The Last of This Year's Stockings

Hooray! I've finally finished the last of the pre-Christmas knitting projects. These two stockings were a bit of a challenge but I'm very happy with how well they turned out. The customer provided me with a stocking that she wanted me to duplicate along with a "pattern" that consisted of about seven handwritten pages of "k 10 red, 3 green, 10 red, 3 green", etc. etc. Fortunately about the same time that I started deconstructing this pattern one of my librarian friends who knows that I knit a lot picked out a book titled "Mason-Dixon Knitting Outside the Lines" and sent it home along with my requested titles. This book, among other goodies, contained a link to an online pattern for a knitted Christmas stocking that was popular in 1945. While the stocking was not the same as the one I had to duplicate, two of the graphs used in that stocking were identical to the stockings I needed to make. This saved me a lot of time and effort. Here are both sides of the stockings after I finished them this afternoon:



I called my customer to let her know that they were ready to be picked up, and she informed me that she has two more grandchildren coming in the new year, so she'll be asking me to knit a couple more for next Christmas. Thank goodness I've made really meticulous notes and graphs for the entire pattern. It will make the next pair of stockings go much more quickly.

Two Christmas Stockings

I finally finished my first of two big Christmas stocking projects for this year. This was a special order for two Christmas stockings for a friend. She had stockings for herself, her husband, and her two kids that had been machine-knitted several years ago, but the person who made them for her is no longer doing that. This year she gained a daughter-in-law and a son-in-law and wanted stockings made for them to coordinate with their existing stockings. She brought me the stockings earlier this fall and I've been working on them off and on since then. I completed them early this week and she picked them up today. I have to say that I'm very proud of how well they turned out, and she loved them too. I commented that I should have printed up a fancy "certificate of authenticity" verifying that these stockings are indeed designer originals as they weren't made from any particular pattern and are completely one-of-a-kind. In order to match the stockings she already had, these were knitted with dk weight yarn and size 2 needles at 7.5 stitches per inch. Needless to say they each took a few days to complete.

I am developing a photo catalog of all the fine gauge stockings I've made and the graphs for each one. Eventually I'll be able to have customers pick out various elements from the catalog to design their own. Meanwhile I'm about a third of the way through the second stocking of my second big stocking project of the year. By the time I finish this one (hopefully tomorrow) I think I'll be about stockinged out for a while.

Knitting Class

Last month after I spent some time helping a friend with her knitting on a couple of afternoons (she had knitted previously but needed some help with a new project) she finally was able to convince me that I should offer some knitting classes. I printed a flyer describing two classes that I would offer; Knitting 101 would be a basic beginner class and Open Knit would be a class for people who had some experience with knitting but needed extra help with a specific pattern or project.

I emailed friends and plastered flyers around town, and ended up with -- ONE student! So she and I went through three weeks of Knitting 101 and simply had a blast. I had stated that the beginning class would cover casting on, knitting, purling, and binding off, but at the end of the third session my student was also increasing (knit in front and back), decreasing (knit 2 together), and yarning over. She said that she really enjoyed the class (as did I) and we are already making plans for another series of classes in January. I'm hoping that I'll be able to have more than one student per class for the next round.

We're also planning a "class field trip" to Enticements for the end of January (and maybe a few other stores in the area). She didn't realize that there was a yarn store in Decatur, even though her parents live there, but I read about Enticements in another friend's blog here. I'm hoping that my other friend who got me started teaching will also be able to go on the trip.

Two More Etsy Sales

Hooray! Two more Etsy items sold today - a couple of Christmas stockings to a lady in California.

I was able to relist the fisherman stocking immediately because I had another one already made up.

The sock monkey stocking was the only one of its kind that I had on hand, so I won't be making any more of those this year.
Tomorrow I'll photograph and list my full-size afghans and some of my baby/children's hats. I'll have to photograph the fruit hats as well, and I'm sure there are a lot more things that I can't think of right now.

If I could just have a couple more sales days like this it would really help the budgetary crisis immensely. Now if I could just get caught up with my special order stuff we'd be good to go. For some reason I always have many more knitting projects than I have time to do them all. To quote the image from one of my favorite tote bags, "So much yarn, so little time..."

