I had this thought for a minute and immediately abandoned it. I know of knitters who keep track of everything they knit in a year. Quilters too. And people who sew ( I don't want to call them sewers, or maybe seamstress?). Anyhoo, they take pictures, keep track of dates started and dates finished, keep a diary maybe, a scrapbook of some sort, patterns used, type of yarn, needles, yada, yada, yada. You know what I mean.

Anyway, oooohhh, that would be wonderful and so organized! hmmmm.

I shudder at the thought. If I had to do that, I will not enjoy knitting anymore. I'd be so obsessed with keeping track of so many stuff that knitting won't be as fun.

Like I said, it entered my mind for a minute. No way, Jose.

I do believe that Jesus is the reason for the season.

MERRY CHRISTMAS, EVERYONE!

I am listening to books on tape! Books are downloaded from the local library onto my MP3 player. I can knit and work on the computer and listen at the same time. It makes me exercise too. Walking on the treadmill is no longer boring. today, I walked a mile while listening to Carl Hiaasen's "Scat".

Hiaasen is funny! The first book of his that I read was Nature Girl. Actually read it with my own two eyes. Then, Skinny Dip, on tape. Another author I like is Tess Gerritsen. She writes these mystery/suspense books about a female cop and a female coroner. She can sometimes get a little gory. Okay, a lot. I think she used to be a doctor before she started writing.

I wanted to be a doctor too until I started blacking out at the sight of blood. Oh well.

I have this aunt...

My dad came from a big family. He has 3 brothers and 4 sisters. One of the sisters is upset with me. My aunt, this aunt, is different. They all grew up in the Philippines (and so did I) and migrated to the US at different stages of their lives. Some came in the 60s, we came in the 80s, my aunt came just recently, about 4 or so years ago.

She is always helpful and I know she means well. But she has this habit of getting into other people's business without an ounce of tact. I cringe when she opens her mouth.

So, just recently, she mentions that she wants to stay and live with my parents. She mentions it to me and to my mom and dad and to several other people. I know I'm not imagining it. She has kids but I'm not sure if they want her with them or not ( I guess it's "or not").

My mom is getting stressed out over it, and I think my dad too. This is not something my mom needs right now. So, my sister and I emailed our cousins (her kids) and told them no way is that going to happen.

SO, my aunt is upset with me. I can handle that. Just don't stress out my mom and dad.

It is cold and dreary and cold. All the leaves have fallen and I haven't seen the sun in days. I'm posting this picture of our front yard taken one early summer morning, when the grass was still dewy and the sun just peaking from the rooftops.

I am going back to knitting and finish these mitts.

The socks I knitted as part of the KAL with Through the Loops, designed by Kirsten Kapur.

I joined a sock KAL sponsored by the Knitter's Brewing Co., starting Jan 15th. I ordered the sock kit, which happily comes with the first clue. This is what I knitted so far:




I like these kinds of KAL (knit along). I just finished one with Through the Loops.
And for the life of me, I can't post this picture. Something wrong with the mouse.

Today, my mom and I met with a new pulmonary specialist. She was wonderful. She did some tests, asked many questions, explained a lot and answered our questions. She has some options and is willing to work with us. Again, there are no definitive answers but we explained to her what we wanted, or hoped to accomplish. It's really simple. We want my mom to be able to breathe easier or achieve some kind of normalcy, cancer or no cancer. And most of all, this doctor was respectful. And she mentioned her own mom. There you go.

which makes me wonder: I wonder how jerk doctor treats his own mom?

Sometimes, I just hate doctors. You get good news and you get bad news. Take my mom's case. Dr. said no cancer. A few weeks later, there is cancer. One says chemo won't work. Now they say, chemo might work. My mom has a great throat doctor who has been with her since they discovered her thyroid cancer in 2000. Nine years later, they say the cancer is back.

Some doctors, good they may be, shouldn't be in that line of work at all if they can't be tactful or respectful enough of their patients. This one horrible pulmonologist at Kaiser So. Sacramento needs to be trained in dealing with patients. Or maybe he should just work in a lab in some basement or locked away somewhere where he doesn't have to deal with humans. What a jerk.

Oh yes, I'm spinning again. I am the type of person who has to work on several items at a time. I get bored easily. Working on one item and finishing it before I start a new one is NOT ME. I work on what makes me happy. So there.


My Louet spinning wheel, a real work horse. I don't have to worry that it might break, etc etc. My kids spin on this one.


