you are weaving the yarns together on the back of your fabric while you knit. And once you become proficient with the technique, its really quite fast.

I have made one sweater this way and am working on the next. This is a pic of the sleeve. Currently I have both sleeves finished and I'm working on the body.

Team Grant

Have you ever seen a truly awful movie? A movie so incredibly awful that there are no words awful enough to describe it? This is how I feel about "The Life Aquatic with Steve Zissou." My dear husband, on the other hand, loves this movie. It's got diving, fish hunting/killing, pirates, red hats...What's not to love? Did I mention the red hats?

He has a dream of us diving together as "Team Grant." The red hats are going to be our signature garment. With this said, he wants me to knit the red hats. So for Christmas last year I presented him with the first installment of "Team Grant." Yesterday I finished the second installment.