Wedding Day

I tried to post this yesterday from my tablet, and was not successful. I don't turn on my computer every day any more, which is one of the reasons posting has been so sporadic. I will try to catch up on the activities this summer.


DD1 got married!  It was a small wedding with just close friends and immediate family, and it was lovely. She got many complements on the dress from Macy's even from a total stranger walking past on the sidewalk when we were packing up!



This is my mom, my sister, and me. This is the dress I bought at Marshall Fields Macy's this spring.



My dad married them in the patio of the restaurant.



Don't C and P look great! C didn't think the wedding would be legal if DD1 didn't have a flower girl, and she was ready and willing to take that responsibility. C was rather upset when she found out there was not going to be a flower girl... so DD1 took care of her and made her the ring bearer, and also gave her the responsibility for a reading, along with her mama and the groom's sister.



Here's my siblings. They clean up nice, don't they! Brother Ric, Sister Joy, Sister Val, and BIL Steve.



DD1 had a vision for the tables, and spent a lot of time getting them ready. The little birch branch planters were favors for everyone. The burlap table runners were fringed and had a satin ribbon insertion made by yours truly, and her mother-in-law, who is a florist, put the flower arrangements together.



The food was so good! It was the major entertainment, which makes sense when you realize most of the guests work in very nice restaurants. This was the sweets table, with such a nice selection of goodies that not very many people even got wedding cake.



We are so happy for them, and wish them many, many wonderful years together!



There are more pictures on my flickr site, if you are interested.

All of March in one

My temari spent the months of February and March hanging out at the library. It was difficult to get pictures of them on display; I either caught the reflection of the skylights, or of the florescent lights.



I got many lovely comments, and I will be teaching a beginning temari class there towards the end of the month.



C and I finished a blanket for her teacher's new baby. Today being the first day back after spring break, C reports that baby Evelyn was born on Wednesday and is doing well.



DD1 set a wedding date! We spent a Saturday at Macy's shopping for dresses (successfully!) and then had lunch at the Walnut Room. (The dresses will be unveiled at the proper time.) The girls' grandma always talked about eating at the Walnut Room at Christmas when she was growing up, but we had never been there. DD1's face lit up when I suggested it, so we went, and had a lovely time.



The room is elegant, with a very retro feel. The food was wonderful, the service was fine.



I applied for a job, and have an interview later this week.

I have finished a couple more things that I still have to get pictures of, but other than that, I think you are up to date!

Christmas presents

I can tell I have been remiss in my blogging since I haven't even shown you the Christmas presents I made. I put together about a dozen of these baubles. They each have a teeny tiny mari in the center.







I had so much fun picking out colors!

They are very like a c10 temari; dodecahedron geometry. They use "Tila," peanut, drop and seed beads. After the first bauble I haven't had to look at the pattern again. They are very logical to put together.

I also finished the Citron Grande shawl for my mom in chambray/denim color.



I used some of my binary stitch markers to mark the increase spots, so I didn't have to count (and count and count) my stitches; plus it turned out a lot more even than mine. I did run short of yarn, and had to stop after 9 pattern repeats instead of 10. I love how it turned out though. Now I just have to get it to my mom... can someone stop the snow?

Trying to Stay Warm

It has been so cold here this January that the schools have cancelled 4 days, not for snow, but for cold! So I have been working on keeping people warm.

In December I was distressed to discover that C did not have anything to cover her cold fingers! I found a free pattern on Ravelry for 2 needle mittens with pretty cabled cuffs; C and I perused the stash and decided on a pretty sparkly yarn, and I started knitting the smallest size of the pattern, that said it was for children to adults. There was no size or gauge information in the pattern, so I was flying by the seat of my pants, and the first mitten turned out big enough for me!

So I started over. I had C trace her hand on a piece of paper so I could check my progress, even while she was at school. I removed 1 or 2 repeats of the cuff pattern, several inches of length, and at least 4 stitches in the thumb and ended up with this:

 

 They are still not any too small. I went ahead and finished the 2nd mitten in the larger size, and put them aside; when C & P's Meme came to drop them off (She has been living in Florida) I was able to give them to her.

 I made these some time ago, I don't remember if I showed them before or not:

 

 I had finished the knitting a couple of months ago, but I had never sewn in the ends, with stranded mittens there are usually quite a few ends, and they got shuffled to the bottom of the pile. I felt awful this morning when DD2 was leaving for work, and looking for something to cover her fingers (it was below 0, she did need something) and the mittens were not ready, so today, I took advantage of my knitting time and sewed in the ends. I think they turned out so pretty!

 In January I have been participating in a mystery KAL (knit-a-long) in my "I make mittens" ravelry group. We got the first clue on January 1, and the 7th and final clue last Saturday, and I finished them today! They are by the same designer as the mittens above; which is why I knew I would like the pattern without seeing it ahead of time.

 

 They were inspired by the book "The Secret Garden" and were a lot of fun to knit. Quite a few people on the group site took pictures of their mittens with their pets, so I decided to join in as well.

 

 (I got Danny and Jake to cooperate by holding treats in my hand. I don't even think they noticed the mittens.)

 I also made a warm beanie for DFSIL for Christmas, but it left the premises before I got a picture, with a request for more. I also have a request from C for a pair of slippers, and a scarf, mitten, and hat set for an indoor snowman, so as you can see, I'm behind.

 I better get knitting!

Try to catch up

Hi! We are still here... I have a few items to share since I've been gone. The break was not for any specific reason, just that I got out of the habit... not good!

One of the big things we did this fall was P's science project.


 Here's the scientist. You can see that we already had the Christmas decorations up. His thesis was that more dense woods would burn slower and make a better fire. We got to burn stuff!


 P did say that next time he wanted to pick something he could do inside! It did get very cold by the end of the 3 experiments. We sat inside and monitored the fire through the window by the end, it was almost freezing.

If you are wondering, the woods were Pine, Oak, Pinion, and Birch. Oak was the final winner.


 We are so proud of the work P put into this. His school had a very good system of requiring the intermediate steps along the way, so there was no last minute panic. He got 97 out of 100 on the report!

After the report, he had to prepare a Power Point presentation (in sixth grade?). There too, we worked at it a little at a time, making one slide each evening. By the end he was doing all the steps by himself, except for asking how to make the slides fade one into the next. He got an A on the presentation! And he was only one of 4 who was asked to enter his project into the Science Fair, with a chance to go on an extra field trip. Unfortunately, he is not available on the day of the fair, so he cannot enter, but he was considering it, which I found amusing. He was quite worried that his original paper not go over 2 pages, because anything over 3 pages was going to be considered for the fair.

We are so proud of him, he is doing so great in school!