Senior Pictures

Went out last night on our first attempt at shooting senior portraits. It was fun! This one was taken outside our high school's football stadium...by the band entrance. Hard to believe we've reached this milestone already; time really goes by SOOOO quickly!

OMG! The Harlot & I Are Twins!

Or at least knit sibs for crying out loud!!

Go check out her blog for June 2 and you'll see why.

Here's a link, go look and I'll wait.

http://www.yarnharlot.ca/blog/

Did you spot it???

She knit the Adamas Shawl!! That's the same shawl I'm nearly done with (and the first lace project I've ever knit!!)




Apparently, I know how to pick my projects, no?! (And yes, I suspect there are quite a few mistakes in it, but I'm doing it as a learning experience and plan to keep it for myself, so it will be a trophy, mistakes and all!)

I hope she blogs about how to block the thing!

Birthdays

Speaking of my daughter's birthday....there've been (or will be) a couple OTHER birthdays in the extended family that mean knitting gifts.

My brother-in-law, Joe, had a birthday in April. He chose a lap afghan for a gift, knit in their school district's colors. Here is a sneak peek at part of the project thus far: (and I DO apologize it seems to be taking me forever to complete!)



I have a sister-in-law (who will remain nameless at this point in order to maintain some semblance of secrecy) who will be having a birthday in the upcoming months and I am also working on a project for her. Here's another sneak peek:



I've also been working on my lace shawl project which is getting bigger. I'm sure there are TONS of mistakes in it....but I plan to make it a learning point and keep it for myself, so I will use it no matter what. Photos will be forthcoming after it is complete.

Went out and shot some photos last evening and this is the view I got along one of the country roads east of town. Unfortunately the area was hit by severe storms yesterday and about 100 miles east of us one town is over half gone with 4 dead, 3 critically injured and over 70 treated for injuries. Thoughts and prayers go out to everyone in Parkersburg, New Hartford and Butler & Black Hawk counties.

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my oldest! How did 17 years go by already?????



(photo taken by a friend on recent band trip to Chicago)

Super Hero Saturday (or Farewell to Nathan)

My sister gathered a bunch of us together on Saturday to wish my nephew a fond farewell as he heads off to boot camp next week. He will be going to training for the Army down in Oklahoma next week and will return in early August. Fortunately, in addition to my nephew who is following his calling to military service, our gathering included a couple other Super Heroes from our family:

Sunshine Boy



and

Bubble Girl



When they aren't pursuing their super hero roles, they are - in "normal" life - my brother's kids.



In the background there you can spot my sister's youngest as well. (She's got three boys, the oldest of which just turned 17 in March and was the center of the festivities!)



As you might detect the youngest of my brother's children also has a second characteristic: he loves cookies! (Ok, this may be simply a family/genetic trait as most of us in the family tend to like cookies. It's quite possible he is surrounded completely by enablers in this area. Hopefully he will develop relationships with fruit lovers as he grows and makes his own friends and romantic connections.)

As you can see, this little corner of the world has finally turned green and decided to bloom.....YEAH! It was a perfect day filled with too much food, lots of sunshine, watching kids play together, too much food, and a beautiful "breeze" (stiff wind is more the truth, but it was lovely nonetheless!)

I hope Nathan has a good summer. I hope that this choice is just the right thing for him. I hope he knows he starts this venture with lots of family who love him and want him to succeed. We'll be thinking of you all summer!

Susan's Sox - Part 2

This is the second pair of socks I knit for my knitting group friend Susan. She bought the yarn. It is Opal. I think it knit up quite lovely and much different than it appeared in the ball! (Had no idea those solid bands were lurking within!)

I will give them to her on Wednesday when our group meets. I hope she likes them!
I'll be interested to know if she has a preference for one construction versus the other (top down or toe up....)

