...Or maybe I did...

Wow. Time has sure flown by.

After Mom passed, I just didn't have the heart to knit for a while. It was something I did with her, after all. I do miss her, but it's not as painful anymore. It does ease with time.

I have started knitting again. I've had more time lately and more motivation to do so. A couple of years ago it seemed like everyone was having baby boys, well this year everyone is having baby girls. Strangely enough, the young women in my neighborhood like my knitted gifts. They even make requests. The most popular? The February sweater, in any color except pink.

Here is my latest February sweater, in violet Lion Brand Baby Soft. I managed to finish it a little over a week before the baby was born, and any time a project is finished before the kid outgrows it is a victory in my book.

Can you tell I've been going through all those boxes full of old unfinished projects? Yes indeed.

I visited my local yarns shops this week (for the first time in several months) just to reacquaint myself with their inventories. You know, pet-and-drool. I'm on a fiber diet until I can finish sorting out the stash conglomerate, so I wasn't actually shopping. While I was drooling, I saw a very simple little baby sweater in Araucania Nature Cotton, a one-ball wonder, that I simply must try. It was even in the same color as that orphan ball of Nature Cotton in my stash. The employee and I counted stitches and measured lengths to figure it out, since there was no pattern for her to sell me. Now, that's accommodating.

I'll be sharing that with you soon.

I haven't disappeared.

It's been a while since I have written a blog post. Well, that's not exactly true-it's been a while since I published a post. I have several drafts of posts in this folder that I started to write but never finished. Some things are difficult to write about.

My mother passed away.

I had been living with her and caring for her while she fought cancer the last few years. Now that the battle is over, our lives are changing. Moving, selling the house, sorting out her belongings-all the usual things are keeping us very busy just now.

So, I haven't disappeared. I'm just dealing with one of the more difficult things in life.

WWKIP '08

There hasn't been much knitting going on around here the last couple of months. The best knitting time comes when the mind is occupied but the hands are free, and lately my hands have been quite busy at other tasks.

I did manage to make it to our local WWKIP '08 event on Saturday June 14 with my Ravelry group. We did a great deal of chatting while knitting, as usual. We sat on the benches in the courtyard, shaded by the trees, listening to the splashing water and every now and then feeling a bit of the mist blown by the wind off the fountain. It was truly lovely.

We interrupt this knitblog for a bit of humor.

I get such a kick out of these little quizzes. When I see one that catches my eye I simply must click over to see what my results will be. Today I saw the Muppet Quiz on someones blog. I remember the Muppet Show, and I just had to try it out.

You Are Scooter

Brainy and knowledgeable, you are the perfect sidekick. You're always willing to lend a helping hand. In any big event or party, you're the one who keeps things going. "15 seconds to showtime!"

The Muppet Personality Test

Of course, while you're there at the Blogthings website, you have to try out some of their other quizzes too. Hey, cookies! Everyone loves cookies, let's see which cookie I am, shall we?

You Are a Chocolate Chip Cookie

Traditional and conservative, most people find you comforting. You're friendly and easy to get to know. This makes you very popular - without even trying!

What Kind of Cookie Are You?

Oh, here's an interesting one, let's see what my fridge says about me!

What Your Fridge Says About You

You tend to be a very hedonistic, greedy person. You have trouble saying no to what you want. You are not careful with your money. In fact, you rarely think about how much you are spending. You are a very adventurous person. You love to try new things, and you get bored very easily. You are responsible, together, and mature. You act like an adult, even when you don't feel like it. You are likely to be married - and very busy.

What Do the Contents of Your Refrigerator Say About You?

ROFL! Now, I would have said that my fridge looks like it belongs to a large family with healthy eating habits (lots of veg) who enjoy variety (different ethnic condiments). Continuing with the topic of food, I gotta know-what spice am I?

You Are Ginger

Like ginger, you are a total shape shifter. You can be sweet, spicy, mellow, or overpowering. You are both soothing and unique. You are popular... yet you are often overlooked.

What Spice Are You?

OK, one more for the road.

Your Pirate Name Is...

Lord Fanny La Bouche

What's Your Pirate Name?

In the merry, merry month of May...

These are the little baby hats and socks I've been working on for the afghans for Afghans May 19 campaign for newborns. As you can see, I still have one matching sock to finish. If I get it finished tonight, I can ship these Priority tomorrow. If not, I will send them in for the next campaign. Probably the latter.