This is 100 gms of Merino/Silk blend roving from Ashford. I'm spinning it fine, for a sport weight yarn. I could have gone for laceweight but I don't have enough patience.

As usual, I'm knitting several items at the same time. I have startitis, I know. But I finish some too. Here they are:


This is Mystery shawl Knit-Along, designed by Monika Eckert, a German designer. She designs in German with English translations, charted and very easy to follow. After clue #1, this is what we have. Clues 2 and 3 are forthcoming.




This is a finished item, a textured/lace sock designed by Kristen Kapur of Through the Loops blog.



This is one of my own designs which will be offered for free through this blog. I bought 100 gms of Merino roving from Handpaintedyarn.com. It was so soft and I spun it into singles since the yardage is very small. After setting the twist, I wound it into a ball and started knitting. Unfortunately, I didn't measure the yardage. So, here we go, with the unknown yardage cowl.

What do you do when somebody blasts you on their blog??

The first thing that happened was all the blood in my body rushed to my head.

I got angry.

Then, the doubts came. Did I really make those mistakes while writing a pattern?

Next thing, I pulled out some yarn, needles and feverishly started re-knitting said pattern. Well, I didn't find any mistakes. Plus, 14 other knitters have knitted my pattern and I didn't get any error-feedback.

So, what do you do?

I vented with my husband. Poor thing. He loves me, I know and is willing to put up with me.

Now, knowing that the pattern is fine, I'm moving on. But not after I wrote a comment on the perpetrator's, I mean, the knitter's blog. I was nice. I wasn't rude. Who knows. She might become one of my best friends yet.

This sock is missing a pair. For the life of me, I can't find the leftover half of the yarn I used to knit this one. And the yarn was handpainted by me. Impossible to duplicate. Oh well.

I finally finished the watermelon socks I started knitting about 2 years ago. I simply can't make myself to wear this one. I handpainted the yarn to make it stripe like this. It's a very tedious process, one I don't want to do again. In the past, I have received orders on this kind of yarn, orders that I was not able to fill. Maybe sometime in the future but I just can't force myself to do something I don't enjoy. Life is too short.

Yes, about time I posted.

I am still knitting. I recently visited Rumpelstiltskin in Sacramento. I haven't visited any yarn store in a long long time. Well, Joann's doesn't count. It was nice to reminisce about old times with Judy. Rumpels will always be one of my fave yarn stores. Linda was the very first person to buy my patterns and she still orders from me regularly.

There are so many different sock yarns now, all of them so soft. Too soft to use for socks, IMHO. I use them for shawlettes.

I might also go back to quilting. I just hope I can do them at the same time. I go in cycles.

My sister is in Germany and will bring me some sock yarns. Yumm.

What do you do when life sucks? You knit, and knit, and knit. It will keep you sane. Works for me.

I am working on not one, but three shawls.

This is Clothilde in lace by the Knitting Kninja.




This one is the Daybreak shawl by Stephen West. Not sure if they still make this yarn but it is Cestari by Chester Farms. 75% cotton and 25% wool, sportweight.





This one is Damson, by Ysolda Teague.





Oh yes, I am working on 3 shawls, at the same time. Love it!

9-11

It dawned on me last night that my younger kids don't know a lot about 9-11. Matthew was almost 5 and Emily, only 10 months old, when it all happened. They did not know about the 4 planes and most of what happened that day. Last night, I told them the story, and the heroism of the men and women on the last plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. They were stunned and quiet and just absorbed all of it.

I hope that that's what they remember, the heroism, not the hate, not the terror although it's all part of it, but remember the men and women who perished, those who helped save some, the firefighters, the police, the port authorities, brave souls, all of them, who were just doing their jobs but gave the best gift ever.

God bless America.

New handpaints going up on Ebay: some Superwash Merino/bamboo/nylon blend and some superwash BFL sock yarns.

Milkweed shawl knitted in garter stitch lace. Very easy to knit and turned out pretty too. The yarn was hand dyed by me, a superwash Merino/bamboo/nylon blend yarn, too pretty to use on socks.




And here it is being modeled by Emily, a fullsized shawl on her and a shawlette on me, the way I like it. Too big shawls make me feel like I have an afghan on.

some new knitting:


another Ishbel shawlette that I finished.




Elegantly simple lace shawl, a feather and fan version, designed by Jackie E-S. Here's a closeup: