Camping Trip 09/26-28/05
So, we had a great and relaxing time camping at VanBuren State Park, near South Haven, Michigan. This is our nifty little pop-up camper that we pull behind the BYB. It's an amazing piece of engineering. Under the cover are our folding chairs and a variety of other gear.

Inside, we have a double bed (air mattress on top of the foam pad that came with the camper), and a double-bed-sized dressing area. The zipped-on screen room more than doubles the size of the camper, and has privacy panels that can be Velcro-ed to the screen.

We had a little rain early Saturday morning, and beautiful weather the rest of the weekend. It cleared off early and the sun shone all day. We met our son and his wife up there. Nici's step-dad has a boat moored at South Haven, and he took us for a rather bouncy ride out on Lake Michigan Saturday afternoon. It was Nick's 26th birthday. The kids came out to the campground Saturday evening and had supper with us. Sunday we met them and had lunch and played miniature golf before heading home.

No pictures today.

We are preparing for an upcoming camping trip. Rich pulled out the camper we pull behind the bike and we scrubbed the crud off the cover. Can't believe we've not been camping once this year! I'll pop it open today and start airing it out and arranging the stuff inside.

Went for a wonderful ride yesterday, up through grape country and across to South Haven, Michigan. The weather was perfect for a ride on the BYB. We checked out a couple of campgrounds and saw Lake Michigan, then back to meet friends for supper and home again, home again, jiggety-jog. Beautiful day!

Later!

Good Morning!
I finished a pair of socks yesterday. They're the Old Shale Two Yarn Sock Pattern from the Stitches of Violet blog. I used size 0 needles with Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in "Clay" for the cuffs, heels, and toes, and Kroy in a taupe-y color for the foot and leg. They're slightly different gauges, but it worked ok. The color is prettier than it shows here.

I went a little long on my heel flap, so have plenty of room in the instep! I actually have some pulled to the back of the blockers and pinned so it doesn't look so baggy.

Love, love, love my new Wooly the Ram sock blockers from Chappy!

On the needles: still working on my prototype Ducky Dew socks, waiting for updates on a pattern I'm testing for another designer for the Sock of the Whenever Yahoo! group, and cast on socks for my friend, Kenny, yesterday. He gets lovely, lovely Special Blauband in sage green. He has pretty big feet, so I'm holding two strands of the yarn together to make the socks knit up faster and working 2 socks/2 circs. Man, this is nice yarn!

So I took another look at Marguerite's pattern for this sock, and realized I forgot to do the ribbing down the instep! That would have taken care of all that fullness...

Not many words today, but a few photos. My little boys are growing up! DS Nick's best friend for nearly 21 years (they met when they were 5 years old) married DDIL Nici's best friend Saturday, August 13th. The two couples are already planning their firstborns' marriage -- to one another!
Nick and Jay around 7 years old


In Branson, Missouri, nearly 13 years old.

Jay & Jamie

Counting up the Dollar Dance money

Nick & Nici run with the money...

Brevity is the soul of wit. Somebody smarter than I said that. I shall endeavor to be more brief. Fat chance...

Here's a pic of DH and I (knitting) on our BigYellowBike. Note the helmets on the sidewalk. This is your first clue that the picture is a fake. The helmets are ALWAYS on our heads when we ride the bike. I do, however, knit on the back...I sleep a lot back there, too.

I knit socks on the back of the bike. I learned the 2 socks/2 circs technique just so I can knit on the bike without worrying too much about dropping a needle! My yarn ball rides in a little KnitKnackSack hooked over DH's backrest.

Frustrating day. I headed out this morning, resume in hand to apply for a job at a local bookstore. The owner was not in.

Thought I would mow the lawn. The shed where the bikes and mowers are stored is like one of those sliding puzzles. Move this piece up and over, then the next piece over two and down, and so on. Pushed my bike (Mini-Me) as far forward as I could. Backed up the BYB as far as I could -- man that thing is heavy! Started up the big mower. It ran out of gas. Put gas in. Tried to start the old mower so I could move it out of the way. Out of gas. Tried the big mower again. Wouldn't start. Closed barn doors. Went in house. Sheesh!

OK, that was not so brief. Will try again next time.

Watching Harry Potter at the quidditch match Just a friend and I in December '05 on a trip my husband and I took to London, England, with another couple. This is in the stairwell of a huge toy store in London. Every landing was illustrated with a selection from Harry Potter. Cool, huh! I actually climbed stairs to view all the different levels...I think there were seven floors at least. I L-O-V-E Harry Potter, and hope that the Queen knights (or whatever) J. K. Rowling for what she's done to promote the love of reading, especially in BOYS!

