Thanks

 These are for you.  I want you all to take this gift from the Gulf of Mexico for all your extraordinary comments and positive thoughts regarding my son's situation.

 I picked these up on my walk on the beach....aren't they spectacular?  The sea provides us with so many gifts.  And you my dear blog friends provide me with even more.  I never thought when I went for my walk to clear my head, that I would find the most therapy from all of you.  You comments have brought tears to my eyes, thank you for your honesty and your wonderful thoughts.

We are so, so lucky.  My sons are healthy, we have a home with food and water.  We aren't worried about a tsunami and radiation exposure.  My sons are home right now on spring break, sleeping, safely.  This is a bump in the road for my oldest, and one that I know will make him stronger.  He will come out on top because I think the Universe acts that way.  And you are right something needs to be done about the coach and we are thinking about it.  But for now I am thinking about the best place for my son to swim and blossom under positive coaching.  And I am thinking about how truly lucky I am to have all of you out there in blog land, caring.

Therapy

 Today, I was in need of some serious therapy.  I hope you don't mind if I ramble a bit, but there is a lot on my mind.  I needed a morning walk in the sand.  I needed to smell the fresh salt air and cleanse myself and my thoughts.  This is the lovely Honeymoon Island, in Dunedin, Florida, just about 25 minutes from my house.

 I don't think I have ever drove to the beach by myself, and just meandered around, taking pictures, sitting on a swing, and looking at shells.  This has been a big week in our house after 3 very tough years.  All is good, so I don't want to sound all dramatic, but I think we are now turning the corner to a frustrating time in our lives.  As you know my boys are swimmers, and the lovely young man living with us is here specifically to train with the swim coach, my oldest son has.  This coach has been here for 3 years, and has really treated my oldest son very poorly.  And I don't mean just a little bit, but has demeaned him, degraded him and made him feel much less of himself as a swimmer, and a person.  I don't want to get into too many details, but we have tried, and tried again to get my son to leave, yet he has always stayed for his friends.

 It has worn us all out, and we have told our son all the things the coach says are untrue, that he is good, worthy, and an exceptional swimmer.  We have tried to figure all of this out, and the best we can come up with is not all coaches are good people, actually quite a few aren't.  And if you get one, who has a huge ego, that has not been stroked by us parents, well then you get a coach who picks on one particular child to see if he can break him.  I have had many swimmers, and other coaches tell me what the main coach has said to my son, it would make you gasp in horror if I told you. Yet, we could not convince our son to leave.  First, he felt he could handle it, then he wanted to protect the other kids on the team.  Finally, I think it became so common that my boy was used to it.  We tried to talk to the coach, and most definitely kept talking to our son.  It would be better for a while then something would set the coach off, nothing to  do with my son of course, and he would be at it again.  Sounds like an abusive relationship does it not?

 You must think we are crazy to let this abuse go on.  There were not a lot of options for a swimmer like my boy in this area.  My son knew this, so he would not make the move.  You can not force a 15/16/17 year old to leave a team.  He is a pretty good swimmer, and if we forced him to leave, and he didn't do well, then he would blame us for the rest of our lives.  It is sort of like being in a bad relationship, all your friends can see how horrible it is, but you can't make the move to leave until you are ready.  There was no one to complain to, without possibly ruining my boys chances in the future.  We have been stuck, waiting it out, waiting, and waiting.

 Finally, on Thursday he decided he wasn't going to go back.  He hasn't been sleeping, his grades have dropped as things have gotten worse.  The coach hasn't been rude to my son just recently, but he has his favorites and he lets them do whatever they want, even if they cheat, or do far worse.  Injustice is in itself a form of abuse.  Finally, he has had enough.  I am not sure what the future has in store for my son, but I know that he will be in a better place, anywhere he goes.  I don't care if the new coaches don't make hard enough workouts, or challenges my son physically, mentally he will be in a better place.  Hopefully, he can work this out and mentally regain his self worth as a swimmer, he is far too talented to give up.  We are looking into other teams, even one in Sarasota 1 1/2 hours away, but anything will be better than what he has been through.

I had to clear my head about all of this today.  You know if you are a mother or you mother others, that mother GUILT is a terrible thing.  Could I have changed anything?  Could I have made it better?  I don't know, and I probably won't ever know. It is hard to think of how I would have handled it differently, especially when you are emotionally involved.

My son is growing up before my eyes.  This is by far the toughest decision he has ever made.  I am so proud of him.  Not knowing the future can be terrifying, but I think the Universe provides for us, and my son will make it despite all of this.  Or maybe he will make it because of all of this.  Please keep him in your positive thoughts.

