Getting back in the groove.....

I promise to write more in the future.

I promise to research more of the interesting things around me so that there is something actually worth reading if you check in on my blog.

I promise to be a really awesome grandmom and to enjoy my mom being an awesome and very happy great-grandmother.

These are my goals.

I can do it!

Over and out.

Adventures in Grandmother Land

It's Fair season. The air is crisp. Pumpkins are showing up at the roadside produce stands. Sunsets are gorgeous too. Luke has grown from a newborn to a 6 week old little person.

It seems like a very long time since I have talked to my blog, but today seems like the day to make up for lost time.

There's been a lot of knitting going on in my life. Sweaters and hats for

Luke. Scarves and shawls, some for me and some for our St. Nick's Knits sale in December. Money raised at our church sale is being put to good use in several ways. Profits made have already gone to a needy family last Christmas, used to purchase supplies for our after-school program for local elementary students and, last week, funded the purchase of cool recyclable shopping bags with our church logo and "Small Steps Towards Sustainability" on each beautiful navy blue bag.

So, yes, I have been busy knitting. I love it too.

As much as I adore the knitting, it pales in comparison to any time I get to spend with my darling grandson. Even when he's sleeping.

Greetings from Mini Purl

Boy, it's hot!!!!!

Now that that's out of the way, it's great to be writing something on the old blog again.

It has been ages, but I plead being wrapped up in stitches as an excuse.

Along with the knitting for church, knitting for the grandbaby who is almost here, and a birthday shawl being knitted for my mom's 87th birthday in August, I have even been sewing again.

My trusty Elna has been oiled and is out of the closet doing duty after a very long rest. With the help of my dear friend Nancy, I made some cute-as-a button valances for Baby's windows and am working on a lightweight cover for the Boppy pillow. I have to figure out invisible zippers first.

Thanks to one of my knitting buddies at LYS, and her wonderful donation of colorful fabrics, I became involved in the pillowcase project for ConKerr Cancer. This is, without a doubt, one of my favorite projects ever.

Bye for now.

Waiting patiently for grandbaby.........and knitting :)

Baby love :)

Today was daughter Jennifer Rose Zeller Hinton's baby shower. She introduced me as an excellent knitter (!) which I still find hard to believe. Just one of life's miracles, along with this beautiful child of mine. It was a beautiful day.

P.S. She loved the Op-Art blanket.

Singing in the rain...

It's not raining out. I am just so full of love for music, in general, that I am actually dusting off the cobwebs from my blog to share some thoughts.

Check out this Old Rock Stars link: Rock stars are getting old too. Isn't it great? When I saw this comedian, I knew I had to tell y'all about him.

In the small world department, I heard from Dawn Sansonetti, owner-operator at Old Spinning Wheel Yarn Shop near Ft. Hood, Texas. She came upon a post I had written about sending one hundred Pocket Prayer Shawls to Foot Hood after the shooting there. Turns out that her husband works at the base and helps with deployment of troops. She is in need of a lot of PPS (pocket prayer shawls) ASAP, like for the month of June. How very cool. So, the knitters/crocheters of my Sacred Stitches group are busily at work.

And my quote for this , once again, rainy day is from Helen Keller: "The best and most beautiful things in the world cannot be seen or even touched. They must be felt with the heart."

I'm so rattled these days :)

Et voila! I have just completed the Better Baby Rattle for my grand-baby, due in August. This pattern, designed by Katie Himmelberg, is taken from Ann Budd's "Knitting Green" book. I love this book. Projects for all ages.

Check out the Eco Vest, another Katie Himmelberg design. It's calling me. Right after I complete the Op Art blanket for the baby.

My lovely daughter, Jennifer Rose Hinton, gets more beautiful every day.

Crazy for quilting?

I have wanted to try my hand at quilting for some time now. Crazy quilting, to be exact.

When a free workshop at our local library was advertised, I loaded my trusty Elna sewing machine and as much fabric as I could fit into one tote bag, and off I went. I learned a lot in those two hours.

A teacup design cut from one of my daughter Jen's theater skirts became the center of the piece. Just about every other scrap of fabric chosen for the square reminded me of some aspect of my daughter's life. The keyboard, cut from an old, silk scarf reminds me of all those piano lessons. (Thanks, Mr. Drackley!) Another scrap, embellished with tiny pink rosebuds, represents Jen's middle name, Rose. My favorite scrap of all is the one I picked up from the community scrap pile. It's black with acorns all over it. It reminds me of walks taken many years ago, where my little girl would pick up acorns that "lost their hats" to take home for her dad to fix.

I picked the pink and blue scraps because our instructor said we needed to tie into the colors in my little teacup scrap. As I look at it now I am reminded that Jen will become a mom sometime in August, 2011. And then we'll find out whether I have a grandson or granddaughter. Hooray!

My marathon experience

Ken and I had planned to take a bus trip to D.C. last Sunday to see the Hyperbolic Crochet Coral Reef at the Smithsonian. He insisted I go without him. What a guy.

Off I went with a busload of friends, knitting all the way.

Pure joy.

In order to actually get to the Museum of Natural History, we found it necessary to participate in the St. Patrick's Day marathon. OK. In all truth, we were told the only way to cross Constitution Avenue was to actually join the runners and exit the race on the other side of the street. Can you say "Why did the knitters cross the road?" We did a little victory dance after we made it to the other side. One more thing I can cross off my bucket list, I guess.