Even though I did this pair from the toe up, I still ended up with quite a bit of yarn left over. First, these are knit to fit a woman's size 6.5 (US) sized foot. Secondly, since the yarn was in one 100g ball, I was still nervous on the first sock not to exceed the "half-way point" of the yarn and only made the leg/cuff about 7" long. Looking back, I could've easily made the leg lengths at least 9".

Anyone have any suggestions on how to solve that dilema?

In Memorium

For the longest time as I grew up I believed that everyone has an "Uncle Bob". Robert is a fairly common name....and nearly all my friends had someone in their family who they referred to as their "Uncle Bob".

My Uncle Bob passed away yeseterday, Monday, April 28.

Even though it seemed everyone I knew had (or has) an Uncle Bob, mine was special because he was....well, mine.

This is a photo of me and him taken in 1969 when I was three years old and he was 21 or 22 yrs. old. He served in Vietnam in the U.S. Army.....I think this is a photo of him after graduating from boot camp, ready to deploy to the war in Vietnam. He was just a kid, as were so many who went. In this photo I can see that my cousin looks an awful lot like his dad.

My Uncle Bob loved cars. He built his own hot rod from the ground up. He liked to fish. He liked playing games. He liked going for rides. He took me to my first demolition derby at the Monona County Fairgrounds. I always pictured him as a sort of James Dean, Rebel Without a Cause type guy.

Once our family went camping with both my uncles and their families. I remember we went to a local amusement park for entertainment one day. Somehow my Uncle Bob talked me into going on the rollercoaster with him. It was great! Scary, but exhilerating! Then we went on a ride called "The Flying Bobs". The seats were shaped like bob sleds which went up and down slight hills as they went around and around.

Being the kid prone to car sickness, this was not the best choice. I managed to hold my own (and the contents of my stomach) out of sheer concentration and will power for part of the ride. But then they kicked the thing into reverse.

Not even Uncle Bob had been counting on that.

We all came off that ride sicker than dogs (whatever that means!) While I was nauseous and had to sit down, Uncle Bob was out for the count. He was green. I think he even threw up. He had to lay down on the ground, then in the back of our station wagon. I remember the rest of the day being pretty slow-paced. Even a game of horseshoes at the campground might have been too much.

He and my Aunt Pat started their family a bit later in life. They have one son, Jim who has a 2 year old and another on the way. My Uncle enjoyed being a dad and was thrilled about being a grandparent. (He always lit up when there were young ones around to tease.) He had that certain twinkle in his eye.

These past few years he had many health concerns. Some of it was diabetes. Some related perhaps to Agent Orange exposure in Vietnam. He had been on dialysis too.

He was only 60 years old.

We'll miss you Uncle Bob!

No More Yarn!

Some people have little or no appreciation (and even less of a sense of humor) for yarn collections (a.k.a. "stash"). Some of these people may even live with me. Unfortunately they are also the ones who tend to pay the bills and balance the checkbook. Thus, this person may have some small sense of the "problem" (his word, not mine!) incubating (he may have said "overtaking") in the guestroom. (I may definitely have to go Yarn Harlot on him and start hiding it in the piano!)

I'm trying to be good about the "request" that a moratorium on yarn purchases be put in place in our household. Instead, I've recently managed to acquire some books *about* yarn. Surely that doesn't count, does it?

Of course I bought The Harlot's new book:



It's a delight, as are all Stephanie's books! (And, when reading at night after a long day at the computer, I get the chance to wear my new reading glasses! For a 42 year old who's always wanted glasses, this is actually fun, not a drag!)

I was also enticed by these:



AND



I've read my way through *Knitalong* and it is a lovely book. The paper, the photography, the writing, the patterns....love, Love, LOVE it! I can tell I'm going to feel the same way about *Knitting For Peace.*

Do I dare tell you there are two more on their way from KnitPicks? An Elizabeth Zimmerman book along with a spinning/knitting handspun book.

Oh yeah, and one of their "sampler" kits of the new, summer yarns. (Hey, it came with five free patterns....how could I NOT order it??!!!)

