Robert Glenn Rickards III

He arrived on July 3, which just happened to be his daddy's 25th birthday. He weighed 8 lbs, 14.4 oz and was 21 inches long. Mommy and baby are doing well - and so is daddy.

And even Grammy.

I have no idea when I'll meet him in person.

I've just come home from a funeral/memorial service that was lovely. The man who died was my oldest great-granddaughter's great-grandfather on her father's side. He was 87 years old and had been sick for a couple of years. They tell me that after his wife died (before I knew the family), he started planning his own funeral - the hymns, scriptures, speakers, pall bearers, etc. And more recently, he had asked his two oldest great-grandchildren to be honorary pall bearers. Jake is 14 1/2 and Lexi is 13 ( they are each other's oldest playmates). I know that Lexi felt very honored by that. Fred had been living at his daughter's home for about a year, I think. Lexi decided that she wanted to be there for Granddad's last days. They say that one day last week, the only word he said was Lexi.

The funeral was held at the church (Macedonia Church of Christ) he had been a faithful part of for decades, which is as it should be. Burial was in the graveyard beside the church. Then there was lunch in the parish hall (I know that's not what they call it, but I'm Episcopalian.)

Now I'm waiting for a great-grandson to be born.

It's June

How can it be six weeks since I posted. Either nothing has happened or I've been busy, and I can't tell you which.

My main activity this week is demonstrating spinning at the Purchase District Fair in Mayfield. The fair had gone downhill and wasn't even held last year. They are now trying to resuscitate it. The mayor asked me several months ago if I would demonstrate weaving. I agreed to that, but after some thought, asked if spinning would be OK instead. For weaving, I need someone else to transport my loom; for spinning, I can move my equipment by myself. So now we are three down and two to go. Tuesday through Friday, we open at 5 pm and have packed up by 9 pm. Saturday, we open at noon; I don't know how long I will be there. There have been several 'no shows' of people/businesses who had said they would come, which is disappointing. The crowds have been sparse in our area, but I think the midway has done well.

I enjoy talking to people, especially children, explaining what I am doing. In hope that next year I can get some people to join me in demonstrating other fiberarts - weaving, knitting, crocheting, tatting, maybe even bobbin-lace making. I need to start talking to people in my various groups.

Dr Who?

I haven't watched the program for years - decades, in fact, but I just made two Dr Who scarves - sort of.

Two weeks ago, I went out to the shed at the back of my lot, and discovered the Dr Who scarf I had made for Dominic 25-30 years ago. I thought he had taken it with him when he moved back to NJ. He tells me that I made another one for him, as well, and he has that one. Anyway, the one here had significant mouse damage.

I brought it into the house and washed it, then started making another scarf from the yarn as I unraveled it. The original scarf was 15 inches wide and about 12 feet long. I decided to make the new one 10 inches wide and no longer than 8 feet. It turned out to be about 7 feet, because I came to another bit of mouse damage at that point. Then I started a second scarf from the rest of the old one. It is 7 1/2 inches wide and not quite 5 feet long. I now have a bunch of little balls of yarn (up to 2 yards each) that I want to do something with. Maybe I'll put them together and make a hat.

Tempus Fugit! (did I spell that right?)

Has it really been two weeks since I posted anything here?

Those daffodils in the last pictures are kaput, but now the redbud, flowering crabapple and dogwood trees are blooming. I've done little bits of yardwork, but not too much. Mostly I've been knitting. Here are two shawls I've finished recently.

When Rose spent the night here a few weeks ago, she said she wanted me to make a shawl for her to give to her teacher at the end of the school year. "A big one like yours, but red . . . you can use some white . . . stripes." She showed me on mine how wide she wanted the stripes to be. It is 27 inched long at center back - that should be big enough. The second picture is a close-up of the lace edging I put on it.

This one is smaller - only 20 inches at center back. I alternated two rows of solid red with two rows of a variegated red/pink/orange. The border is all red and is the tulip pattern I've used several times recently.

Both shawls are basically Elizabeth Zimmerman Pie-Are-Square shawls, with some variation.

I had my every-four-months oncology visit on March 26; I'm still in remission.

My Favorite Model

Lexi is spending a couple of days of her Spring vacation with me, so I got her to model my latest shawls.

These two were in my last post, but I think they look much better here - must be the pretty model.

And here is another one that I just finished today; I call it Yellow Tulips Shawl.

She went with me this morning to my monthly Lake Area Fiber Artists group. She had her cellphone with her and also a book (the 7th of the Harry Potter series), but she also participated in the conversations. I am very proud of her.

Spring is here?

Maybe, finally.

The daffodils were two weeks late, but are blooming profusely now. I walked around my property today and saw more than I thought I had. There are also more crocuses than I knew about - only half a dozen, but that's more than I had noted in prior years. The iris leaves are up in six or eight places, and my one clump of bleeding heart has a lot of leaves (red at this stage) pushing up. The dogwood (1) and redbuds (2) look like they'll bloom in about two weeks, and the white-flowered crab apple has quite a few baby leaves. The lilac also has flower buds on it.

I used my pruning saw today to cut off part of the limb on one pine tree that a couple of small ice storms damaged during the winter. The main part of the limb is too thick for a pruning saw; it needs a chainsaw.

Knitting:

I completed a few projects this month.

The first picture shows the colors well, and the second shows the stitch patterns.

Rectangular, slip-stitch shawl. Sorry it's so blurry.

 Front or right side.

Back or wrong side.

Baptismal blanket for church. I started this back in August, but ran out of yarn about 3/4 of the way through. I kept checking the store where I bought the yarn, but they never had the right color. I finally asked for it and was told that a brighter shade of yellow was the only yellow they carry now. Other stores in the area didn't have it either. My sister found the right color in a different store in Louisville, so I was able to finish the blanket, an have enough to make another one.