Since I'm writing this on St. Patty's Day, I am saving the actual coral reef info for later. I believe I have never had so much fun while in our nation's capitol.

They even had their St. Patrick's Day parade on Sunday, in beautiful weather, just for us!

I discovered I'm a sucker for team mascots, even though I always believed myself to be a one-mascot woman, that being the Philly Phanatic. Harsh truth, but there you have it. The Washington Nationals had four mascots in attendance, and they were awesome. A beautiful day and a beautiful parade.

Deja vu all over again

Ken's home from the hospital after his second surgery in less than 4 months. Truth be told, if he hadn't had the first surgery for an aneurysm in the celiac artery, he wouldn't have been concerned about the pains in his abdomen on Feb. 23rd. He wouldn't have contacted his surgeon, and he wouldn't have had the CAT scan and blood work that necessitated surgery for a blockage the very next day. The blockage was due to scar tissue from the first surgery but, along with removing that, his surgeon removed a carcinoid tumor , his appendix, and some amount of intestine. Testing revealed the tumor to be malignant. It had spread to 3 lymph nodes out of the 17 the surgeon removed. Prognosis is good and this type of cancer does not respond to chemo, so he will need CAT scans and blood work every few months to rule out any further tumors.

Wow.

I came home from my hospital vigil with more back pain and the old sciatic nerve kicking up, but luckily am able to get in for a therapeutic massage to deal with it later today. And relief.

Springtime :)

I love the colors in this yarn. Reminds me of violets, grape hyacinths, maybe even a crocus or two. Purchased 2 balls of it intending to make mittens, even came with a very nice pattern. Somehow, I never cast on for those mittens and now spring is in the air. Et voila! The Storm Cloud Shawlette popped up on Ravelry this morning.

It was fate.

There's no place like home :)

I have a closet in my bedroom that I call my sewing closet because it contains all things pertaining to sewing, which I do very little of these days. Knitting is more fun.

Well, spring cleaning got to me yesterday and I took a stab at the closet, especially the tippy top shelf that I have used as a treasure chest since 1986 for anything memorable/special pertaining to my children.

A little history here: My daughter Jennifer's Aunt Flo gifted her with a very large Raggedy Ann doll the day Jen was born. It came with a special tradition of photographing Jennifer with Raggedy Ann each year on her birthday. I really wanted to continue the tradition (wouldn't it be a hoot to have Jen in her wedding dress with R.A.?) but the practice waned around 7th grade.

Back to the cleaning extravaganza: I uncovered such memories and treasures. Eventually, duty called, dinner had to be cooked and all was forgotten, mid-cleaning. I left everything on a table in my bedroom for another day, along with some pillows, one a very large"husband pillow with arms".

Here's what I saw when I crawled into bed and glanced across the room last night. The wicked witch of the west perhaps????

Going cold tortoise

How could you not love a face like this? Better yet: two faces like this.

It's so very cold and windy outside, but our tortoises enjoyed a comfortable ride to their vet visit in their mulch-lined plastic boxes, accompanied by hot water filled bottles to cozy up their journey.

I went along on the adventure to lend a hand carrying the guys into the vet's office. In truth, I really was curious to see what a tortoise checkup entailed. It was pretty quick, actually looked like just a cursory glance. One can only wonder what the vet was looking for. Anyway, the guys passed with flying colors and entertained the staff and other pet owners. Now they're back home again, awaiting travel instructions. One day soon, they'll take a one hour journey south to the Plumpton Park Zoo in Cecil County, MD , their new home. I'm hoping we'll pass a yarn store along the way, but I digress.

What fun!

Crochet a coral reef??? Sounded intriguing when the idea was shared at a Thursday knit night a few months ago. The idea to be a part of creating a Hyberbolic Crochet Coral Reef caught on in a flash and all the intrepid knitters of LYS dug out scrap yarns of all colors and crochet hooks and off we went, creating wonderful and quite realistic-looking "coral". A field trip to the Smithsonian in D.C. is in the works for warmer weather. The coral reef will be on display in the Sant Ocean Hall through April 24th.

Blast from the past....

Remember 2010? I had such a busy, fun day on New Year's Eve that visions of completing my abc-along sat on the shelf.

So here, in all its glorious lateness, is my attempt at crossing the finish line.

U is for the many UFOs in my knitting collection. It's not unusual for me to get the urge to undertake another project, all the while ignoring any urges to complete at least one of those UFOs.....

V is for Villages, both real and commercial. There's Kitchen Kettle Village in the

village of Intercourse, PA where I can be found almost every Thursday evening, happily spending time with my knitting buddies at the Lancaster Yarn Shop. Visitors have a variety of activities and shopping choices at Kitchen Kettle Village. As for me, I invariably end up spending valuable time at LYS.

W is for Wendy Ellis, the wonderful owner of LYS, who I am willing to say, has the patience of a saint and a knowledge of yarn and fiber, second to none...a knowledge she is always willing to share with others :) Even the tiniest of folks.

Y is for YARN!!!!!!! Enuf said.

Z is for Zeller's Zoo...my home and the residence of various snakes, birds, rescue doggies, fish, turtles, and, the zaniest of the bunch, two tortoises. The tortoises are about 65 lbs. each and will be leaving us in the next week for their new home at a local veterinary facility. I am beyond thrilled. And the zookeeper? That'd be the turkey at the top of this blog, my darling husband Ken.

Happy New Year to all!