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.