Random Thoughts and Pictures

This is a picture of my wonderful dog Max. He is more human than dog. He is pouting in his "crib" because his father has gone away for a few days. Max feels very deeply as do most Golden Retrievers. After my Mother-in-Law left last week after a three week visit, Max just laid down on the laundry room floor and wouldn't even open his eyes to look at me. Not even when I tried to rub his belly! He was devastated. Not even a walk perked him up.

On my needles is this beautiful drop stitch shawl. It is in a beautiful silver/gray with tiny black specks in it. I am by far into more natural fibers but this yarn was so different and fun, plus it was 60% off at a store that was closing. It has been in my stash for several years. I think it will look fantastic to wear with jeans and a white shirt, or black pants. The picture doesn't do the color justice. More pictures to follow upon completion, which will be any day now.

Why do teenagers spend so much time not doing what they are supposed to? If they would just get it done then they would end up having more time, and frankly so would I.

Why do teenagers lie about such simple things then expect you to trust them with the car?

My husband is away this week for a workshop. He is the main cook in our house so this is a bit of a challenge for me. I made this blueberry pie with Agave Nectar as the sweetener because my son and I are hypoglycemic. It smells great and looks fantastic, I will tell you later how it tastes. I have been preparing meals today so that I am not overwhelmed this week. With work and the swim schedule at our house, dinners are hard to fix.

This beautiful shawl drying on a towel was taken off my loom this week. Very fun cotton yarn. I think it would have been better suited for a shell/tank top. I think a slightly more fuzzy yarn is better for the loom. So I decided to try the rest of this beautiful llama yarn I used for a sweater last year. Remember I bought this at Rhinebeck with my sister a few years ago. Still love the color and the softness.

If it is cold here in Florida I feel bad for all of you north of here. I do miss the snow a bit, okay, just a little bit.

Whoever said Motherhood was easy was crazy.

Why did God make it so your kids are going through puberty and you are going through menopause all at the same time? Is that some sort of sick joke?

Maybe my Title should be Crazy Thoughts and Pictures.

Dinah

In keeping with my trend to not post about knitting on my knitting blog.... what is that all about anyway? I would like to introduce you to my very favorite, precious, possession, Dinah.

Dinah belonged to my Grandmother's sister Rhoda. Rhoda was the youngest of my Grandmother's sisters. She was the pride and joy of a large farm family. My Grandmother was a brave woman. She decided to attend nursing school in the days when women did not aspire to do anything but the very important job of raising a family. Grandma was tiny but fiercely independent. While she was at nursing school she was called home to take care of two of her sisters Maggie and Rhoda who had the flu. Not just any flu but the terrible flu that took so many lives. Rhoda and Maggie died within days of each other, if I recall the story correctly. Even intensive nursing by my Grandmother could not save them. Rhoda was 16, and I don't believe my Grandmother ever got over her death.

Rhoda was given this doll by her family. You have to understand that they were not very wealthy and certainly did not have extra money to throw away on a doll. My Grandmother made all of her clothing and her lovely purl necklace. She even has lovely undergarments as any fine, upstanding, young lady should.

I am not sure if you can tell by this picture that Dinah has her feet on backward. It is blurry but I think you can still see the big toes are in the wrong place. I think that Grandma's family probably got her for a bargain as she did not have clothes and her feet were on wrong. That just makes her all the more special.

Grandma kept Dinah wrapped in a blanket and a plastic sheet in her closet when I was growing up. Every time I stayed with her she would unwrap Dinah and tell me about her sister Rhoda. When I was very little Dinah scared me to death! As I got older she became more and more special to me.

When I inherited Dinah a few years after my Grandmother's death I was speechless. She is an amazing beauty. I had a glass case made for her. She is standing on the antique music stand in my bedroom. The music stand is also from my Grandmother's family. My room is always dim so that Dinah never fades or disintegrates from the sun.

I hope you like her as much as I do. Thanks Grandma.

