LarrySocks
This is the last pair of Chat-Contest socks, going to Larry in Arizona. Regia yarn, cartridge-rib stitch pattern from "The Ultimate Sock Book".

I love these socks! The yarn knitted up in a sort of mossy-oak camouflage color.

Take a look at the gorgeous cutting boards in the picture...Larry built them for me as a house-warming gift, and they're just beautiful! I am so lucky to have such a talented friend.

They Fit!
These pictures of Baby J.D. and his mommy came from our friends in Texas. I'm so happy the socks and hat fit him. Gabi was having some trouble with early labor, and when I started knitting, I was afraid the baby would be a preemie and very tiny, so I made them small. Instead, he was born a very healthy 8 pounds + and is doing quite well, indeed.

Beautiful Mommy, handsome baby! :)

Texas-Bound and RalphSocks...

These little socks and matching hat will be on their way to Texas soon for our friends Suzi and Dale's brand-new grandson. Not-so-little J.D. weighed in at just over eight pounds on Thursday evening. I hope these will be big enough for him! Congratulations, Mai and Grandpa!

Regia yarn, basic baby socks and hat.

These socks are pair number four from the chat room contest I held in January. This pair goes to Ralph in South Carolina. KnitPicks Swish in worsted weight, using the same basic wide-rib sock pattern as the black socks shown previously.

Next up: the last pair of ChatContestSocks on the needles. This pair is in a cotton/wool blend for a recipient in Arizona.

Happy Feet!

Got me some new boots...my first-ever cowboy boots, and they're in BigYellowBike yellow. I love 'em!

Ditto....
I can't find my camera this morning, but if you scroll down to the January 1 post, that's what it looks like outside ....
They just called from work to tell me not to come in today because the roads are too bad. Guess I'll knit! : )

On the needles:
Baby hat for friends' impending grandbaby: nearly done.
Matching socks for above: finished.
Chatroom contest RalphSocks: about four inches down the legs.
My socks (formerly FrigNsocks, but I liked a different yarn better for his socks, and so did he): past the gusset decreases.
My socks (bright red): starting the gusset decreases.
Hat for the knitting class I'm teaching: stalled. I already finished one to show the class, and only started the second one for demonstration purposes.

About the knitting class:
I was approached by a local township library to teach a basic beginner's knitting class. I've never taught more than one person at a time, and was a little reluctant (ok, scared half to death!) to take it on, but it's going pretty well! We had ten women sign up, with several on the waiting list. Most had no knitting experience, and one or two were taught when they were little girls, but hadn't done any knitting in years.
I chose Lion Brand Bulky for the yarn and we're using a hat and scarf pattern that was printed on the ball band. It's a very easy hat, knit horizontally rather than vertically, and all in garter stitch. We're not worrying about gauge, and the knitters are using needles in sizes 10-11. By the end of the second class, two of the women had already finished their hats. One of them had a family tragedy during the past week. Her grandson was walking along the road with a friend when a driver ran off the road and hit and killed the boy's friend. I downloaded instructions for a prayer shawl, taught her the purl stitch, and got her started on a shawl for her daughter. Here are some links to start a prayer shawl ministry of your own.

Another pair of chat-room socks...

These have gone to Jerry in Detroit, the third-place winner. Two more pair to go, then it will be time for another contest!

This pair is just like Woody's, except for the heel flap. I used EOP for Jerry's and regular heel-stitch for Woody's...not that you could tell that from the picture. It's hard to photograph black.

This is KnitPicks Swish again. I wish they'd make this stuff in a fingering-weight yarn for socks. I love working with it, but it's just too heavy for socks for me.

The next pair of chat-contest socks will go to Ralph. I'm thinking blue Swish for him. First, though, I need to knit up a pair of little socks and a hat for our friends in Texas, Dale and Suzi, who are expecting their first grandbaby very, very soon. I'm using Regia sock yarn for those. Also on the needles are a pair of socks for me in Opal Bamboo, another pair in DK, bright red, and I really need to knit myself a pair of fingerless mitts to keep my hands warm while I chat...

Sarah, you really like my boring black socks? Thanks, sweetie! :)

FrigNsocks Finished!

I love the way these socks turned out. The stripes match up nearly perfectly. I hope they'll hold up well...this is the first time I've used this yarn. They will be on their way to Louisiana shortly.

Nearly finished are the number-three winner's socks...another pair of boring black socks in Swish. I will be starting the toe shaping tomorrow.

Socks in the mail, WisconSocks, FrigNsocks...
Finished Objects:
Polecat's socks in the mail to Ohio...Check!
Amber's Haley's Roses socks in the mail to Ohio...Check!
MrWoody's winning ChatRoom socks in the mail to Wisconsin...Check!