Katie and Doug's wedding

Well, the wedding has come and gone, and with it my one and only chance to be mother of the bride. All in all it went pretty well, except that the gorgeous ring bearer pillow that I labored over so intensely never made it down the aisle. By the time of the actual ceremony Kindon was so hyper from having been given prodigious quantities of chocolate by his Uncle Hank that he flatly refused to have anything to do with walking down the aisle.

Other than that, the ceremony was lovely, the decorations were awesome, and there has never been a more beautiful bride. My sister drove all the way from Florida to attend the wedding, and her planning expertise was invaluable at the rehearsal and during the actual ceremony. It was also awesome to get to spend some time with family during the weekend.

I'd like to say that things should calm down now, but with Christmas coming in about three and a half weeks it doesn't seem likely that it will work out that way.

Ring Bearer Pillow

So the wedding is tomorrow and I got the ring bearer pillow finished up this morning. It came out very well if I do say so myself.
In keeping with my propensity for never following a pattern exactly, I mitered the corners of the edging lace instead of knitting it in one straight strip, and I grafted the ends together instead of casting on, binding off, and seaming.

My mom sewed the pillow and put a strap on the bottom because she thought it would be easier for Kindon to carry that way.



We'll see how he does with it.

First Etsy Sale!

Today I made my first sale on the Etsy website. The buyer looked at the men's slippers I had listed and requested some further information. Then she ordered a pair. Naturally the pair she wanted wasn't the particular pair that I have in stock, so I'll be knitting up a pair of slippers tomorrow while I'm (hopefully) selling (lots of) stuff at the craft fair in Gillespie.

Here is the photo I had posted:

The request I received was for just plain brown, so of course I'll have to buy another skein of brown yarn to have two strands for the slippers. But I guess I can always use the extra as stems for lots of apple hats.

Here's hoping that I'll have many more sales soon.

My New Etsy Site

A while back a friend of mine sent me a link to Etsy.com and suggested that this might be an appropriate sales outlet for many of the handknitted items I have for sale. It has been a hectic summer and early fall, but finally tonight I got my act together and got my shop set up.

Go check it out at www.theknitlady.etsy.com.

My Latest Prayer Shawl

Yesterday I delivered my latest prayer shawl to a 90 year old lady from our church who was having surgery today to clear out her carotid arteries (she did fine and is expected to be released in a day or so). My pastor picked me up, and my grandson was with me so he went along, too. At the end of the visit, Pastor Jeff wanted to offer a prayer, so I said, "Kindon, come over here and let's pray." He came over, took our hands, and stood quietly with his head bowed through the entire prayer. Not bad for a three year old who normally runs at warp speed!

Later on we went to choir rehearsal, and Kindon went along. I had brought along an old "Wee Sing" book for him so he would have his own "music". He walked in like he owned the place, sat right down, opened up his music, and sang along with the adult choir. Maybe soon we'll have to teach him to read music.

Here is the prayer shawl that we delivered. It was made from a full skein of JoAnn Sensations Rainbow Boucle.


So one down, and three more in the pipeline. For some reason I never get quite caught up.

Snowball Hat

A couple of weeks ago I had a booth at a craft fair in Benld. The lady in the booth next to me was very excited when I arrived to open my booth on Saturday morning (we had set up on Friday night and zipped the tent up so we didn't have to get there so early on Saturday). She said that she had been looking all over for me since she had bought one of my fruit hats the year before. By the end of the day, she had bought another fruit hat for her new baby, and placed a special order for two hats "white with something like snowballs". I didn't have anything like that in stock, or even in a pattern ready to go. So, a new pattern is born!

This is the result. I think it came out pretty cute. But I HATE making bobbles! Maybe I'll just write down the pattern and sell it instead of making any more hats.

How Sweet the Sound!

Yesterday, my grandson called me. Well, actually his mommy called and then he wanted to talk on the phone. So she handed over the phone, and instead of talking, he proceeded to sing "Jesus Loves Me" in his sweet little three-year-old voice.