That's What Friends Are For

I have a group of women I knit with nearly every week. They have grown into friends. While we knit we share bits and pieces of our lives. Over time, from these bits and pieces begins to emerge a bigger picture....like a jigsaw puzzle. We begin to see and appreciate each other in new ways.

One of the ladies in my group wanted to knit socks. However, she was just about to leave for the winter to go to Texas where it was sunny and warm. Alas, sock knitting didn't quite happen.

When she returned she asked me if I would take her yarn and knit her socks.
What could I say? I LOVE knitting socks! She delivered two skeins: one Opal and the other with its label missing. She has tiny size 6 (and very narrow) feet. Here is the first pair completed.



She tried on the first one and it fit perfectly, so I made the second just like the first. This is the yarn that had no label.

The other pair I'm doing from the toe up just to give her a sense and feel for how the two construction methods differ.

Now the word is out......I suspect I might be coming into some more sock yarn to knit for others in the group!

The Sweet Life

Happy First Birthday to my nephew!




I'm not sure how a whole year has gone by! He is the happiest child I've ever met with the biggest smile and a twinkle in both eyes.

Between him and his older sister (also a sweet, super smart and caring child!!), it's clear my brother and sis-in-law are doing a FABULOUS job parenting!

Socks (again) & Something Completely Different

I finished the socks I was making out of the Regia.



I won this yarn last October from a blog I read (Romancing the Yarn). It's the first time I worked with Regia and I loved it. Great feel and the resulting socks are a dream to wear. I love the colors too! (The older I get, the more I'm into "wild" socks.) Thanks to all the wonderful ladies over at RTY!!!

On another note....

I've started something completely different from anything I've ever knit before.



It's going to be my first shawl. I'm knitting it with laceweight yarn (Alpaca Cloud, 100% Baby Alpaca from Knit Picks in the colorway "Horizon") I'm using the Adamus pattern from mimiknits.com.

This is my first venture with lace knitting, or a shawl for that matter. I'm not sure I was knitting tight enough at the begining, it looks a little wonky. But I've read enough knitting blogs and articles to know that when knitting lace it generally looks pretty wonky until you block it at the end. So I'm hanging in there and planning to complete the pattern and block it before I make any judgements.

The yarn is SOOOOO dreamy! Talk about a pleasure to knit!! It's ubersoft. The resulting fabric thus far feels like a cloud. I'm excited about trying something new!

Happy Knitting!

Dear Barbara

Below you will find the contents of an email I just sent to Barbara Bretton, author and one of the owners of the knitting blog, Romancing the Yarn.




Dear Barbara,

You have saved my life. If not my life, at least my sanity.

Neither of us could have guessed at the beginning of November that this winter would become one of the top 10 highest snowfall totals since the dawn of time (or since they started keeping such records) where I live in Iowa.

Of course it can look lovely falling from the sky, large white flakes floating innocently down to stick on your lashes and make toddlers giggle with glee. They do not scoop. Nor do they notice how quickly the innocent white begins to fade to shades of gray, suddenly revealing all that is polluted and ugly about the season. It has piled up here like ketchup on my son's fries and we who must put on layer upon layer to go out and make paths are weary of it all.

The Regia sock yarn you sent from Romancing the Yarn late last year is anything but white, gray, brown or black.

It is vibrant! It is defiant! It is just what I needed to remind me that even though more snow may yet arrive, it is March by golly....and Mother Nature has only so much more freezing ability left in her arsenal before she must yield to the warmth of the sun growing closer by the day.

I began knitting. Simple socks. Plain socks. But socks which by their very color scream "Warm weather and bright colors are coming! So look out winter! Your days of dreary gray are numbered!"