Quick

 I would like to thank each and everyone of you for your very kind comments about my flower shawl.  It is so fun to share with people who can really appreciate your hard work, and frankly your obsession.  That is another reason I love blogging so much, so many wonderful, creative people who are just as obsessed as I am.  And who do not think I am crazy at all for spending any spare moment I have doing something with yarn.

 As I had quite a bit of yarn left over I decided to make a flower scarf.  I ended up making 11 flowers, with various color combinations.  It was fast and so fun.  This is more of the original pattern I received for the Japanese Flower Shawl.  I tweaked mine to make the shawl, so it was fun to do something a tiny bit different for this scarf.  I can imagine myself wearing this scarf all spring and summer, can't you?  Such as easy project to make if you just want to experiment with the flowers and different colors.

 And what could all this grey be doing all rolled up and ready to go?  You guessed it shawl number 2 is already getting started.  I am using two strands of the light, and two strands of the dark grey held together to make the same thickness as the variegated grey located on top.  I can't even tell you what brand the solid alpaca is as I bought it directly out of the shipping box from my LYS.  The variegated grey is Cascade Farms Eco Duo in color 1703.  This is the same yarn I made several Queen Anne Lace Scarves with, and I am still as in love with it as I was before.    It is made from 70% baby alpaca and 30% undyed wool.  It is so soft you just want to hold it forever and never let it go. 

 Six flowers are complete already.  This shawl will have a totally different feel to it then the Berroco Primo Cotton shawl.  Each flower will be constructed the same exact way, the color change will be subtle and only on the outside, petal portion of the flowers.  This is where I am using the Cascade Farms yarn, so the changes will be enough to add interest, and depth but still be very subtle. 

 These two flowers are a great example of the slight color variation.  As these flowers are made of thicker yarn, I decided to add one more round to the pattern, so I will have three rows to the pattern instead of four like the first shawl.  I have gone from using an H hook to a J so that in itself will make a bigger flower. 

I'm not sure when the flower obsession will end,  Actually I'm not sure I want it to.

How are all your projects coming along on this fine Tuesday?

Finished

 I am finished!!!!!!!!  You do not know how happy that makes me.  The Japanese inspired crochet flowered shawl is done, and I might add quite beautiful.

Above is a flower before I steamed it to flatten it out.  Cotton is so fun that way, a little steam and some stretching and you have a lovely flower.

 This picture is after a bit of stretching.  You can see the green one to the left has not been touched yet, so it is for lack of a better term, kind of wonky and crinkled up.

 Since I am the only one home, and I am in my workout clothes, I decided that this chair was the best option to show off the beauty of this shawl.  My other outdoor furniture is damp because of morning condensation, so you get my old, antique kitchen chair.

Sorry this picture is tilted, it is making me a bit sea sick, but you get the idea of how beautiful these flowers are.  I know they are everywhere in blog land, but I am still pretty thrilled with the overall product.  I made this from Berroco Primo Cotton.  I had 9 different colors, I started out with 10 but didn't like the bright cream color I had, so I cut that flower out, and replaced it early on in the project.

Each flower is approximately 5 inches in diameter.  The shawl is 19 " wide, and 64 " long at the top.  It is

 84 " long at the bottom as there are several more flowers in this row.

I just kept putting the shawl around me as I went along and kind of guessed at the length.  What I forgot to remember is that once the flowers are blocked they get a lot bigger.  It is still a great length for me as I am almost 5'10", and I always think a bit longer shawl is better than one that is too short. 

I am going to start on shawl #2 soon, in shades of grey, I think it will be beautiful.  I also have yarn left over from this shawl so I am making a flower scarf to finish all that up.   I have now completed 16 projects in 2011.  After the flower scarf is complete it will be a long time before the next shawl or the knitted dress is finished. Oh, yes I forgot about that knitted summer dress, better get moving on that, also.  So many projects and so little time.

Hope you have a wonderful weekend and find time to do something you really love.



Flowers

 I finally got some time to work on my shawl yesterday.  I find it interesting that so many people in crochet blog land have been fascinated by these beautiful Japanese crochet flowers these past few months.  Now watching what is going on in Japan, it just makes me even sadder to see all the horrible loss these beautiful people are experiencing.  I'm sure this has been said a million times in every blog out there, it just particularly struck me last night as I was watching CNN and crocheting a flower.  The devastation is too huge to even wrap my mind around.  I have kept quiet about this for a while, because it is easy to put it aside in my mind for a bit, but not for very long.

 I am three flowers away from completing my shawl.  I am thrilled with the beauty of it.  I love the colors and the weight of the cotton yarn.  As I rejoice in this beautiful project I feel so bitter sweet.  I am sitting  in my warm home, crocheting while so many are homeless, they have lost everything. 

