I’ve discovered two new candy favorites… one is a tangy ginger chew from the local health food store, and the other is a key lime starlight mint from a restaurant we went to in Houston last fall – yum! I finally found the lime ones online and ordered some even though the shipping costs as much as the candy – lol.
My first cousins have had an eventful month.
Mary Grace recently celebrated her 21st birthday and is safe and sound at Virginia Tech. She particiapted in a video interview with members of her church in Blacksburg and there are some interviews with local papers that I don’t have links to yet. I visited Tech a few years ago for a UCONN football game – it’s a beautiful campus with great people that will certainly stand strong through these tough times.
Becca is packed and ready for her 18 month mission work in Ireland after lots of work raising the funds she’s needed for the trip. I can’t wait to hear more about her adventure!
Remember that post over a month ago where I was worried about running out of something to knit in the hospital? Well I finished the first sock there in two days, but it took me over a month to finish the second one! This was made out of yarn that was sent in my 700th member gift pacakge from SFS and will be heading back to the group with the 2 BBBS as a leisure pair. The pattern is the FeathernFan from Socks Socks Socks. I’ve done this pattern so many times that I don’t even look in the book anymore.
I also managed to finish off a pair that I had stared a long time ago and stopped with only the toe left to go – how silly! This is the Blueberry waffle pattern found on the ‘net made with Knitaly that was given to me by Audrey when I was looking for superwash worsted weight yarn. This is another one that I do without the pattern anymore – I think it’s my 6th time making the waffles.
The body and sleeves of the windows sweater are finished and bound off. I’m going to knit a test sample for the steek before I try it on the real thing. I’m still so nervous about it with all that time and work.
We’ve started adding a botttle of formula to some of Rachel’s feedings. That means these bibs are coming in quite handy in keeping her outfits clean! Here are some more hand crafted items:
This set of bibs was made by a woman in my grandmother’s sewing group. The detail is amazing.
My mother made this one while she was here and I was still in the hopspital out of some leftover sock yarn scraps from my stash. The pattern is from the Mason-Dixon book.
And another set arrived from my grandmother (Rachel’s great-grandmother!) today in the mail -
One for Mom…
One for Dad…
Five for the baby 
Most of the yarn at farmhouse is traditional 100% wool in worsted and bulky weights, but I was drawn to her DK wool/silk blend and then some cotton blends for baby sweaters. I have a great vision of a family picture with all of us in matching sweaters… it’s nice to have dreams
Yeah I broke all my rules for not buying any new yarn this weekend. Carol from Farmhouse yarns was having one of her big sales and I just had to take the opportunity to get out with the girls
The rules of the sale are pretty simple – stuff as many skeins as you can into a bag for a fixed price. There were bins and bins and bins to look through.
I had just seen a tv special about collecting sap for maple syrup so it was neat to see these at her farm.
Three of us split a bag and made out with some great yarn – I’ll post a picture tomorrow.
After the sale we had lunch at the Pattaconk in Chester – which is now on my list of places to revisit.
Thanks for a great time Audrey, Peggy and Nancy!!
Turns out my kit really was supposed to have 6 colored skeins and not 5. The owners of Philosopher’s wool graciously sent me small balls of the colors so I can finish the sweater – now if I could just find the time….
For those of you looking for updates on the gherkin – check our her new blog: rachelivy.com