By the way, if any of you object to Harry Potter on the grounds that it promotes wizardry in young children, please, I do not mean to offend you, but let me say this: When I was a little girl, I REALLY, REALLY wanted to be a ballerina. I borrowed ballerina books from the library and devoured them cover-to-cover. I put on my little tights and turtleneck and stood in front of the mirror practicing the six basic positions. I dreamed about being a ballerina. I begged my parents for ballerina lessons -- no dice! Oddly, I did NOT become a ballerina, and I doubt that your children or any others will become wizards from reading about Harry and his friends. Just my $.02. Oh, and have you read fairy tales to your children? Have you let them watch Disney movies or The Wizard of OZ? pssst! there's magic in those, too! just thought you should know...

So, anyway, why did I start knitting again? Fast-forward to the winter of 2002. My son and his girlfriend (now his wife) were at our house to watch the Superbowl. The Packers weren't playing, so who cared? Future DIL and I were bored and I asked her if she wanted to learn to knit. Why yes, she did. Out came the (obligatory) size-10 needles, but we did NOT start a scarf. Her mother was pregnant for her little brother, and Future DIL thought she'd like to knit a baby blanket. A blue one. We found some blue Red Heart and I showed her how to cast on and do the basic knit stitch.

Basic baby blanket, knit every row. Despite the Grip-O-Death on the needles and yarn, she did quite admirably, so I sent her home with her project, confident she would succeed. I, by the way, had discovered how much I missed knitting.

Fast-forward again, a couple of months this time. Bear in mind I haven't seen said blanket since Superbowl Sunday. Son and Future DIL show up at the house, and she says, " I think it's big enough. Can you show me how to finish it?" I began to bind off. She caught on right away, so I turned it over to her. It seemed that there were more stitches than I'd remembered...lots more...infinitely more. Many, many stitches later, I discovered that Future DIL had made a half-dishcloth-shawl, accidently making one increase in the first stitch of every row. It was square across the bottom (the original cast-on row), then flared perfectly to arms' width! Her mother loved it.

And then I discovered sock knitting...next time!

Nick and I about 1983. He's wearing my favorite creation of all time...The Elephant Sweater! The brown yarn was from Delaine Woolen Mills (I think). You bought single-ply cones in your choice of colors and, through the magic of the special shipping box, which had shelves with holes in them on which you stacked the cones, then pulled all of the plies together through a hole in the top of the box and Voila! (or, "Viola!" as I see it spelled so often online...who IS this Viola, and why is she always coming around?) two-ply yarn or three-ply or four-ply or...well, you get the picture!
I am wearing a store-bought sweater, probably a birthday or Christmas gift from my mom. I think I still have it somewhere. Ahh, that hair! Those glasses! That makeup! Ooh-la-la, it was indeed the eighties! Wish I was still that thin...

I feel like I'm talking to myself...oh, wait, I am...

So I guess I'll talk about knitting. I first learned when I was really, really young. Like, so small I can picture my little legs sticking straight out on the couch as I sat beside my sister, or maybe my mom, can't remember. Anyway, it was probably a scarf. The first project is always a scarf, isn't it? Destined to be tossed aside in a tangle after six misshapen rows, remaining uncompleted and unloved until, finally, someone needs the yarn for something else and unravels it, or maybe just pitches the whole snarled mess. The working yarn is clutched in the grip of death, wrapped around the tip of the needle...Tink!...Scrape!...Rats, I dropped it! And the gauge on those first scarves, nearing 10 stitches to the inch in cheap Red Heart acrylic worsted on the obligatory size ten needles, the yarn is pulled so tightly.

Years passed. Lots of years. It's 1979 and I'm pregnant for our son, Nick, although in these days before non-emergency ultrasounds, we didn't know he was Nick, or even that he was a boy. I think I knitted something for him. I know my mom did--two sweaters, one pink and one blue, just in case (remember, no ultrasound). As he grew, I knitted and crocheted for him: sweaters, hats, mittens, slippers, and yes, even a scarf! Lots of sweaters. One new sweater for each of his first few years in school, and I have the school pictures to prove it.

Then tragedy struck...well, ok, I'm being overly dramatic. It wasn't a tragedy so much as a new phase...Nick was now too cool to wear hand-knitted sweaters with elephants or duckies or yellow pencils or crayons on the front. Go figure! Plus, I went to work full time and had no spare moments for knitting any more. So no knitting for many years.

And that's where I'll leave it for today.

Welcome to my blog. Sure wish I was still this cute. I do still have the same hairstyle, though! Hmm...maybe it's time for a change?

I have no real plans for this blog, but I'm sure I'll find something to talk about.
I like to knit, especially socks, and ride motorcycles. My husband and I have a big Honda GL1800 for trips together, and I have my own little Honda Rebel when I'm alone.

We have a grown son and a wonderful daughter-in-law and a St. Bernard granddoggy.