Katz is 27 - Apron Time

I never made Kathryn an apron and I think she is the last one of my girls to get one, so here it is. I found this great fabric last year when the Hubby and I went to the quilt garden display in Livermore.
the chevron is my fave. I wrote a little about that beautiful nursery garden here. The ancient oak trees were probably the most impressive part of the whole event.

This picture is of the front pocket and I made a funky large pocket with just one initial and a new whisk embroidery pattern that I had purchased previously.  I was excited to move the whisks around and change their sizes so that they fit on the pocket and around the "K" just right. I'm getting more and more comfortable with my Bernina 830 embroidery machine. IT IS AMAZING.

Katz is pregnant right now, so the apron will have to wait a couple months to be worn.

All kinds of funky embellishments make it look both retro and modern at once. It was a fun one to put together. 

Project from 30 Years Ago

When I was recently in Colorado at my sisters home, I noticed al long (too long) skinny baby bunting that sorta looked familiar.

Sure enough, when I looked at it a bit more closely I thought that at one point about 30years ago I remembered staring at this yellow yarn for a few weeks as it passed through my fingers and onto the knitting needles to make this for my new little nephew. 

My first attempt  at  cable stitches and I see a few mistakes. I'm sure I still see plenty of mistakes in my work, but the noticeable ones are now easier to fix than they used to be, as my expertise has increased.

I probably knitted a little tighter then than I do now and I also followed the length guidelines without taking that into account. Hence the longer than wide result. Cute little hood.
I think todays patterns of a bunting would include a little slit near a third of the way up to put a seatbelt thorough, but back then nothing of the sort would have even been thought of yet.
What a nice Aunt I was. ;-)
What a nice sister I have to have kept it for posterity.

She's Gettin' Married in the Springtime

It has taken me far too long to do a post about my DD getting engaged. It happened last month and we knew it would happen even the month before when her now betrothed had a talk with The Hubby about asking her.

Jon came with Stephanie to our home in December and we enjoyed getting to know him better.

We spent a very beautiful day in the "City by the Bay" exploring the sites.

Then in January, on the 12th which is her lucky # he asked her to marry him. 

They are very excited and planning a June wedding.  

I'd better go get busy with some sewing for the blessed event. (Can I say that about a non birth?)

Congratulations to OUR beautiful Stephanie and her Jonathan Bjornn!

White Christmas

I didn't have to dream of a White Christmas this year.
The Hubby and I traveled to Colorado to spend the holiday with our middle child.  #4 met us there as well and the snow came to us.

But first, we shared Christmas morning with these cute little chillens.

Such excitement in our lives!!!

 Team work

And look at this one!!

On Christmas day we woke up to a couple inches of snow on the ground and the beauty of it was not lost on us.

 Don't you just love it when the snow sticks to all the tiny branches and makes the world glisten.

Katz got a great lens for her camera and she took some amazing pictures that she will be posting soon, since she is on bed rest now so she doesn't have a baby at 32 weeks. Hint hint, Katz?

 Overlooking Black Lake outside of Ouray, CO. What a WONDERFUL setting for a mountain home.

And inside this magnificent home of my brother and sister-in-law are some pretty wonderful people.

Thanks Uncle Steve and Aunt Connie. We had a great week in between the 2 holidays!

Happy New Year!!!  2013 here we come.

Katz or Steph, if you have a pix f the house from the other side of the lake, send it my way?

TX

Finally Finished - Mom's Pi Shawl

A couple of years ago I posted about a project that I was working on. Here is the post regarding that crazy, lacy, sea foam green/turquoise, and difficult Pi Shawl I was working on for my sweet mother. 

As time consuming as each row was, I was excited to finish each step along the way, although admittedly, I did put it on the back burner for months at times as I was busy with other pressing projects that didn't require as constant attention as this one. 

Now after about 3 years, I have at last finished it. I will take it to my Mother and deliver it by hand for Valentines Day.

After edging for 7/8ths of the way around the circle.

Layed out and ready for blocking. The edges look ruffled instead of pointed at this time.

48 inches of center design

Blocking the edges to make sure each point is made apparent.

Center medallion and initial 8 spokes being formed.

After blocking, this Pi Shawl in my mothers favorite color is ready for any roundish table or to be folded and put around her shoulders.
I hope she can see it well enough to appreciate how much effort she is worthy of.

Scarfs on the List

Two of the granddaughters wanted a scarf for Christmas and so I made a couple of them. Lex wanted a "Sparkle Scarf" and I was unsure of what that meant, so I just bought some yarn that had glittery edging  and was a bright color.

I think she likes it and her mom sent this cute picture of her wearing it to school the next day, so I'd say she got her Sparkle Scarf. It is bright pink and basically looks red unless you put it up against a real red and then you can see that it could be pink.

She looks cute in it.

Elles is the other granddaughter that had a scarf on her list, and she apparently borrows her mothers each time she enters her closet, so her mom told me a grownup scarf was requested.
I always have some yarn that I can use for a small project, and so I pulled this neutral/ yet semi-colorful yarn out and made a cable knit scarf for her.

 It's a 24 stitch double cable that I found online and I just surrounded it with a garter stitch that is 5 stitches wide on both ends so that the edges didn't roll.  I  didn't make it very long - it's about 24 inches long by 8 inches wide,  so it will be able to not drag or get caught when she is playing. (She is just 4 years old anyway (almost))

The scarf is then folded over with ends overlapping asymmetrically and then sewn closed with a shank type button for decoration.

 She loves it and it looks really cute on her.

Photo Organization

I have been very remiss in keeping my blog updated the past several months, mostly because of my own photo issues. In explanation of this there are several items that have contributed. I'm just going to list them out here, and maybe it will straighten them out in my mind so that I'll be able to attack them in an organized manner.
     1.  A minor problem I have is that I don't take pictures as much as I used to since many of my children have nice cameras now.  We used to be the go to for pictures and now during family get togethers there are usually several people taking pictures so I tend to not want to ask for more poses.
If I'm going to not take pictures, I need to ask for more copies from the kids and people that are taking those pictures, or enlist the effort of the Hubby who is the best eye in my house anyway.

     2.  My new laptop computer isn't where I store the pictures, so as I work on blogs, Facebook, etc., I often don't have access to my pictures, so I put off doing things until I want to sit at my desk to work with the pictures.
   To solve this problem, I need to share access with both computers, and perhaps place them all on an offsite location so that no matter where I am or what computer I'm on, I'll have access to the pictures.

     3.  I am often in too much of a hurry at the end of a project to take pictures, 'cause I need to get the project in the mail, or package for wrapping and subsequent unwrapping. This has always been the case as I tend to work under the gun and this procrastination leads to last minute completion of projects. Personality flaw alert.  I think that is why I don't do food blogging. There are too many stops in a project, and I generally don't have time to stop, because I didn't plan the extra time into my schedule. I tend to think I can get more done in an hour than is humanly possible, so the next hour and hence the next thing to be done is always upon me.
How do I fix this? Maybe don't try to take on so many projects. What an idea.

I think I can try to consult with or hire someone to help me with a couple of these issues. If anyone reading this has any ideas for me about what works for them, let me know.

I will try to do a few catch up posts anyway and they'll probably be short, sweet ones. Thanks for listening.