
BLUE BALLOONS = BOY GRAND BABIES ARE ON THE WAY!!!!
Two of them. Did I mention before that my youngest daughter is having twins? Fraternal twins, that is. At least we’ll know who is who, right?

BLUE BALLOONS = BOY GRAND BABIES ARE ON THE WAY!!!!
Two of them. Did I mention before that my youngest daughter is having twins? Fraternal twins, that is. At least we’ll know who is who, right?
Sunshower Shawl
I’ve been knitting and I know a bunch of other people who are knitting so, in my mind, everyone knits. Not so, you say? Get to it. It’s good for you.
The Sunshower Shawl is a current Ambah O’Brien/Jimmy Beans KAL and it goes on all year long. This is how mine looks after Month #3. After I committed to knitting this I wondered how I could get myself into a 12 month project. Hey. I did that last year with the 2018 Temperature Blanket and again this year with my 2019 Temperature Table Runner. That’s sorta lagging behind but it’s quick to catch up with that one.
Yesterday I started another KAL after I told myself and others that I was done with those KALs. The new one is through Mason-Dixon Knitting and is using the designs from the Field Guide No. 10 Downtown. Field Guide No. 10
I’m cruising along but am now in a mini procrastination on the current round since it has a stitch manipulation that I have never experienced before. It’s going to take a long time to get around all these yoke stitches with all this slipping and passing over. I’ll share a photo sometime along the way after I take one.
Speaking of KALs and challenges. My #19 of 2019 for the Vogue Knitting Ravelry group is done. I’ve been downstairs in my basement several times today and keep forgetting to bring it up with me since it’s been blocking for two days now and has to be dry. On my trips down I’ve done three loads of laundry and rode my bike on the trainer. If I had my phone and some music with me my ride would have been longer than five minutes. Since bike riding without traveling doesn’t track on my Garmin Vivoactiv I’ve learned to hook it to the velcro on my shoe. It adds up the pedaling as steps. Ha.
Yesterday was so much prettier than today so I’m using this photo instead. Right now there’s a heavy rain going on. They did say it was going to happen, so, it’s a Knitting Day!
Yay! I love Knitting Days. What day isn’t a knitting day anyway? I haven’t had one of those in a long time. Don’t take away my knitting or coffee. If you do it’s not a pleasant day for me or for whoever is nearby.
What am I knitting? I finished all the parts of my Gnome so now they need to be assembled. His beard is rather curly so it needs to be blocked to flatten it out. I might have used the wrong yarn so I might need to knit a new one using a thicker sock yarn. Then, time for a photo adventure, upload it and wait to see who wins the final raffle.
I won the Clue #1 raffle. The prize was two fake fur pompoms. The second I pulled the brown one out of the bag my dog came over and grabbed it from me. She must have thought it was a mouse or something.
Did I mention that I have a collection of old film cameras? The Lomography website sent an e-mail yesterday asking me (and all the other subscribers) if we’ve pulled out our analog cameras for some fun lately. No. I haven’t. So, I took my Minolta Hi-Matic G for a walk thinking that the roll of film that has been in it for a long time needed to be finished. I attempt to take a photo and it won’t click. Darn it all. The roll was already done. Back to the house we go since those old cameras weigh a whole lot and taking it on a half mile walk wasn’t what I wanted to do. For the next walk on the next nice day it’s going to be time for one of the Argus Bricks to go out. I have two of them and I think one has film in it. It’s never a good thing to actually open the cameras to find out if there is really film in them. Done that before. Although, it does give the exposed frames an interesting look.
If you want to know what Lomography is all about you can see my LomoHome here:
WAVE RIPPLES IS DONE!!!!!
One KAL/MKAL down and four more to go. The deadlines for the other two are coming up on the 31st and I think I can make it. Oh the stress of knitting. 😉 No stress. This is fun, exhilarating, challenging, and the list goes on.
No, I will never sign up for so many at one time and, as far as I’m concerned (we’ll see) I am not signing up for any more. There’s still the two year-long KALs that should keep me busy enough. I’ve also got those babies to knit for.
Now, when it comes to knitting for those babies I’m hoping that my DD#2 doesn’t treat these baby sweaters the way she treated the shawl I knitted for her a couple years ago. When we visited to see their house I spotted it in a box of junk up in their attic that they were going to finish transforming into a bedroom.
Some people’s children……..
Does anyone else have an addition to Sharpies? Last week when I was putting together an online order I needed just a few dollars more to get free shipping. Now, the cost of the Sharpies was higher than the shipping would have been.
I threw them in anyway. These will be so much fun to use in my knitting and daily journals. Now, to remember to use those journals. So much daily pressure now that I don’t work outside the home anymore. It’s tough, but, I’ll suffer through it.
 We go through this mess several times each year where the creek that runs through our land overflows into the woods. We can tell that the creek has been here for a long, long, time and has etched a valley which adds to the beauty of the woods – when it’s not under water.
Over the years we’ve collected some oddities from upstream during these floods. Right now there is a soccer ball, volleyball ball, a Little Tykes small tugboat complete with the captain at the wheel, a child’s boot, several water bottles, beer cans, assorted pieces of wood and one year, a school of some really large ugly grass carp.
On our walk yesterday I saw new water bottles. If it ever dries out this spring I need to get in there and start cleaning it up. Along the banks of the creek we’ve also got some interesting old things from the farmhouse that used to be here. We have a family who used to own the land and they now live to the north and own several hundred acres. One of the decedents who I call Uncle Fred told me that the original family farm house was on our land. The house was between the creek and the road. The old concrete steps are still here. Closer to the road and slightly to the south are several old rusty frames from old vehicles. Out in the back of our land, 1/2 mile from the road, we have an eclectic collection of glass bottles and old rusty metals since farmers used to just dump their trash on their own land. I would love to have a metal detector to see what else I can find.
We do have a nice pink bathroom sink back there. Need one?