Old is New Again

While I am knitting away and for some reason not posting about what I am knitting I decided to show you some very special knitting items I have received as gifts. The needles above are from my wonderful friend Stacey. These were her grandmothers wooden size 12 needles. Did you read right? I said size 12. You can not buy size 12 needles. They come in 10 1/2, 11 and 13. So these are very special. The first time she showed them to me my mouth dropped to the floor. They have a lovely green wooden knob on the end. I have no idea how old they are, but they are amazing. After my reaction Stacey felt only I could appreciate them. I agree!!!! However, Stacey has a beautiful daughter and I know they should be hers.... eventually. When she starts knitting I will turn them over to her with love. But for now I love to have them displayed.
This antique wood swift was given to me by my friend Beth. I think it is so beautiful. It would be a lovely place to display pictures, but I think I like it in it"s natural form. I have it right nest to my size 12 needles in my living room.

Life has been very busy here with extra work, my Mother-in-Law visiting from chilly Wisconsin, and trying to get my oldest son to study for finals. Now for a nice long weekend which will hopefully provide lots of time to knit.

Haiti

I have been taking some pictures of some of my very favorite things in my home. I was going to post about them yesterday but ran out of time. Now I feel sort of silly blogging about an ornamental item when there has been so much devastation for so many people in Haiti. I realize that our lives go on but I just can't seem to get the horrible images of destruction and lost lives out of my head.

I feel a profound sadness for the lovely people of Haiti that struggle so much with life in general. It seems so unfair that they have to deal with more than their fair share. I hope that the world, and especially the United States all pull together in prayer and financial assistance so that we can all create a better place for these people to live in.

I will post about favorite things another day, today I think I need to reflect on the tremendous loss a whole nation is experiencing.

All Caught Up

My bags are done!!!!! They are based on the Noro bag pattern that I have blogged about in the past. The pinkish one is for my son's swim coach and the one below for the lovely woman in charge of the swim team. Getting a Christmas present on Jan. 7 isn't that bad is it?

I have a bruise on my thumb from sewing in the liner. I decided after making a bag for my sister Claudia and myself that just sewing in with regular thread wasn't working. The thread would break apart after anything was placed in the bag. The knitting gives, but the fabric doesn't, as you can see not a match made in heaven. So now I am sewing the liner in with elastic beading thread. It seems to work much better but is much harder to sew with.

I love that they are completed and I can move onto some new projects. I really hope they like them.

This is the completed shawl. What do you think of my first success off my loom?

It's Cold.....

It is really cold out. I know that everyone in the country has it worse than me, but it is cold as far as Florida is concerned. The last two mornings as I have left for work it has been 34 degrees out. Yes, we have frost, just enough to kill all my new landscaping, and turn everything brown. I know people are under miles of snow and ice, but 34 is chilly for Floridians with very thin blood. The high today 44 degress, burrr....

Florida always feels chillier than the actual temperature is in the winter. The humidity makes you drenched in sweat in the summer and makes the air feel much cooler in the winter. There is also a breeze so the two mixed together makes it feel about 10 degrees colder. I think it is funny that we have a wind chill index in Florida, but we do.

My Mother-in-law just arrived form Wisconsin. She is amazed at the chill, still it is warmer then where she came from. I know if I am this chilled that all of you must be absolutely frozen. So all I can say is stay inside, cozy up under a blanket and knit!

Hooray for 2010!

Happy New Year to everyone! Good-bye 2009, we wish you well, but now we are all ready to start anew. Speaking of starting anew, last night I finally completed the shawl that has been on my loom for months, and months, and months. I have been working on it a lot this past week since I have been off of work, and Christmas is over. I have really enjoyed the process and have learned a lot on what to do and what not to do.

I have tried to finish things up for 2009 so I could start over fresh for the New Year. Yesterday I took down the Christmas decorations and cleaned so I could start off fresh and clean. I ended up having time on my hands so I went to work on making fringe and removing this shawl. The lighting is horrible as the loom is in my bedroom and it was dark out when I took the pictures, but you get the idea. I wet it down and when it dries I will post pictures of the finished product.

So today I am going to start with a new project on the loom with this beautiful Cotton I bought while in North Carolina last year. It is Arucania 100 % cotton from Chile. I love the color and think it will make a very unique shawl. After the movies this afternoon I will be starting my new project.

I am still diligently working on the last Noro bag, I know not everything was wrapped up in 2009. I'll be working on that later during some football watching time.

Happy New Year!