Sorry, no pictures of those...forgot to get out the camera before mailing. You can see Polecat's and Amber's socks in a previous post. MrWoody's socks were plain black, worsted weight in KnitPicks yummy 100% superwash merino Swish, knit 6, purl 3 rib...

On the needles: second-place chat room socks for our friend FrigNbored (John) in Louisiana in this lovely grayish-greenish-beigish cotton and wool blend from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions . This is very nice yarn to work with, soft, warm, and just enough color to keep them interesting without being too 'wild.' I wish the color would show up better in the photo. The dark stripes are forest green, and the background is a greenish beige. I like it!

The pattern: Cast on 72 stitches for each sock. Your stitch count may vary. This is based on a gauge of about 8-9 stitches per inch, minus 10% for negative ease, for a foot measuring ten inches around at the ball of the foot.

Work in K1, P1 rib for two inches or so, then switch to K7, P2 rib for 8 inches.

Work Eye-of-Partridge stitch over half the stitches for the heel flap, turn heel, pick up gussets, work gusset decreases until back to 72 stitches. Work round and round until the foot is 2 to 2-1/2 inches shorter than the length of the foot to the end of the longest toe. Work toe decreases, graft toes, and done!

The buying trip to Atlanta was great fun! We walked, walked, walked, bought, bought, bought, ate good food, and laughed together until we were too sore to laugh any more. Plus! two flights (and I LOVE to fly), and a little touch of slightly warmer weather. Now to figure out where we're going to put all the new stuff that will be coming into the stores soon...

Heading South This Week...

I am heading out early Tuesday morning for Atlanta to see what's new and cool in the retail world for the store where I work. I'll be visiting the Atlanta Gift Market with my bosses and a co-worker, and then will be home Saturday.

<--- Here are the latest nearly-finished-objects. The first is a pair of socks for our friend, "Polecat," who wanted orange socks to match his Pearl Orange GoldWing. The yarn is Garnstudio's Fabel in color 153, purchased from Astrid's Dutch Obsessions. This is a new yarn for me, and I like it very much, indeed! It has a nice feel and is quite soft. The balls were wound in opposite directions, so Polecat's socks are fraternal, not identical, twins...he'll like that, though! Nothing fancy here, just 6x3 rib on the leg and continuing down the top of the foot. These need just a few more rows of toe-shaping to finish them. I'm hoping to have them done before I leave tomorrow.

The second is a pair of Haley's Roses socks for Haley's mommy, Amber. I ran out of the white Opal yarn, and had to go stash-diving to find enough (I hope!) to finish them. See more about purchasing this pattern at the link above. ALL of the proceeds from its sale are donated to the Children's Neuroblastoma Research organization.

I will need a new project to help keep me sane in Atlanta this week, so I held a contest in my GL1800Riders chat room. I will be knitting a pair of boring black socks (his choice!) for the winner. Pictures to come in a week or so.

See you in a few days!

Oh, Sarah? We're another day closer to spring!

Winterscape...

The picture does not do the scene justice. This is a little marshy area I pass some days on the way to work. It was zero degrees F when I left for work this morning. The sun was bright, and sparkled like diamonds on the snow. Yes, the sky really was that blue!

I had to stop and take a photo of this pretty little bit of nature.

I find I enjoy winter more the older I get.

First Snow of 2008
This was what greeted us at the back door this morning. There was no snow there yesterday evening. I had to push back the snow with the storm door to let the dog out.

Happy New Year, one and all!

Merry Christmas!

Well, it's official... I think winter just might be on its way.

This is the view from our back porch this morning. We are one more day closer to spring!

Wind, ArkanSocks, and an OkieHat...

It is a cold, gray, and blustery day here in Southwest Lower Michigan, and God's leaf-removal team is hard at work. This means that the wind comes sweeping across the treeless prairie and blows the vast majority of our fallen leaves from the yard into the open field behind the house. The remainder of the leaves are caught in the flower beds and around the house and left as mulch to protect the roots until spring. We had our first snow flurries and some ice last night, so winter is not far off.

Friday, I finished the socks that I started on our trip to Arkansas, and cast on a hat for one of our riding friends in Oklahoma. Both socks and hat are complete, aside for working in the loose ends and washing them up.

<-- Here they are. The sock yarn is Meilenweit. I think the ball band blew away somewhere in Missouri.

The hat was knit using two strands of Lion Wool held together. The recipient said he would like a big, thick, warm red hat, and this one should fit the bill.

