What's been going on

I finally admitted yesterday (to myself) that I am depressed. It is not a severe depression, just more of a persistent case of the blues, but it has been here for some time. When I mentioned it to my family, they all said, "Duh!" I wish they had told me, I would have started doing something about it sooner. Yesterday I went for a walk, and I hope to get some exercise in today too; that is the main thing to do to get over a depression. Of course, when you are depressed it is hard to get going too. I hope that working on this will help me get back to my stitching. I miss stitching temari so much, but when I think of picking up a needle I just get faced with a big wall of blank, and I can't do it. I will be okay, but thank you for listening.

Other knitting going on

I have done a couple of things besides baby blankets this summer. Here is a scarf knit with a novelty yarn. It took less than an hour to make. Here is the yarn:

You can see the yarn at the bottom, with the black thread, which is what you actually knit. The funny thing is that you knit it lengthwise: cast on 90 stitches, knit back once, then bind off. Guess who loves it?

More than a week ago a friend and I went to Stitches Midwest, a knitting show in Schaumburg, IL. We had a lot of fun! We both had budgets to stick to, and I managed to keep to mine, except for lunch. I didn't really want to spend my yarn budget on food! I got a kit to make a necklace out of a ribbon i-cord that should turn out pretty cool. We saw a demonstration of making a necklace from a crochet chain with beads added; I have been working on that one. And we both fell in love with a very simple shawl knit in garter stitch with a very fine mohair on big needles. Carol bought yarn for it. I had some mohair, but it is not fine... so we shall see. I got a couple of needles that I "needed" and some notions. We had a wonderful time!

I also knit up the skirt kit I got at the Midwest Fiber Festival. I stitched it on to a t-shirt, because it seemed like it was going to be too short... then the back stretched out. I am going to take it off the t-shirt and put it on an elastic waistband. Hopefully we can get it to stretch out all the way around. I think it will be cute, if we can manage that.

Work on the 3rd baby blanket is progressing. I was kicking myself, because I hadn't ordered enough yarn, and then I couldn't remember where I had ordered from. I was prepared for a horrible difference in dye lots (it was my own fault) but when the new yarn arrived, it was the same dye lot! I guess some times you are just lucky. Pictures will be coming soon.

Tomorrow is the first day of school. C starts first grade, and P is going into 5th. There are some extra nerves because of starting a new school, but we got a tour of the school last Friday. C saw her classroom, and P even got to meet his teacher. We figured out what door to go in, how to drive around the school for drop off and pick-up, and we have 95% of the supplies packed in the school bags. We still need some markers, some erasers, and a couple of dry erase black markers... hopefully it will be Walgreens to the rescue.

Last week we spent a day in Michigan. My folks have sold their condo and are moving into a retirement home... mom is tired of cooking, and they will get their main meal in the dining room each day. Of course, since they are giving up their house, they are distributing a lot of their treasures. I got 3 teacups from my mom's china, used when we were growing up. I got 2 crocheted bedspreads and a queen sized quilt that I had made for her... a crystal bowl, and a vase from Bariloche, Argentina, that was a treasure growing up. (We vacationed there several times.) DD1 and DD2 also received some nice heirlooms. It is not necessarily a happy transition, but mom and dad are excited; I am pleased they are wise enough to make this change on their own.
I wrote this post last week, but didn't get pictures until today. I need to get back into my blog routine!

The Last Hurrah of Summer

We had a lot of fun this summer, mostly close to home. We participated in the summer program at our church. C was in the "fun and games" workshop: water balloons, sidewalk chalk art, tag, etc. She was nicely exhausted when she got home. P participated in the carpentry workshop, and got to use a chain saw! =:-O This is a picture of him receiving prizes at then end, tools for his own tool box, a screwdriver, a tape measure, and several other things. After this presentation we all went outside and watched them launch the rockets they had made. He had a grand time. I am having computer issues. My own computer will not link to the Internet at the moment, while every other machine in the house is linking with no problems. So I am using DH's older computer, which has its own issues; one of which is that I cannot edit my pictures. Please pardon all the extraneous background. Also, I am having trouble editing this post; I hope it makes sense. Munster Memorial Park This park as a small memorial for each of the wars the US participated in in the 20th century. I was a little shocked by how many there were. Here is C posing with the lady representing "the home front" during WW II. I liked this view of the helicopter: it almost looks like it is taking off from a swampy jungle area. Here is P posing with a map of Vietnam. He was quite interested in all the exhbits; it was a nice place to visit. Again, I apologize for the way this looks!

Week in review

The weather is finally turning nice after an oppressively hot July. We took advantage of that, and of a Groupon Coupon and went to the Windy City Thunderbolts baseball game. We had nice seats in the upper deck; and the home team won.



The pitch:



the hitter:



We had a lovely evening with good friends.

I finished the baby blanket. Here you can see the pattern, but the color is not very accurate.



This is closer to the real color, while being modeled by a cutie pie.



I have a good start on the next baby blanket. It feels like I could make a full time job out of making baby blankets. I wonder what that would involve...

Talk to you later!

I'm still here!

So sorry to be missing in action. There is a lot going on here, but not necessarily in the needlework/handwork field.

C and I finished "our" baby blanket for C's sister. As you can see, we are quite pleased with how it turned out.



The white portion of the granny squares were a donation to the thrift store; there were 50. I used 49 (7x7) to make this blanket; I think it is almost a perfect size for a newborn.