From what I’m hearing from the weather people it’s not spring yet and may not be even after the first day of spring officially gets here. How can that be? Now, I remember hearing some silly talk of this winter being warmer and wetter than usual. Has anyone experienced that in the upper US?
They were messing with us, I just know it.
There is a sock under construction here today. One sock has been idle in the plastic box that is under my desk since December. Don’t you think it’s time that I hooked it up with a mate? That’s what’s going on. Since I have two feet it’s a good idea to have two socks – at least two that look like they go with each other. This pair is black and white using the same Lana Grossa that I used to knit the Antler pullover, a pair of gloves, a hat, and a cowl. All that were left were my feet.

Wind Alert!
I just thought I’d try a color to add extra excitement to the words. They say the wind gusts might get up to 60 mph and these old trees in our woods don’t need that. A couple weeks ago when we had the ice storm I was sitting here talking to my mom on the phone. As I was looking out my window I actually witnessed the tops of two of my neighbor’s trees break off and fall over. How often does that happen?
This morning the creek is really flowing and I could hear it like there were waterfalls in the woods in front of the house. It’s also nice and warm out there in the upper 40s. Here in the Mitten we don’t often get Nice and Warm and Calm with Sun all in one day this early in the year. It seems like we get nasty wind on sunny days or it’s super cold on sunny days or super hot. Do we get nice calm 70° degree days anymore?
I’m knitting right now. Clue #2 for Wave Ripples was sent out on Friday. I picked up the stitches along the right front of the wave panel last night. As we knit we increase at the neckline to shape towards the shoulders. Huh? How come I’m short 3 stitches? Doesn’t matter as long as I do the same for the left front side. It will all work out. You’ll see. I’ve been knitting long enough to know that, unless I go around telling everyone, no one will even be able to tell that my neckline will be just a little bit lower than the original design. Since my neckline will be lower I’m going to alter the neck ribbing anyway to make it more like a mock turtleneck. I like a higher funnel-neck on a wool sweater for cooler weather wear.
You’ll see. It will all be OK.
I need more coffee.
Hang on out there, stay out from under trees and power lines and don’t go out driving your high profile SUVs.

Like it matters when you don’t need to go anywhere for the rest of the week. We’ve been out on one dog walk so far today and, if they’re right about the impending doom of a Weather Bomb, that might be the last walk for a couple days. I saw this stripe of blue sky so decided to play with it. No, it wasn’t a hill. The stripe of blue was at an angle so, turning my camera to make it flat made it appear as if I’m near some water. I am, but not that close. Where I live there’s water here and there and over there. It is the Mitten State.
I’m knitting baby things and am not sure how safe it is to share photos since friends of mine are also friends of my daughter and her husband. So, Ravelry will be the only place where baby knits are documented until after the babies arrive. Yesterday I finished to Leafy Washcloths and can say that there won’t be any more of those. Last night I knitted a bib and have a second one in progress right now.
Once this bib is done then I need to move on over to my Wave Ripples KAL so I don’t get behind on that one. At least it’s mainly stockinette for this portion which will have moments of fast knitting before the ripples appear again which slow me down with all that stitch crossing and passing here and there and having to keep track of my cable needle.

2019 Temperature Table Runner
Yesterday I finished January but took the photo too soon. After this was taken the ends were all woven in so it looks better than this now. Sometime in March I’ll knit all of February since it only takes one day to get through an entire month doing it this way. Last year with my temperature blanket it took me almost an hour to knit two days since I had almost 300 stitches per row. I like this way better.
I’m also knitting away on another KAL – two actually. One is the Sunshower Shawl KAL and the other is Wave Ripples. Have you heard of them? Sunshower goes on all year as Jimmy Bean’s Wool sends out each month’s yarn selection along with the instructions. Wave Ripples is a much shorter KAL with each new addition being released every other Friday for 8 weeks. Sunshower is designed by Ambah O’Brien and Wave Ripples by Carol Feller.
I’m thinking I might have mentioned both of those before. When you don’t stop by your own blog very often you can forget what you were blogging about.
Both KALs have information on Ravelry.