A Few Finishes and Lots of Snow, but None Here!

My thoughts are with those of you who, like my sister, are dealing with this in mid-April! These photos remind me not to complain about our rain. At least that doesn't need shoveling.

This week I worked on something unusual, a few quilt blocks.  Our group is making a quilt for a local hospice. The camera sure picks ups on the inconsistencies in my measuring. Sigh.

This one is called Connector Chain.

I love hearts.  Our blocks are to be red, white, and blue, so I think I need to add some stitching to this one.

This was my first attempt at a Disappearing 9-block and looks a bit wonky. 

Has anyone figured out how to make these diagonal dishcloths "unwonky" on that last corner?  This is the Illuminator pattern, once again.

Spring arrived in our living room this week!  Our hibiscus bloomed; it looks like it's yearning to be outside, but you can see just how wet it is on the deck.  It won't be headed outside for at least a month!  Have a good week.

Yet Another Pair of Booties

My only recent finish at the moment is yet another pair of booties.  Lots of spring babies, I think. I will deliver these on Thursday at choir to the baby's grandma.

Our son-in-law sent a few more photos from our trip to Breckenridge.  This one was taken after their arrival in Denver after 24 hours on the train from Chicago. The kids survived the rest of the day amazingly well.

These two hadn't seen each other since last July, but they picked up right where they left off!

The intrepid skiers having lunch together on their last day on the slopes.

Spring really is coming to the Pacific Northwest, albeit way too slowly!  This tree was given to us by a friend after the passing of my mother almost 38 years ago.

Have a great week!

Home Again!

We just got back from a fun family gathering in Breckenridge, Colorado. My hats were a hit and came in handy in the cold, crisp air.

The cousins had fun together playing hide and seek, taking skiing lessons, and enjoying each others' company.

Battleship seemed to be the favorite game of the four youngest.

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And I even completed a pair of socks in one of the quieter moments.

Hope everyone had a nice Easter; we were home in time to have dinner out with a good friend.  Driving home, we encountered an April Fool's snow squall.  It was really crazy as we left the sunny Des Moines Marina and drove north into dark clouds, slushy rain, and then a dusting of snow on our hill.  Very strange!

Booty Frenzy Plus Hats

This pair of booties set off a frenzy of booty knitting, two more pairs of this pattern, and then a hat and booty set.

This pair is for a choir friend's new grandson.

This pair is by request in purple for my granddaughter's math teacher's baby girl due in June along with the set from yarn I already had in my stash.

And then there are the hats:

This one has already been delivered to a quilting friend who's undergoing chemo for pancreatic cancer. I changed the pattern a bit, doing a cuff of 1X1 rib and stockinette for the rest, knitting it with  a mohair yarn combined with a sock yarn with fun results. 

Next on my list were two hats, one for each of our daughters for our upcoming trip to the mountains.

Now there are only five pom poms left of the 12 bargain ones, and I am now free to work on my "real" projects.  Wish me luck as I won't be finishing this month's "choices" once again.

A Finish, A Correction and Two Eagles

How could I confuse two rainbows?  Well, I sure did.  The one in my last post was from our CAR window en route to Cannon Beach, Oregon.  And this is the one from our hotel window in California!

These booties have been delivered to our daughter who will send them to her friend and former roommate's newly arrived son.

Now I need to get back to work on some other projects, including another pair of booties requested by my grand daughter for her math teacher's baby girl due in June.

A couple of weekends ago we drove to Rockport, WA, in search of eagles.  As it turned out, we were too late.  The eagles gather here in January and earl February to feast on the spawning salmon.  We did see some pretty views though, and our sharp-eyed friend Nancy spotted two eagles in a tree in Arlington on the way back home.

Did you know that eagles mate for life and return to their nest every year?

We also stopped at the site of the Oso landslide that occurred four years ago this month.  It will eventually be a memorial park in remembrance of the 42 victims of this tragedy.

May they rest in peace.

A Few More Finishes ~

How did it get to be March so fast? February flew by so quickly, it makes me wonder if the earth is rotating quicker.  (We were gone to California for a week, so that helped the process.) While we were there, we had a quick visit with Dick's brother and Mary in Palo Alto and, on the other end of the state, an even quicker visit with my sister and Ted in Dana Point.

Our visit began with a surprise rainbow which we saw from our hotel room.

We had fun exploring the sights in the Palo Alto area and visiting the art museum on the Stanford campus.

We watched a beautiful sunset at Dana Point.  Our search for warmth though didn't pan out as most of California was experiencing unusually cold weather that they said originated in the Pacific Northwest of all places.  I did, however, complete a few knitting projects!

All five GK hats are now finished and will be put to good use later this month when we gather as a family.

As requested, here's the link to the above pattern.

I also finished a couple of dishcloths.  The Christmasy one was discovered in the bottom of one of numerous project bags, partially finished.  We had a fun trip this past weekend, but I will share those photos in my next post.  Have a great week!

Mystery Solved! And a Finish

Is it possible to have SMS (second mitt syndrome) along with the other issue called SSS?  Well, silly me joined a mystery mitt KAL last month, and now I have a pretty mitt that needs a mate.  However, this little critter gave me some grief, so its friend will just have to wait in time out while I work on some other stuff.

Here's the culprit.  It was good practice on attaching beads with a crochet hook as well as using Vikkel (Estonian) braid on something other than a hat.  While its mate hibernates, I am going to work on some hats for the GK as well as some "what was I thinking" sock KALs.  Here's one hat all finished, and more about the sock projects in another post.

The littlest Miss picked out the pom pom. I'm hoping to finish four more hats for the rest of the GK before our family trip to CO at the end of March.......as well as those Sock KALs.  When will I learn?

Remember this?  Well, this over-performing plant now looks like this.  It's going crazy, isn't it? This photo is from a few days ago, and now there are even more blossoms open. Stalk number three is almost as tall as the other two, and hardly has room to open.  Stay tuned.  (And have a great weekend!)