The hats are my Infant Earflap Hats without the earflaps and the socks are Sherie's Simply Sweet Socks. I was playing around with stripes and contrast heels with the brown-and-pink and brown-and-blue color schemes. They were fun to knit, but lately I've been either too tired to knit or simply haven't been in the mood.

Not in the mood? How can that be possible?

Last week my 5-year-old was hit by a car, not 20 feet from our front door, right before our eyes. He is fine, only minor bumps and scrapes, but it scared us all very badly. Hubby, myself and several neighbors standing in the street watched the young woman carelessly and needlessly reverse her car into him, sitting stationary there on his bike. If we hadn't all been shouting at her and gesturing madly, she wouldn't have stopped with the boy and his bike merely wedged under her bumper.

This week I am researching law and ordinance. Apparently the street on which I live is private property, and the authorities on the scene told me they do not enforce traffic laws on private property.

Words cannot describe how I feel about this.

Our Mother's Day barbeque was especially sweet this year. I am grateful that my son and my mother are here to celebrate with me, and I can't ask for anything more.

Nap Time

I've been knitting for a good long while. My fingers know what to do and I don't have to think about the mechanics of it, the knitting just flows along without my active attention. While watching TV, as a passenger in the car, while waiting just about anywhere, the knitting just seems to happen-almost by itself.

First thing in the morning, last thing at night, it's knitting. Those extreme ends of the day offer some of the purest peace and quiet for just a few more rows. Waiting for that pot of water to boil? Opportunity to knit. Picking up hubbo from work? I can knit in the dark. I keep a sock in my pocket, you know, ready for those moments.

Occasionally life gets very busy and a day or two will go by without knitting, or there will be other creative projects that occupy my time and efforts, but not this time. This month my caregiver role has gotten to be quite heavy. I sleep in 2-hour shifts. The sleep deprivation has turned my short-term memory into swiss cheese. I forget to eat.

I am too tired to knit.

Yes, hard to believe, but true. There is indeed a state of fatigue where you can sit with simple knitting in your hands and be utterly unable to make a stitch (shortly followed by upright-snoring, of course, but you get the idea).

So, I'm sending the child off to the neighbor's so that I can power-nap. I'll catch up with you all later, when I can knit again.

Spring Knitting

I have some more projects to show you today.

I usually find there's just enough yarn left over after making a baby sweater to make a hat and socks or booties to match, so it seems unnatural to have a sweater all by itself. I'm catching up on these accessories.

On the right is a pair of booties to go with the Lemon Drop Cardigan. This is another free pattern by Carole Barenys, find it at Knitting On The Net and at Carole's Website where she also has a .pdf file. I think this bootie just might stay on. I can't wait to try a pair on my neighbor's newborn when she arrives. Can you imagine how the woman would feel, giving birth and then her neighbor wants to come over and play dress up with her baby all the time! ROFL

Here is a set of hat and socks to go with the Colorful Baby Top I made last month. I posted this photo and information about the yarn I used in my project database at Ravelry! and almost immediately I started getting messages asking about the pattern.

Pattern? I didn't use a pattern. I improvised them based on my experiences knitting baby hats and socks. They were easy to make and I'm so pleased with the way they turned out (so cute!).

So, I am writing up the pattern. I will be talking about pattern variations and sources of creative inspiration too. I'm writing it for beginners, because they have a lot of wonderful creative ability, they just don't know it yet.

Oh, if you haven't signed up to join Ravelry! yet, please go over there right now and do so. You don't know what you're missing. Ravelry is all about searchable databases. The first time you search for a pattern over there...you will thank me.

Here is an unusual small handbag I couldn't resist trying. The pattern is called 'My Ex' and it's a riot! The author held a contest and this was my entry. I have to say, after seeing the other entries, my version isn't bizarre enough to win the prize. You can see them here, under the category "My Ex is Full of Knit Contest Submissions".

My finished bag is about 6" tall and 4" in diameter. I used Shepherd Classic Wool for the face and Patons Classic Wool Merino for the hair, then I ran it twice through the washing machine to get the smoothly felted look on the face. Embellishments are from my personal jewelry collection. Yes, that's really my jewelry and no, it doesn't look like the sort of stuff I'd wear. Not lately, anyway.