What a special and unexpected lift to my day!

Kindon's New Conveyance

For the last year or so, since gas prices have risen so much, we have been riding our bikes if we have to go somewhere in town, unless it was raining or really cold, or we had to carry something that was too big to fit in a backpack (like a major grocery shopping trip), or if we had Kindon with us. Last week we bought a bike trailer, and now we don't have to take a vehicle in order to accommodate Kindon when he is with us. Here is the new setup:


The first day that I got the trailer assembled, we went to the Muni Band concert on the square. Here's Kindon in the trailer for his first ride:



I was pleasantly surprised at how easy it was to pull the trailer with the bike. Kindon seemed to enjoy it as well. He was obviously tired that evening, and at one point he went back and laid down across the seat of the trailer to rest. After a while he got back up and listened to the rest of the music before we headed for home. I've had him out in the trailer a couple of times since then and really enjoy it.

Kindon at Church

Because Jeremy is working in Baton Rouge for several weeks and Sara had to work today, we had Kindon with us at church this morning and that was a hoot. We used to have him with us almost every Sunday when he was a baby and Sara and Jeremy's work schedules were very hectic, but he hasn't been with us routinely on Sundays for quite a while now. I wasn't really sure how the service would go since he's not used to being with us. He was very good but he had people all around us chuckling.

Every time that Pastor Jeff or the congregation said "Amen" Kindon would say "Amen." The second time he said it I heard a lady behind us whisper "Good boy!". The children's sermon was about the loaves and fishes, and Pastor Jeff passed out Dixie cups with seven goldfish crackers in each one. Kindon came back to the pew, scarfed up the crackers, and handed me the empty cup, saying, "Hungy, Amma!" Fortunately I had packed a snack container of Cheerios so he munched on Cheerios through most of the rest of the service.

At one point Mike sneezed, and Kindon whispered "Bess you, Bapa." Mike didn't reply, so Kindon said "Bess you, Bapa! Bess you, Bapa!" I guess now Mike knows that he'd better respond the first time. Then when the offering was collected, Kindon chucked his book into the offering plate. I guess he didn't totally get the concept but it was close enough.

After church we went home and had lunch. Then I washed and changed Kindon and took him in to lie down for a nap. He wasn't thrilled about the nap idea and started fussing, "I want to go to church! I want to go to church!" Maybe we'll get to take him again next Sunday

What we did on our summer vacation

Because money is tight this year, and gas prices are through the roof, Mike and I have adjusted our vacation plans a couple of times. Originally we were going to take two weeks and go out east to Maine and possibly come back through Canada. When we realized that wasn't going to work with our budget we decided we could camp for a week at Sheboygan, WI (which we've done a few times before and really enjoyed). Then we realized that even that trip was out of reach, so we planned a week of camping and biking at Illini State Park near Marseilles, IL. The park itself is very nice and well-kept. Just over the river in Marseilles is the I & M Canal Bike Trail which provides about seventy miles of interesting bike trails. We've camped here before but usually for only a night on our way to or from Sheboygan. Staying for an entire week was an entirely different proposition.

We had a pretty good vacation overall. Other than we had thunderstorms four of the seven nights we camped and one night the tornado siren went off. And the mosquitoes were big enough to carry off a small child. Altogether we rode a total of about 57 miles during the week. On our third bike ride (on Thursday) I had an unfortunate encounter with a railroad crossing and some gravel and thought that I had broken my knee. Of course we were nine miles from the campground at that point so I had to get back on the bike and ride back to Marseilles, injured knee and all.

Aside from all that it was a fabulous trip! We just have never quite mastered the art of the uneventful vacation.

Hooray! They Have Set a Date!

After several years of discussion and regrouping, I'm delighted to report that Katie and Doug have finally set a wedding date. They will be married on Saturday, November 29 in Carlinville. All of the details have yet to be worked out but the reception is booked (and the down payment made) so the date is definite.

Now the fun begins! Katie already has her wedding dress picked out, but still needs to order it. She has looked at bridesmaid's dresses several times but hasn't found just the right thing yet. And of course there will be a myriad of other plans, choices, and decisions to be made. And this will be my one and only chance to be "mother of the bride" so I guess I need to be figuring out what I need to do as well.

