Some things that have been keeping me busy

They'll all be donated somewhere, except the hooded cape for an American Girl doll. I found that half done, probably by my granddaughter, and finished it as I assumed it should be. I'll need to find out which great-granddaughter it should go to.

Family Reunion

I could have sworn that I posted once in July, but I guess I was preparing for the family reunion.

Some of my cousins did a fantastic job planning this event.

There was tubing on the Crow Wing River:

I didn't go on this one.

A golf scramble:

I don't golf.

Watching and participating in farm chores:

Orren is the farmer.

Mattie helped milk.

The kids all enjoyed feeding the calves.

And riding in the big tractor.


They also enjoyed the rope swing in the hay mow.

As well as just sitting up high.

There was square dancing one evening.

A few people even had the right clothes.

After the dancing, there was fireworks.

One afternoon, there was a large slip 'n' slide.

The family farm has been recognized as a 'MN Century Farm.' My grandparents bought it in 1913, and it has been owned and worked by family members since then.

The center part of the barn is 100 years old. It now has this sign on it.

Of course, as with any family reunion, there was food (several times)

and plenty of just sitting around, talking.

Then there were the 'official' pictures, done by a professional photographer.

This is the 'Ethel' branch. We have lavender shirts, because that was Mother's favorite color.
Front row: my niece Autumn's sons, Aidan and Liam, and my great-granddaughter Alexis.
Middle row: Autumn, my sisters, Renee (Autumn's mother) and Pauline, and me.
Back row: Autumn's husband Matt, Renee's husband Michael, Pauline's daughter Debra, and my daughter Carmen.

And here is the whole group. I think the photographer's idea of having us on the large piece of playground equipment was a good one.

Calla's blanket, etc.

This is the blanket I made for my eighth great-grandchild. Today was the due date, but she hasn't arrived yet. The theme of the blanket was determined by her name. I looked at pictures of calla lilies on-line and made a small sketch of three from different angles. I scanned the sketch into Print Shop, enlarged it, and printed it out on graph. I started the blanket from the bottom, working her first name upside-down in shadow/illusion knitting, then did the flowers in the intarsia method, working loosely from the graph. At one point, I was working with seven ends of yarn across each row - they didn't get TOO tangled. I worked the bottom of the flowers in stockinette stitch and the top part in seed stitch. That gives a little difference in texture in the two sections, and is what causes a difference in shade in the picture. After finishing the flower part, I knit the name right side up in shadow/illusion knitting. Then I picked up stitches along the sides and knit her middle name on one side and her last name on the other side. (The illusion knitting appears as narrow stripes when looking at it head-on; the pattern shows up when looking at an angle.) After all of the knitting was done, I duplicate stitched the stems and leaves, working 'free hand.' I'm pleased with the way it turned out, but I wish I had used a size smaller knitting needle.

When I went to Hobby Lobby to buy another skein of the darker green (I couldn't believe they actually had one skein of the same dye lot I had bought more than a month before!) to finish the blanket, several multi-color yarns jumped into my basket and asked me to make them into hat and mitten sets to donate to kids at the local school in October. Here are the ones I've completed so far.

And finally, some tiny slippers for Calla and matching ones for big, three-year-old sister Lily.

They arrived!

You're probably asking, "What in the world are they?"
About a month ago, on KnitTalk Yahoo! Group, a woman said she was going to an estate sale that was advertized as having a lot of knitting stuff. I wondered if there would be any all-nylon, circular knitting needles. She asked what sizes I was interested in and I said any size, any length. These 17 are what she found for me.
These needles are apparently no longer made. I had bought several back in the 60's or 70's, and have realized recently that I like them much better than some of the more expensive needles I have. There are duplicates, but then I usually have several projects going at once.

Graduation

My oldest great-granddaughter graduated from Massac Junior High School, Metropolis IL, last night.
Here she is with her mother. The stole reads Valedictorian. There were 13 of them out of a class of 140 something. We are all very proud of her. In addition to being smart and pretty, she's friendly and just a nice kid.

As I was walking from my car to the school building (the graduation was held at the high school because its gym is larger), a woman passed me wearing a beautiful shawl. After a couple of seconds I thought, "That shawl looks familiar  - I think I made it." When I got inside, the woman was talking with two or three others. I touched her arm and asked, "Do you teach math here?" She answered, "Yes, well not here, but at the junior high." I said,"I thought I recognized the shawl; I'm Lexi Gill's great-grandmother." She said that she loves the shawl and that Lexi is a delight to have in class.

After the ceremony, Lexi showed me a thank you note she had gotten from her science teacher for the shawl Lexi had given her. I had forgotten that Lexi had requested two. (I make shawls when and how I want to, and the great-grandkids pick out which ones they want to give to their teachers.)

This in the one Lexi gave to the math teacher

I love this picture of it being modeled by almost-three-year-old Lily - her first shawl modeling experience. See how the front corners are dragging the ground? I'm not sure if the one Rose is modeling has gone to a teacher or not. I know Lexi said the one she gave the science teacher is pink and white, but there is also this pink and white one.

Lexi said that Devin has selected a pink and brown one for his teacher, so it must be this one

I am still here.

Ruth told me today that Diane told her to remind me that I haven't posted here for a long time. She's right!

When I started this blog 8 1/2 years ago, I thought it would be about my knitting. Then a couple of months later, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma, and it switched to mostly medical stuff. The Myeloma has been  in remission now for almost five years. I only see the oncologist and have blood work done every six months, so there's not any medical stuff to write about.

Soooo, I guess I need to write more about my knitting and other fiber-related things. I just scrolled back and discovered that I haven't posted any shawl pictures since August. Shame on me! Let me try to catch up.

This one I also did in August. While I had it on the needles, it reminded me of a pumpkin.

It looks like I did only hats in September. I know that's not true, but I guess I didn't take pictures of everything. And most of these pictures are blurry.

I was really pleased with the way this shawl turned out. I call it my Threes Shawl for several reasons. First because of the three triangular sections. Second because the stitch pattern is 'squares' that are three stitches wide and six rows long; half of the squares are garter stitch, so that means three ridges. Then, when I ran out of the pink yarn, I did not have the number of stitches needed for the border pattern I wanted to use, so I started the white border with three two-row eyelet pattern repeats. Finally, I wound up using the leftovers of three white skeins, with only a small amount remaining of the third ball.

I did a few hats in October, as well.

I actually used someone else's pattern for this shawl - some of my friends think I must be sick when I do that. My model didn't want to show her face; maybe because the shawl doesn't go well with her shirt.

This is another one of my Diagonal Pinstripe shawls; Lexi is again hiding her face with her hair.

I also completed two Christmas stockings - one for a grandson-in-law and the second for my new great-grandson.

I think that's all for last year; I'll report on this year in the next couple of days.