Thank you.
Kim

Slippery Slope

I've discovered knitting slippers is dangerously addictive. The darn things knit up so quickly. (Epecially compared to socks which I use US #0 needles for!) It's fun to watch the colors develop. (Just like socks!) I know they will keep my nephews' feet warm. (Also like socks!) Did I mention how quick they are to knit??? Very, very tempting to just keep going....such a sense of accomplishment!

The largest pair along the bottom are for my soon to be 17 yr old nephew who plans on joining the army post-high school. The camo pattern with blue is for his brother Josh, who has blue eyes. The smallest pair is for the youngest nephew in that family (because I learned that when I knit things I think only the older boys will like, like fingerless gloves for instance, Zack really likes them as well and wishes to have his own. So he will not be left out on the slippers campaign! I picked his yarn out FIRST.)

Anyway, that's what I did last week. Four pairs of slippers. (I actually gave away the smallest pair which were knit for my niece in burgundy already, so no picture.)
Oh, and a hat that I don't blame my brother if he never puts on my baby nephew's head after Uncle Doug said it made him look like Lunette the clown on The Big Comfy Couch on public tv. (Lunette is a girl clown. Logan is definitely a BOY nephew. Thus the major problem with the hat.)

Back to work for me.

Happy Knitting & Shooting!

Knitting Lives

One of the sad things about modern living is how scattered families have often become in this mobile society. It is rare to find two or three generations of family living within a few miles of one another or even in the same city or state. My sister lives in the same small town as my mother, grandmother and uncle. But the sad truth is that even they don't see one another that often. Lives get busy. The small choices we make on a daily basis tend to become habit. People and circumstances change. Occasionally conflict occurs and relationships grow distant no matter the physical proximity.

These things happen to family who have actually moved to places far removed from one another too. Where you are in the stages of life often dictates that your own lifestyle may not be the same as those of your parents or children. I have seen this not only in my own life, but also in the lives of those with whom I have worked.

It takes work and intentional effort to maintain familial bonds.

You wouldn' t think this was the case. Most of us assume that being family comes naturally and easily. Not so. We choose to make our relationships what they are, even (and perhaps especially) those which are nearest and dearest to us.

So that's why I gave up knitting time on Sunday. I chose to spend some time making sure I was knitting lives together instead. We visited my brother and his family.

He cooked THE most delicious meal I've had in quite some time. (Everyone should get a copy of the Famous Dave's cookbook!) I enjoyed kicking back, visiting and watching our children build their collective life together while watching movies, building snow forts and generally having a good time together.



I hope and pray that they will always consider themselves "close" in a way I don't with my cousins. I hope and pray that I can maintain close, healthy relationships with my siblings (just as I hope my two will remain close in their adult years as well).

And mostly I hope that my niece and nephew (like my two children) will know how very, very much Aunt Kim loves them!

Sunshine

We're aiming for uplifting today.

The sun is out. The sky is blue. The temp is 4* Farenheit and falling.
The wind is blowing straight out of the north, northwest like you wouldn't believe.
We are heading to -30*F windchills tonight.

So, enjoy the sunshine.

Blue Day

We had a lovely day of bright sunshine, blue skies and temps in the mid to upper 30s yesterday. Something kept telling me, "Get out and enjoy it while you can." So I did get out a few times yesterday.

Today we woke up to a blizzard warning.

I was supposed to drive a couple hours west to visit my brother's family and I whimped out due to the weather. (Turns out it was mostly over by 2 pm and we would have made it home just fine and I feel like a total fool and have the winter blues SOOOOOOO bad today that making that bonehead decision to call off the trip makes me even more depressed.)

At least me kids bounced back ok. This is what they did.




I'm sure any subtle resemblance to any person, living or dead, named "Adolf" in no way reflects on their unconscious feelings about their mother on the day she deeply disappointed them by depriving them of cousins, aunt/uncle, and delicious Kahlua Fudge Brownies............ (It does look like it's smiling at any rate....doesn't it?)