Right now November seems so far away, but I'm sure that it will be here before we know it. On the one hand I can't believe that my little girl is already planning a wedding, and on the other hand, I can't believe that it's taken them so long to set a date. Ah, the perils of motherhood!

Whole Lotta Shakin' Going On!

Well, gee, it happened again. I was awakened again last night by yet another aftershock from Friday's earthquake. Mike slept right through this one, though. Apparently there have been quite a few others that are mild enough not to be noticeable, but after feeling the earth move three times in under 72 hours, I'm beginning to wonder whether a big one is next. I guess I really should be making sure that I have my disaster kit in place and accessible just in case.

I was rather amused on Friday afternoon to read a story in the Alton Telegraph online. Apparently a school administrator at South Roxana Elementary decided that in light of the earthquake it would be expeditious to conduct an earthquake drill during the morning. Imagine the consternation of everyone involved when, halfway through the five-minute drill, the 4.5 magnitude aftershock arrived! The principal was quoted later as saying that it made him a little nervous about planning a tornado drill.

Here's hoping that the next few days don't bring us anything quite this interesting.

Shake, Rattle, and Roll!!

What a wake-up call we got this morning! I was about half-awake when the house began to shake at 4:36 a.m. Mike was sound asleep and jumped about a foot when the shaking started. It seemed to go on and on for a long time, and when it stopped I could hear a hanger swinging back and forth on the closet rod for a while longer. When I got downstairs to the computer, I had an email from dd Katie reassuring us that she and Doug were fine although seriously weirded out by the whole thing.

Then of course there was the aftershock at 10:16. I had gone to a yoga class with our neighbors, and after class we were standing around and discussing our experiences of the early morning, when the walls of the dance studio began to shake, and the vase of flowers on the table began to dance (how appropriate, after all!).

I'm thankful that we had no damage here, or even any falling objects (if you are familiar with the current state of my housekeeping you realize that there is great potential there!). And I'm reminded that I STILL need to get busy on assembling my emergency kit.

I remember in the late 80's when Iben Browning predicted that the New Madrid Fault would produce a severe earthquake on a certain date in early December. Anthony, our youngest son, was just over 3 years old at the time. On the day of the predicted earthquake, he donned an old sailor hat from my uncle's Navy days, and insisted on wearing it all day "for protection from falling objects". It must have worked well since nothing fell on his head. Wonder where the sailor hat is now??

Exciting News!

I got some really exciting news today! I was notified that I am one of 14 family child care providers selected to receive a full scholarship (registration, meals, travel and accommodations) to attend the National Association for Family Child Care's annual conference in Chicago in July. I'm really excited to be attending this conference! I had really wanted to go since it is so close this year (the last few years it has been in Florida, California, and Kansas) but I knew I couldn't afford it on my own.

We'll be leaving from Springfield on Thursday evening, July 17, and returning on Saturday evening, July 19. Peter Yarrow of Peter, Paul, and Mary is the keynote speaker on Friday. There will be many sessions covering all aspects of family child care, from the basics all the way to national credentials and accreditation. I can't wait to get there!

My Latest Knitting Project: an original baby blanket

I just finished up a baby blanket that I have been working on for a few weeks from an original pattern which I designed. I was sitting in church one morning when the inspiration for this pattern came to me (sorry, Pastor Jeff!!). It is unique in that it is knitted from the center outward; the center portion is knitted in garter stitch with a double strand of yarn, and the border is knitted in two-color double-knitting. I enjoyed making it so much that I have decided to make another one, using a different color and a different pattern for the two-color border. My plan is to add photos of both when I get the second one finished, and then I'll be looking for pattern testers as I am actually hoping at some point to have the pattern published.

An Actual Post About Knitting

In looking over the recent posts in this blog, I noticed that while the title of the blog is "the knitlady" I have included very few posts that were actually specifically about knitting. So I decided that it's time to post something that actually pertains to knitting.

