This Moment

Mixed Feeling Sweater

Obviously from my title today, I am having mixed feelings about my newest sweater...it's done! & here are some things I've learned about knitting sweaters..
1 - NEVER knit a sweater in a yarn you don't absolutely LOVE!
2 - Always...do your math when estimating how much yarn you need.
3 - Improvise..improvise..improvise
4 - Dye doesnt work on acrylic fiber.
5 - Sometimes your kids say the sweetestt things to make you feel better in an ugly sweater.

Umbrella

I feel you walking with me under the umbrella you once held.
Where were you going each time you walked with it?
Did it keep you dry & out of the rain?
Our worlds walking together
Under the cover you must of thought of all that you had to do, what was for dinner, how the grass needed mowing..
I walk & think of you.

Sunshine & Scones

Is it really November in Ohio?? The leaves say yes, but this blue sky & bright sunshine is confusing me:)
Today I made scones..chocolate chip. Thank you Catherine. Check her out at http://benandbirdy.blogspot.com/2011/11/brown-sugar-oat-scones.html
She has introduced me to popovers & brown sugar oat scones. Both I'm loving. Jack & Maddie were skeptical of the popovers, But I was excited that they at least tried something different!! Fresh out of the oven, all buttery they are hard to resisit!! The verdict was they tasted too eggy..we'll they do have a few eggs in them. But back to scones.
Here's the recipe. I altered Catherine's to have a bit more brown sugar & chocolate chips! Wonder if I will end of eatting all of them before school is out:)
Chocolate Chip Brown Sugar Oat Scones..
Bake at 425 for 15 minutes.
i cup oats
1 1/2 cups flour
1/2 cup brown sugar
2tsp baking pwder
1 1/4 tsp salt
7 tbs butter chilled & diced
1 egg
2/3 cup of milk
1 tsp vanilla.
Combine dry ingredients first & then add wet. Flour a cutting board & press the dough into a circle & cut like a pizza into eight slices. Put individual slices on a greased cooking sheet. Enjoy with a cup of tea in the sunshine if available!

Monday Music

Back when we were album hunting for Jack's new record player, we were so excited when we found those cool, timeless ones. Jazz Under the Dome by the Freddy Merkle Group is Jack's all time favorite. Maddie would probably pick the "Stand By Me" soundtrack since she loves most of the songs on that one, especially. Lollipop by the Chordettes. One of my favorites is Duran Duran's Rio. John was excited that someone gave us a Boston album. He also might admit he likes my choice too:)

This weekend, I told J&M to put an album on...ELVIS was there choice. It's box set of Elvis - 50 Gold Awards. So Elvis is what we heard & danced to a lot this weekend:)

Family Pictures

Some of my favorites from the photo shoot we had a few weeks ago:)

You can always make something out of something:)

Last winter I made Jack a striped sweater. All went well until I started decreasing stitches for the neck line. ssk, doesn't mean slip, slip, slip. It means slip, slip, knit! So the top portion of his sweater aka "the yoke" looked BAD! I left it for many months..always looking at it wondering how I could fix it, thinking, "what am I going to do with all those stitches?" RIP!!!

I loved the color palette I chose, if only it could be ripped down to the underarm & started again. I did try!! I promise Jack, but the stitches were hard to pull off under the sleeve (arm hole) portion. Slowly, I realized this wasn't going to be Jack's sweater. Big sigh:(

Cowl with long arm/wrist warmers was my second solution. So I knitted away for days trying to clean up the edges & make it a wearable project. Then after wearing the arm warmers all day yesterday, I realized the cowl just wasn't going to look right. Wearable yes, but it just didn't feel right. SO!! As I looked at the bottom cast on ribbed portion, my thought was to sew that down, put a little elastic in there & voila! Maddie's gets a brand new skirt & legwarmers. Jack, I promise there's a sweater coming soon.