Last week Saturday we went to a wedding in Michigan. The weather was perfect, and the setting was beautiful. As you can see, it was very casual. This was a Michigan wedding, which means no sit down dinner; there were a lot of Illinois people there, and you could see the different expectations in the different groups of people. I always find it fascinating to notice different customs in different parts of the country!



At my wedding I didn't know about the difference in Illinois and Michigan wedding customs, and I had a Michigan wedding in Illinois. All the people who came were waiting for the food!

On the way home we stopped by one of the Gary steel mills.



They have cleaned the area, and where there used to be acid pits now there is this:



We saw ducks eating and quite a few boats. The gorgeous day continued:



Those are our shadows. Look how calm the water is! It was a beautiful ending to a beautiful day.



Now, more than a week week later we had another day out. We went to the Crete Family Fun Center (tickets purchased through Groupon), and we had a lot of fun!

We started on the go-carts. I had never driven a go-cart before. (I know! DH was amazed too.) It was so much fun that I couldn't wipe the grin off my face. P assured me that he could have passed at any point, but didn't because he thought it wouldn't be polite. I guess we forgot to explain that it was a race.



After the go-carts we played mini golf. This is just before DD2 lost her ball in the water hazard.



Here are the victorious golfers, have you ever seen such a pair of handsome kids!



We continued with bumper cars, arcade games, pizza and pop, and more playing. Much fun was had by all, and we were all worn out by the end of the afternoon; then we stopped for ice cream at Culver's on the way home.

Summer is coming to an end for the kids, school starts on the 22nd already!

Baby Blanket

I showed you the beginning of this baby blanket last week, but now I can show more, because the recipient has seen it, and likes it. The yarn is beautiful for a blanket, but I don't think I would have picked this green for a baby girl. It goes with her new room, though, so it is all good.



I started this with a bit of hubris: I have done lace before, I can handle this! You know what they say; pride goes before a fall. I got through the border just fine (which is where I was last week), and I really liked it, and I didn't want to have to redo it. It turns out the pattern starts in one of the most difficult spots. After the first time I had to pull it out I added a rescue line, and I had to use it 4 (four!) times pulling out what I had done until I finally figured out the pattern. I finally did, and this is almost 2 vertical repeats of the pattern. I ended up having to put stitch markers between each of the horizontal pattern repeats to be able to keep my place so I could catch my mistakes within 20 stitches instead of after 1 1/2 rows.

Part of the problem as well is that there were no written directions for the lace pattern, only a chart:



(It is my first time to knit lace from a chart.)

On the first repeat I used a low tack cellophane tape and moved it up each time I finished a row. The main problem with that is that the tackiness got used up, plus it didn't highlight the whole row, so I changed over to using a dry erase marker. (The pattern is in a sheet protector.) It works great! You can see how the earlier rows are getting erased, but the current row I am working on is nice and bright.

This is for one of DD2's friends who just adopted a baby; another one of her friends is going to have a baby girl any day now, so we have a pattern picked out and yarn bought for a baby blanket for her too. These are small blankets, just big enough to cover the baby in a stroller or a car seat without too much drooping over the side.

I feel like I know a little bit how my grandma felt. She would make anything for you that you asked for (in crochet, not knitting, but the principle is the same) as long as you provided the idea and the materials. I can remember hearing someone ask her to make a crocheted curtain, and I kind of gulped a little bit, because it was such a big job, but she loved doing it: it gave her a purpose, and supported her handwork habit without a lot of cost or build-up of stash. I am afraid the stash issue is a lost cause for me, but I am loving making useful things.

I took advantage of her enjoyment in making things too; she made me an afghan and a quilt, at my request. My mom has two crocheted coverlets that cover twin beds all the way to the floor, plus assorted linens (pillowcases), an edging that mom used on curtains, and assorted doilies and hankies. I sure do miss my grandma!

Talk to you soon!

Actual needlework!

It's been a while since I posted any pictures of needlework! Here is my mug rug that I wove at the Midwest Fiber Festival.

(Baa, baa, black (faced) sheep, have you any wool?)



I really like this, even though my selvedges are not wonderful.

I finished this scarf from one of the yarns I bought at the festival:



I really like this one. I still have to hide the two threads that are hanging, but this was a quick and interesting knit. It should be perfect to wear around my neck in an air conditioned restaurant or theater.

I finished this one too, knit on the bias with regular worsted and ruffle yarns. The colors are not exactly right, I don't think my camera believed how bright it really is. This will be a fun scarf to wear, but will cause the wearer to be recognized as a "stitchy person." I still have to hide all the thread ends from this one too.



This pair of slippers was "ordered" by C. She wanted them all pink, but I was worried that I was going to run out of the pink, so I added the lavender. I might have made it, but I might not, so better safe than sorry. Next time I will get a picture of them being modeled.



This is my newest start. The yarn is Cascade superwash wool with silk(!)  It will turn out to be machine washable.



I'm taking guesses as to what it will be (not a sweater). I love the picot edge! I have seen that on sweaters and have always thought it is beautiful.

I am teaching a knitting class, starting this evening. I hope it goes well. I limited the class to 6 people, and I have 2 people who will come to help, so it should be manageable. Tonight we are going to talk about yarn and make knitting needles.

I have also done some stitching on a temari ball! I have decided I need to expand my color choices in pearl #8. It is either that or resign myself to stitching huge balls to get in all the detail I'm interested in. I am having trouble getting a good color combination with the pearl #8 I have at hand.

Thanks for stopping to visit!