...and here are more photos from that trip. These two views are in Petit Jean State Park. What beautiful country are the Ozark Mountains, nearly sufficient to make a flatlander like me weep with envy.

Some new friends, some familiar friends, and some very good friends who we met face-to-face for the first time on this trip.

Front row, from the left: John P. from Alabama, Rich, John H. from Louisiana, Eric (Hog) from Kentucky, with his wife Bonnie (Honey) behind him. Back row: Steve and Sheila from Kentucky, Marian and Jay from Indiana, William from Alabama, me, Suzi from Texas, Rick (Galute) and Denise from Arkansas, and, to Bonnie's left, Suzi's husband Dale (Fuzzy). Among these faces are some of the dearest friends of my life. I am hoping to bring a few of them to Michigan this winter to play in the snow and help shorten the long wait until our riding season begins again in spring.

On the needles: more warm hats for cold Southern friends!

Arkansas Travellers


We took a little trip on the BigYellowBike to Harrison, Arkansas, October 3-8. There was a gathering there of some of the folks from our bike forum: http://www.gl1800riders.com/. I've been looking forward to this ride for over a year. Many of the folks I talk to in the chat room every evening attend this gathering, and it was my first chance to meet several of them face-to-face.
We started out Tuesday evening as soon as I got home from work, and rode an hour and a half to Logansport, Indiana, to the home of our friends, Ross and Joyce. We stayed the night there, then headed south early Wednesday morning under overcast skies and occasional sprinkles. As always, stopping in advance to put on our rain gear kept us from getting any real rain! The day was spent in good company, burning up the miles and enjoying the ride. We had a little unscheduled side trip down a very rough and stony dirt road, and hope we don't have to do that again any time soon! We had a little scare when Ross's bike had trouble negotiating the deep gravel one time...no damage done other than two very dirty bikes, though. We met up with Polecat, another friend from the forum, at a Bar-B-Cue place in Owensboro, KY, and he joined the group, making us one yellow bike and two oranges. We stopped for the night near Paducah, Kentucky, at a motel full of bass fishermen in town for a tournament.

I was growing close to finishing the socks-in-progress, so cast on for another pair in the motel room. Apparently there was more interesting stuff going on in our travelling companions' room, because in the morning we saw this: tore the headboard right off the wall...hmmm.

We met up with a lot of my GL1800riders.com chat room friends in Harrison.
<-- Here are Galute (Rickey) from Arkansas and John P. from Alabama,

<-- John H. from Louisiana,






<-- Fuzzy (Dale) and Suzi from Texas.

Galute led us on a beautiful ride through the mountains around Harrison on Saturday. We stopped a few times for pictures and great BBQ before some of the group split off and headed home.




<-- Bass, Arkansas. This little town has a general store/post office, closed now for many years. Mr. Dodson, the proprietor and former postmaster, lives alone there with a number of cats who have their own little house. We spent a lovely hour or so there, enjoying the peaceful view and visiting with Mr. Dodson. I think this was everyone's favorite stop for the day.



We headed for home Sunday morning, sorry to see the gathering end but full of good memories. Our companions once more were Ross, Joyce and Polecat. We rode the ferry at Bull Shoal Lake, and rode many miles of twisty mountain roads. Rich and I had a very close call in the evening with a semi whose driver was apparently a bit distracted, but otherwise there were no scares. We spent Sunday night in Salem, Illinois, then lit out in the morning for home. Polecat split off toward Ohio and we dropped Ross & Joyce off in Logansport in the afternoon.

We're all looking forward to the next gathering. It can't come soon enough to suit me!

Here's a link to Galute's trip report, for those who want to read more: Harrison, 2007
Galute has a wonderful gift with words, and has posted another trip report about his ride to Alaska this past June with a few of our other friends from the Gold Wing forum. You can see it here: Alaska or Bust

So Tiny!

I had the great pleasure of meeting my newest great-niece last Saturday night. This is Samantha, from Ohio:

Her mommy is my niece, Amber, my brother's daughter. Amber called to see if I would babysit while they attended the last-ever Tomahawk Game between White Pigeon and Constantine, and I jumped at the chance.

They dropped her off before the game and we had her for about four hours. Rich and I took little Samantha out to dinner at Cracker Barrel with our friend, Michelle. It's been a long time since I've held such a tiny baby! At one month old, she is not yet as big as our Robby was at birth. She is a very good and happy baby, and it was such fun to meet her and to see her mom, dad, sister and brothers.

I finished a pair of socks on our recent bike trip to Arkansas. These are in Opal Rodeo, K6 P3 rib with Eye-of-Partridge heel. They've gone to Michelle, with deep gratitude for keeping our dog, Claudia, while we were on the trip.