I've been knitting since the age of nine. When I was ten I knitted a blue sweater which I actually wore a few times before I outgrew it. During high school I started taking my knitting to school, where I first knitted in study hall and then eventually started knitting during classes. The first Christmas that I was married I made an afghan for my new in-laws, which impressed them to no end. When I was first pregnant, I knitted an outfit and a sweater set and crocheted a blanket which I used to bring each of my three sons home from the hospital. (Katie never wore the coming-home outfit since she was born at home.) Over the years there have been times when I knitted quite a bit and other times when I hardly knitted at all. The past several years I've been in a pretty much constant knitting phase again. My kids tease me about knitting in my sleep (I really don't!) and knitting while I'm reading, but they all like the hand-knitted socks that they receive occasionally for Christmas or other special occasions. My daughter Katie once introduced me to a friend that she had brought home as "my mom who is a knitaholic". (Katie knows how to knit, too, but she rarely admits it any more.) And everyone who knows me knows that I don't like to drive because it cuts into my knitting time.

I've had many people comment to me that they "don't have the patience" to knit. Well, I'd have to say that in all honesty I don't have the patience to NOT knit. I find that I am much calmer and more focused with knitting in my hands than without; therefore the knitting goes with me almost everywhere I go. It's a great stress reliever under less than ideal circumstances and I've learned to keep a bag packed with some sort of project at all times, in case of emergencies. This habit served me well when Mike had his heart attack, as I grabbed the knitting bag on my way out the door to the hospital. When we got him home three days later and I unpacked the bag, I had 14 dishcloths finished. So I managed my stress levels while simultaneously adding to my craft show stock. It doesn't get much more efficient than that!

The only thing I haven't figured out yet is how to knit while I'm blogging.

A Brief Taste of Spring

For months now I've been anxiously awaiting the arrival of spring weather. I'm just not a winter person at all. If I had my way, snow would be limited to Christmas Eve so that the holiday "purists" could have their white Christmas, and then we would have spring starting the first week in January. But alas, winter has continued to plague us despite my repeated impassioned pleas to the Almighty for "sunny and warmer" weather.

Last Sunday we had "sunny and warmer" in all its glory. The high temperature hit 78 degrees, all of the residual snow piles and the ice in our driveway melted away, and the sun shone brightly on our smiling faces. We spent hours outside on Sunday afternoon doing long overdue yard work and soaking up the sunshine.

Unfortunately our one "spring" day was nothing but a cruel hoax, as it cooled off dramatically and rained all day yesterday, and today we were "blessed" with six inches of the fluffy white stuff again. Winter has struck again with a vengeance and it is all the more difficult after the brief taste of spring we were teased with on Sunday.

Please let spring come soon!

Help! The Ceiling Is Falling!!

Yesterday evening, our grandson Kindon brought his mommy Sara and daddy Jeremy over to eat dinner at our house. In fact, Sara cooked for us (burgers and hot dogs on the grill). After we had eaten and they hung out for a while, it was time for them to go home. Mike and I walked them out to their respective vehicles and as we walked back in the front door, there was a rumble and a crash and parts of the living room ceiling came tumbling down on our heads. When the dust had settled (and there was LOTS of dust!) slightly more than half of the suspended ceiling tiles had fallen down. Upon inspection we discovered that when the suspended ceiling was installed (some time prior to our purchasing the house 28 years ago) the grid had been supported by wires that were nailed to the original plaster ceiling (instead of by screws which is the correct way to install suspended ceiling grid) and a couple of the nails had pulled loose and allowed the gridwork to collapse. Needless to say, the next few evenings will be spend repairing the gridwork and replacing tiles, and we'll have to order replacements for the tiles that were broken as they fell. After that is finished, we'll be reinforcing the gridwork in every other suspended ceiling in the house to make sure that this doesn't happen again.

We are very thankful that the ceiling didn't fall five minutes earlier when Kindon would have been underneath it and could have been seriously injured by falling tiles/gridwork. Maybe now things could just calm down a little bit and not be so interesting for a while.......please, God?