So I pray for these amazing people.  I send cooling thoughts to the nuclear plants that are over heating.  I send positive thoughts of health and survival to all those who need it.  I send the rescuers strength to help those in need.  And I send money...at least I can do that.

Progress

Progress knitting the fab summer dress = none.

Progress on my lovely crochet flower shawl = none.

Progress on the lovely new young love my son is experiencing = wonderful.  His lovely girl friend came to a big family dinner on Sunday, she is just the cutest.

Hope you are making more progress than I am.

Random Sunday

 My boy has had a lovely bath today.  It is one of his older brother's jobs.  He loves to play in the hose, but won't go in the swimming pool.  He fell in as a puppy and was in a total of 5 seconds but it has scared him for life.  He loves a bath, that is until he has to stay outside and dry off a bit.  That is where all the fun ends.

 I finally got a picture of Max with a smile on his face.  Apparently the door between the camera and him is the answer.  This is how my sweet boy usually looks until that dreaded camera comes out.  He actually closes his eyes when I put the camera up in front of my face.  I guess all future photos of Max will have to be taken behind the sliding glass door.

 23 completed flowers!!!!!!!! Can I tell you how happy that makes me?  I really love this project.  It is so much fun trying to figure out the right color combinations, and repeating those that you really love.  I think the shawl will take somewhere around 60 flowers, so I have a long, long way to go.  I am tall so I really have to make a longer shawl to go with my height.  I have had quite a bit of time this weekend to work on this, so I have made a lot of progress.  My week is looking busy so my crochet time is about to be drastically cut back. Bummer!

As I have been so busy crocheting, I have not been busy knitting.  This is the dress I am knitting.  There is only 2 inches completed.  So again, I have a long way to go.  This project has been in my car.  I usually have something much smaller for my car project, like a scarf, not a dress.  However, at least it is available for when I am in car line or at swim practice.  

Today I met my oldest son's first girl friend.  He was a nervous wreck bringing her to the house.  I think we are pretty nice parents, but apparently we just might not be cool enough.  She is lovely.  Ah..... young love is so special isn't it?  I hope it lasts a bit as he really seems to like her.  Going on real dates, not dates in a group is serious business.  He actually had to meet her parents, get her home on time, etc.  I guess it shows that he is growing up, maturing, and making some nice choices.  It is so lovely to see.

Hope your weekend has been healthy and happy.  So many people in blog land have been ill, so I wish you all a speedy recovery.  Hope you have found time to do something you love before your busy week begins.

Flowers, Flowers Everywhere

 I have been busy.  Actually, I have been very busy, you just can't tell from these photos.  The Japanese Flower Shawl is coming along slowly.  It takes me a bit a of time to complete one of these flowers, so the fact I have 11 completed is frankly amazing.  I would have had 12, but I apparently can't count to 12.  On the brown, beige and red flower I have 13 petals.  Well that wasn't a tragedy as I can keep it on the outside and no one will know.  But unfortunately I did it again in the middle, with the light green flower, and I had to rip it apart.  Maybe I need to go back to preschool and work on counting to 12.

 I really like some of the color combinations and others I am not too crazy about.  I plan on repeating many of the flowers, as I am assuming I will be making about  49 of these before I am done.  For some reason I am having a more difficult time with the color combinations than I thought I would.  Hopefully it will get easier as I go along.

 I thought I would send you some photos of my garden.  It is starting to fill in a bit and not look so newly planted.  We have had unseasonably warm weather for the Spring.  It is lovely after a chilly winter.  But on the other hand, summer is so hot and humid here that I am not ready to jump into it so quickly.  A lovely day like today with the high of 72 degrees and low humidity is perfect.

 My geranium is in full, beautiful bloom.  She sits right outside of my kitchen window.  I love to see her beautiful color when I am sitting at my table in the morning drinking some tea.

And finally, number 15 is complete.  I forced myself to sew this hexagon bag together on Sunday.  It was a bit boring and tedious, especially as there were crochet flowers tempting me every time I turned around.  I felted it that very day and put it outside to dry.  Note to self:  Remember to bring drying felted item inside before it rains.  Yes, it got all wet again and must have absorbed a gallon of rain water.  It has taken til today to get some what dry.  And unfortunately it smelled musty so I put it in the dryer for a quick spin with a dryer sheet.  It is looking much better now.  I attached the handles with a piece of felt and buttons just like in my previous bag.  I should have taken a closer picture to show you.  Hope you like the final product.

Have a wonderful week and find some time to do the things you really love.