Yarn Love

When life hands you people who are busy (and therefore can't spend time simply chatting on the telephone, which is totally understandable. Some people work for a living for crying out loud!) turn to your stash and think "extra knitting time." (Because, let's face it: no one wants to clean their house for a Valentine's treat, now do they?)

I'll be the first to confess that walking into my guest room is almost as good as walking into a yarn shop. I've got stash. Big stash. Overflowing stash. It's amazing.
(And my DH still bought me the sock yarn kit from Knit Picks for Christmas! That's real love, that is!)

I love my stash. Here are some photos I shot for the magazine. (I've written a Knitting 101 article for March.)









Enjoy the yarn love.....I'm going to go knit!

A Little "Pick Me Up"

Today was a crazy day with a few stress-filled moments of sheer frenzy.
It follows a few too many days of grey, foggy, overcast, cold, icy, slushiness.

So I got out some of my stash to fondle and photograph for illustrations for one of the magazine articles I've been working on: Knitting 101. Yes, I needed a little pick me up. Maybe you do too.

Enjoy!

Good Book

I was supposed to be writing. But I've long subscribed to the idea that a writer must do a lot of reading for his or her writing to be any good. So I spent the weekend reading.

I would've been reading The Friday Night Knitting Club which a dear friend gave me for my birthday (thanks Joanne!) but the library called me last Friday to let me know that their copy of Ann Hood's The Knitting Circle was in and they would hold it for me for a couple days.

I went down and picked it up Saturday morning and read it over the weekend. All I can say is wow! The characters pulled me in and the story was so engrossing I had a hard time pulling myself off the sofa to fix meals! Parts of it were gritty. Some of it heart wrenching. No easy fixes at the end, yet you come away feeling "settled" about everything.

Good stuff.

And I swear I'm going to finish my writing.
Soon.
Maybe tomorrow.

Knotty-Cable Rimmed Beanie

Knotty-Cable Rimmed Beanie
by Kim Helmick



Materials
Worsted weight yarn (~100 yds?)
U.S. #7 - 16" circular needle (or size needed to get gauge)
U.S. #7 double pointed needles (or size needed to get gauge)
cable needle
stitch marker
darning/yarn needle

Gauge = 4 ½ stitches per inch
Hat is knit with the cable band rim first, then stitches picked up along one edge to make crown.

C4F is worked over a total of 4 stitches. Place first two stitches from left needle onto cable needle; hold to front of work. Knit the next two stitches from left needle. Then knit the two stitches off the cable needle.
C4B = worked over 4 stitches. Place first two stitches from left needle onto cable needle; hold to back of work. Knit the next two stitches from left needle. Then knit the two stitches off the cable needle.

Pattern
Using long-tail method, CO 16 stitches.
Purl one row (WS).

Row 1: Slip first stitch, K4, C4F, C4F, K3
Row 2: Slip first stitch, K2, P10, K3
Row 3: Slip first stitch, K2, C4B, C4B, K5
Row 4: Slip first stitch, K2, P10, K3

Repeat rows 1-4 until strip measures 22" (or length needed to fit around your head.)

Bind off. Stitch together beginning and end of band to form bottom brim of hat.

Beginning at seam (which will be the back of the hat), pick up 80 stitches around edge using circular needle. Place stitch marker at beginning of round.

Knit 30-32 rows or until hat measures 8" from bottom of cable band.
Begin decreasing by:
*K1, K2tog* repeat for one round
Knit around, twice
*K2tog* repeat for one round (May need to change to dpn’s at this point.)
Knit 1 round
*K2 tog*
Repeat last two rows until you have 7 stitches on needles. Cut yarn with 6"-8" tail. Using darning needle run tail through the remaining stitches on needles twice. Pull tight. Run yarn through center top to inside and weave in ends. Weave in loose ends from the cable band.

Pattern created January, 2008 - copyright by the designer Kim Helmick. Pattern may be used for personal use as long as this line appears. Not for sale.