The World's Cutest Grandson

I love being a grandma. It's even more fun than being a mom (and I loved being a mom, too). The best part is that after I'm done spoiling my grandson completely rotten I get to send him home. Since Kindon is currently our only grandchild he gets plenty of spoiling.

Last year at Christmas he was really a little young to "get" the idea of presents, but we thought surely this year at 2 1/2 he would grasp the concept. However, we were very surprised when he showed absolutely no interest whatsoever in opening any packages at all. We got together on Christmas Day at my parents' house, and after a sumptuous dinner it was time to open presents. Kindon had a stack of packages but was completely uninterested in any of them. Repeated efforts throughout the day failed to entice him to see what might be inside any of the pretty packages. Finally, very late in the afternoon, we were able to convince him to open one package which came from my sister in Florida. The package contained a gift card holder which played music whenever he opened it, and that finally got his attention. He opened and shut the card numerous times until we were all thoroughly tired of hearing the repeated music. But despite his delight with this gift he still wasn't interested in opening any more packages. Eventually before he went home he managed to at least open everything.

There is never a dull moment when Kindon is around. A couple of weeks ago I was taking care of him for the day because Jeremy and Sara were both working. After a quick trip to the bathroom I looked around and he was nowhere to be seen. Upon further investigation I found him kneeling in the kitchen sink, happy as a clam and soaking wet, with the cold water running full force and the sink sprayer spraying water all over the kitchen. He wasn't very happy when I took him out of the sink, stripped his wet clothes off and dried him off. I put him in his spare clothes but didn't have a spare pair of socks for him so he had to go barefoot until I could get his wet clothes dried. Every few minutes he would come over to me and lift up his bare foot to remind me that he didn't have any socks on, and I would remind him that he was the one who got his socks wet in the first place. I have to give him points for creativity, though, since this was one thing that none of my four kids ever thought to do when they were little.

When Kindon was born, I told Jeremy that if he was as smart as Jeremy had been that he and Sara would definitely have their hands full. It appears that my prediction was correct, because Kindon is very smart, and he is indeed a handful at times. But he is a delightful little boy and he has brightened all of our lives more than I can say.

Did I mention that I love being a grandma?

Why I Haven't Been Blogging

Okay, so it has been a couple of months since I actually posted a blog entry here. I haven't really forgotten to post, but life has been REALLY hectic for a while (even more than usual). Right after Thanksgiving I had a request from my grandson's mommy to knit Christmas stockings for her niece and nephews. She picked out the patterns and I bought the yarn, and I thought we were good. Unfortunately along with everything else going on, it took a lot longer than I had expected to get the stockings done, so I was knitting every spare moment right up until Christmas Eve.

Meanwhile, my Aunt Pat had fallen and broken her hip at the beginning of December. Due to pre-existing medical issues she wasn't able to have surgery immediately to repair her hip, and her condition rapidly deteriorated. Unfortunately she passed away in early January.

Right after Christmas I left for a week on a mission trip with three other members of my church, along with my brother, Ron. We had an incredible week doing drywall finishing, painting, and cleanup at two houses in Slidell, LA, which had been heavily damaged during Hurricane Katrina. An awesome experience, but, again, not much time for blogging.

Then just as I thought things were going to calm down and be reasonable again (I'm not sure why I ever think that any more), my dear husband Mike suffered a serious heart attack on Super Tuesday, right after voting. (I think that definitely says something about our choices in this election!) He was transported to Carlinville Area Hospital for initial treatment before being transferred to St. John's Hospital in Springfield. During catheterization it was determined that he had a 90% blockage of one major artery in the heart and a stent was placed at that time. The Springfield doctor said that the excellent emergency treatment he received in Carlinville did much to reduce the severity and long-term consequences of the attack. He was released from the hospital on Friday, February 8, and has been doing very well ever since.

So now that I've pretty much given up on the idea of my life ever being calm and under control, I decided that the first thing I needed to do was get the blog going again. I still have lots of cool knitting tales and grandson stories to share, and one of these days I'll actually figure out how to post photos here too.

Meanwhile, Mike's doctors have said that it's important to have plenty of fiber, so I guess I need to go buy yarn.