I started another pair while on the road, in a lovely Meilenweit self-striping yarn. Pictures to come!

Summer Socks, 2007
It seems I did get SOME knitting done this summer... Clockwise from top left:

1. Blueberry Waffle socks using one strand of Opal Mosaic in color 1112 and one of Opal Uni-Solid in color #20 held together. These socks are a gift for a former co-worker.

2. Crystal Palace sent me some yarn and one of their new circular needles to test. This yarn is Panda Wool, and I think the color is #2101 Rosewater. It's spun from wool and bamboo (yes, bamboo!) and is wonderful to work with. Nice hand, very soft and warm socks that wash up beautifully. I made up the pattern as I went, and knitted both socks at one time using the Magic Loop technique. Thank you to the folks at Crystal Palace and to my good friend Laura for giving them my name as a tester.

3. Not socks that I knitted, but socks knit for me by my sister from Regia. I'm not sure of the color, but think it might be Mini-Ringel color #5219. I LOVE the bright colors and the stripes. Thank you, Cherryl! I taught her to knit socks a couple of years ago, and she's as addicted now as I am.

4. Opal Rodeo color 1159 in K6, P3 ribbing. These socks won me a Viewers' Choice prize at the Sockathon Yahoo! Group. I can hardly wait to see what comes in my prize package... :) Crystal Palace is also supplying the prize yarn for the contest. Thanks to them, again and to all the group members who voted for my socks.

I have been terribly remiss in acknowledging another gift I received this past summer. There's a terrific blog called Good Yarn Karma, where you can sell or trade off your stash, or even just give it away "for Karma". I saw the book Knits from the Heart listed a few months ago. It was being given away for Karma so I asked for it and got it! Very cool blog, and a lot of very nice folks there. I was supposed to mention the blog here when I got the book, but life (and grandparenting!) seems to have gotten in the way.

Hope to finish the blue Rodeo socks soon, and get another project on the needles. We're off on the BigYellowBike to a GoldWing gathering in Harrison, Arkansas in a few days, and I need a good back-of-the-bike knitting project for the trip.

One Year Old This Saturday!

God's New Angel...
These past couple of years, our motorcycle has introduced us to many wonderful people. One very special friend is Steve Meadows, a.k.a. "Brobubba" to our group.

Steve is a husband, father, law-enforcement officer, devout Christian, and a very, very good man. His daughter, Mabel, was born with cystic fibrosis, and fought a hard fight for over eighteen years. A little over a year ago Mabel received a double lung transplant, and on her seventeenth birthday she was able to blow out her birthday candles for the first time in her life.

See this link: http://journals.aol.com/kissy1me/UpdatesonMabel/entries/2007/03/15/happy-1st-birthday/1417

Mabel passed on yesterday afternoon. Here is a link to the journal Steve has been keeping to document their journey: http://journals.aol.com/kissy1me/UpdatesonMabel/

Another friend, "Galute," posted this moving message to our motorcycle forum: http://www.gl1800riders.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=92004

So, go. Read. Weep. Hug your children. Thank God for every blessing. And say a prayer for Steve and his family in the hard days to come.

I'm Still Here...
It's been a busy couple of months, and I've neglected my blog. Sarah reminds me that people worry, so here's an update.
In April, Rich and I went to Falls Creek Falls State Park in Tennessee to meet up with a bunch of our friends from GL1800riders.com. The annual event is called the "Tennessee Lunch Run," and folks come from all over to eat lunch and ride together. We met our friend Ross in southern Indiana and rode the rest of the way with him.
At the park we saw many, many beautiful bikes, and I got to meet several of my chat room friends for the first time. It was good to see our old friends, too. We forgot our camera for the trip, so I don't have many pictures, but here are a few:

Galute, from Arkansas (his name is self-explanatory!)

Polecat, from Ohio, looking a bit like Jack Elam these days, Loren, formerly from Wisconsin, but now living in Arkansas, me, Rich, and 5Ross, from Indiana.


Rich and I at a lovely waterfall somewhere in North Carolina.

The "Tree of Shame" at Deals Gap. This stretch of road is also known as "The Tail of the Dragon" because it has 318 curves in eleven miles, and is a very popular place for motorcyclists of all sorts and skills. The Tree of Shame is bedecked with parts picked up after crashes. We didn't ride the Dragon the day we were there. There were at least three different bike rallies in Tennessee that weekend, and the road was crowded and dangerous. Another time, perhaps! .

And last, but certainly not least, a few pictures of Robby. He grows and changes with every passing minute, and is a great joy to us all!